Your Demon is You

David Braun, College of the Arts, Sculpture, Advisor - Isabel Farnsworth

This sculpture was created to address the topic of transformation. I am interested in the effect of technology on our ability to introspect and connect as our private lives and internal dialog are increasingly becoming more public. I created a comfortable, private space to be situated in a public environment where an individual can self-reflect while being observed from the outside. From the interior, the occupant sees only their own face in a small mirror. That view is captured on camera and displayed on the exterior in real time on a video monitor. To the viewer on the outside it appears that the occupant is looking at them, but really they are looking at themselves. Can they see the occupant seeing themselves or do they see only eyes? Can we still feel a connection to the person inside when they are looking not at us, but at themselves?

I am interested in how the enclosure becomes a surrogate body of the occupant, erasing their identity except for their eyes. How does this affect the perception of the occupant by the external viewer? Does the replacement of the human body with a generic one affect the empathy of the viewer for the occupant?

I am curious how people will use this object. Will they use it as a tool for transformation and connection or for entertainment and amusement?

Extensive membrane blebbing is one of the earliest observable changes in HeLa cells stimulated with apoptosis inducers. Blebbing caused by actinomycin D or camptothecin, but not by anti-Fas antibody, is accompanied by an almost 10% volume increase as measured by transmission-through-dye microscopy. When the experiment is carried out in DMEM medium, the swelling appears to result from activation of amiloride-sensitive channels. Low-sodium choline-, but not N-methyl-D-glucamine-based, medium, also supports swelling during the blebbing phase of apoptosis; this indicates that the membrane becomes permeable to choline as well. Because choline can enter the cells through organic cation transporters (OCT), we tested three fluorescent dyes (2-[4-(dimethylamino)styryl]-1-methylpyridinium iodide, rhodamine 123 and ethidium bromide) that have been reported to utilize OCT for cell entry. Intact HeLa cells are poorly permeable for these fluorophores, and initially they accumulate on the plasma membranes. Blebbing results in an enhanced penetration of these dyes into the cell interior, as was demonstrated both by direct observation and by FRET. The increased membrane permeability is specific for OCT substrates; the other tested cationic dyes apparently cross the membrane by other routes and exhibit a markedly different behavior. Our results reveal a previously unknown feature of apoptosis and the utility of cationic dyes for studying membrane transport.

Green architecture has been a revolution tracing back to an architectural ideal based on functionality, aesthetic, resiliency, and sustainability. It does not halt at planting trees, yet developing and utilizing environment-friendly materials in design and construction. Bamboo, a novel but familiar material throughout human history of civilization, has high strength and efficiency in structure. In many countries, it has played as a cultural symbol in art and architecture. Bamboo has not been widely utilized in industrial standardization because of its limitations due to its natural characteristics. However, its limitations could be harmonically addressed in different applications in industrial and architectural means. Industrially, with advanced technologies, bamboo can be fabricated through multiple processes into different sustainable products substituting for main construction materials, e.g. timber and steel, because bamboo grows much faster than timber, and produces less carbon than steel. Architecturally, bamboo’s elegant shape is not neglected and highly praised as a modern cultural identity: bamboo is bamboo, in its own traditions. This study, through reviewing multiple scholar articles as well as successful bamboo architectural projects on bamboo historic usages and characteristics, and methods to breakthrough bamboo limitations, aims to show connection and development of the cultural material in meanings of sustainability and original structure performance.

Transgenerational Epigenetic Effects of Cocaine on Circadian Behavior and Cocaine Reward

Victoria Shaker, Ashley Shemery, Alex Yaw, & J. David Glass.

Department of Biological Sciences and School of Biomedical Sciences

Professor Glass served as the primary advisor. Ashley Shemery and Alex Yaw served as co-advisors.

Hypothesis: Cocaine irreversibly lengthens circadian period (tau), which could underlie the significant health issues of cocaine addiction. Others have reported that rewarding effects of paternal cocaine use are transgenerational. We hypothesize that the disruptive effects of cocaine on tau may also be transgenerational, causing altered subjective cocaine reward response in offspring (F1).

Methods: Male mice were exposed to cocaine-water (0.5 mg/ml) or water (control) for 6 wks. Immediately following treatment, the mice were mated with cocaine naïve dams. F1 reference for cocaine or sucrose (to test for reward specificity) was analyzed using a dual bottle (water and drug [0.15 mg/ml] or sucrose [2%]) free-choice regimen. Tau was analyzed using activity sensors with computerized data acquisition.

Results and Conclusions: Lengthened tau was evident in sires with forced cocaine compared to controls (24.18+0.17 vs. 24.07+0.02; p0.05). These data reveal that there is no transgenerational transmission of cocaine-lengthened tau in F1 males, but there was an alteration of tau in F1 females. Significantly, paternal cocaine intake significantly altered F1 preference for cocaine, but not sucrose, suggesting specificity to drug reward. Thus, cocaine addiction could involve a transgenerational paternal mode of inheritance.

Keywords: epigenetics, transgenerational, cocaine, sucrose, mice, sex differences, drug abuse, circadian, biological rhythms, addiction

Introduction: Rumination has been identified as a major risk factor for the onset and maintenance of affective disorders. However, it remains unclear how rumination affects the onset of negative mood. In this