Adolescence demonstrates a dynamic time where young people risk interacting with new social groups.It is unknown whether the number of peers present increases the experience of rejection or elicits differing decisions to interact. The present study investigates how adolescents differ in their risk-taking behavior between social and non-social environments, how behaviors differ as a function of peer group sizes, and how risk taking in a laboratory task relates to real-world risk taking.

My project explores the connection between senators' use of Twitter/X as a form of communication and their electoral success. I am looking at Twitter/X data on incumbents from 2013-2015 and categorizing the incumbents into different styles of communicators based on their tweeting styles. I correlate that with the electoral results of the 2014 and 2016 elections to asses which styles of communication may be the most successful for incumbents and those seeking election to adopt.

Vitamin D deficiency, a global health issue, may impact lactation by modulating mammary inflammation and lipid metabolism. In this study, we aimed to examine the impact of vitamin D supplementation on exclusive breastfeeding prevalence during early infancy. We found that the relative prevalence of non-exclusive breastfeeding was lower in early infancy among mothers receiving vitamin D supplements during pregnancy and lactation compared to placebo, but results were inconsistent across supplementation dosage groups.

Wonder if students remember what they learn? We predicted content retention using a few key predictors: number of credits concurrent with course, interest, final grade, and instructor feedback. We had also considered engagement and social identities, but these were not significant. In sum, motivating and inspiring interest should be a priority for instructors for content retention long-term. Grades, while influential as a marker for retention, are not as important as increasing intrinsic motivation for learning.

RNA is believed to be a key precursor to life, yet the conditions for its transition into a genetic molecule and catalytic unit remain unknown. Here we show that low concentrations of divalent cations and carboxyl-containing organics are likely contributors to increased RNA complexity. These findings support further research with varying organics and divalent cation concentrations. This work has the potential to unveil new insight on the origins of life on Earth and extrasolar bodies.

College students' alcohol use is a public health concern with physical, social, and risk-related consequences. Consequences like hangovers, unwanted sexual situations, and embarrassing oneself may be associated with alcohol use disorder (AUD) symptoms. Electronic surveys spanning six weekends assessed college students' (N= 462, 51.7% female, 87.7% White, Mage= 20.1) drinking behaviors and consequences. This project uses linear regression analysis to examine the extent to which alcohol-related consequences are associated with AUD symptoms among college students.

One way that humans can comprehend sentences is by anticipating or predicting upcoming words in the sentence. The present study builds on these findings to explore how people listen to and comprehend English sentences under conditions of babble versus silent background conditions using eye-tracking. Results show that under adverse speaking conditions, listeners find it more difficult to make predictions about upcoming input.

Here, I made an easy-to-use semi-automated machine (Zyrus) that fabricates atomically sharp tips repeatably. It does so by chemically etching tungsten wire, until the submerged portion breaks off. To avoid blunting the tip, etching needs to be terminated as quickly as possible. Zyrus monitors the etching current, and automatically terminates the etching once the current falls below a threshold. Zyrus can reliably produce tips with an effective radius of < 50nm.

Unitization is a memory support that allows words pairs to resemble single items (Carpenter & Dennis, 2023). However, there is limited work comparing single items to unitization, especially in a free recall task. A free recall task could determine if unitization functions like an item in situations where there are not external cues involved. This study aims to address if unitized words are recalled more similarly to single items or associations in a recall task.  

This project seeks to find the effect of life history theory on attraction. Participants were asked to answer self-report questions to measure their perceived childhood adversity and SDT Traits in order to distinguish their life history strategy. The hypotheses tested were 1) individuals will more often be attracted to people they perceive to align with their life history strategy and 2) slow strategist couples will have higher relationship satisfaction compared to fast strategist couples. 

Robust microbiomes are often shaped by symbiotic host-microbe relationships. Multi-strain symbioses forming when multiple strains of the same bacterium successfully colonize a host are prevalent in animal-microbe relationships, but certain molecular mechanisms influencing microbial competition during their establishment remain poorly understood. This research seeks to characterize interactions between three co-isolated strains of bioluminescent marine bacterium Vibrio fischeri in vitro, revealing more about factors underlying the formation of multi-strain symbioses in similar model systems.

The gut microbiome hosts a wide range of microbes that affect our health. Understanding community dynamics is a key way to understand infectious diseases and how the gut microbiome can positively or negatively affect our overall health. However, an important part of this community is rather unknown. Bacteriophages are viruses in microbial communities that target bacteria. Understanding how bacteriophages shape community structure and function will allow us to understand the holistic picture regarding the microbiome. 

I have investigated the relationship between religious integration in government and gendered violence. In order to control for religious differences, I have limited this study to only include Islam. My study includes 59 countries with a baseline Muslim population of 20%. Islamic religious integration includes constitutional references to Islam, religious political parties, and sharia based law. I hypothesize that with greater religious integration there will be more gendered violence. 

Investigation of the stereotaxic injection sites in mouse brains that were chemogenetically manipulated to reveal the brain substrates for stress resilience.

Learning flexibility is vital to overcome challenges for survival. My experiment tested the learning flexibility in Bluebirds through a reversal learning puzzle by using a wooden trapdoor lever mechanism; switching the active lever’s location between left and right.  I used BORIS software to measure the frequency and length of different bluebird and nestbox interactions. Information from analysis will help demonstrate the Bluebird’s environmental adaptability.

Brain size is widely variable among species, but its genetic basis is not well-understood. Stickleback fish brain images from an F2 generation of 80 males (descended from populations with different brain sizes) were measured for whole and regional brain size. Fiji software was used to conduct the measurements, which will be added to a previous sample of 80 brains to enhance the understanding of the genetic basis for brain size.

Globin-coupled sensor proteins are a family of multidomain proteins which link sensory input to a diverse array of downstream effectors. The extremophile Thermus aquaticus encodes a GCS protein (TaqGCS) with putative diguanylate cyclase activity, which has not been isolated or characterized to date. AfGcHk was also purified to compare the mechanism of signal transduction between GCS proteins. Discovering unique proteins across the GCS family can further elucidate their role in sensory perception and signal transduction.

Microbial communities have major impacts on the health of their host, but the process of microbiome assembly is not yet understood. The symbiosis between Vibrio fischeri and Euprymna scolopes is an excellent model for microbiome assembly.  The role of competition in community establishment was tested in this project through competitive assays between Vibrio fischeri ES114 and five novel strains isolated from wild squid. These competitions will inform further studies of virulence factors in community establishment.

This study examines 2203 sympathetic flares from the Sympathetic solar flare (1975-2017) catalogue on the Harvard Dataverse. We analyze key timestamps—start time, peak time, and end time—to delineate the rising and decay phases of these flares. Our findings reveal a correlation between flare duration and the duration of their rising and decay phases, with longer-duration flares exhibiting extended phases. A frequency distribution analysis demonstrates a predominance of shorter-lived flares. We also observe asymmetry in the duration of rising versus decay phases, with the majority of sympathetic flares showing a longer decay phase. Investigation into the change in latitude over the solar cycle indicates a transition from a dispersed distribution to an alignment with the solar equator, particularly evident around 1985, 1995, and 2005. Notably, most sympathetic flares occur within 30 degrees of the solar equator. This study provides valuable insights into the behavior and characteristics of sympathetic flares, contributing to our overall understanding of solar dynamics.

Our work explores the functional connection between inhibition of NAD kinase (NADK) expression and congenital malformations using the nematode model C. elegans. We will use RNAi to knock down NADK to test the hypothesis that inhibition of this gene results in congenital malformations and changes the trajectory of aging in this model. These studies will provide insight into the association between NADK inhibition and congenital malformations as well as the impact of malformations on aging.

F38B6.4 is the C. elegans ortholog to the human gene GART, involved in three steps of purine metabolism. Adenylosuccinate lyase, or ADSL, deficiency is a rare purine metabolism disorder that presents in nematodes as decreased size and speed, as well as irregular movement. RNAi techniques were used to knockdown GART expression in mutant worms already deficient in ADSL to measure the phenotypic changes in the animal.

Currently, exoplanets are classified into four differentcategories based on their size: terrestrial, super-earth, Neptunian, andGas Giants. According to Kepler’s Third Law of planetary motion, thesquares of the orbital periods of these planets are directlyproportional to the cubes of the semi-major axes of their orbits. Thepurpose of this research is to investigate whether this law alwaysapplies to each category of exoplanets. If not, the research aims tounderstand the factors that could cause a divergence from therelationship, and whether those differences are a trend in thatparticular exoplanet type. It is expected that exoplanetary systems willfollow Kepler’s Third Law if: 1. the exoplanets are much less massivethan the parent star, 2. gravitational influence between the planets isnot significant, 3. the stellar system is clear of dust and debris, and4. the system does not contain multiple stars. Our preliminary resultsshow that there are several systems of exoplanets that deviate from suchKepler’s Third Law with majority being among the terrestrial type.Further, this research aims to explore the factors that could cause thisshift, whether it be experimental errors or the existence of a hiddencelestial body in the planetary system influencing the orbit of aparticular planet.

The Theobroma cacao tree, used to make chocolate, struggles with diseases: a problem that could be alleviated through breeding for new varieties. As a tropical tree crop, its long time to maturity and limited geographic range restrict breeding efforts. Genetic engineering could be a faster approach, although current protocols using the Agrobacterium-mediated transformation method have low efficiencies. This project aims to optimize the existing protocol by comparing ptxD and SulR to nptII as selectable marker genes for transformed cells.

Red-backed salamanders (Plethodon cinereus) are one of the most common salamander species in Pennsylvania. Passive Integrative Transponders (PIT) tags are a promising way to individually mark animals for long-term studies. This research estimates body condition between PIT tagged and untagged populations of P. cinereus. We did not find any negative effects from the presence of a PIT tag on individual body condition; this relationship was true for both males and females.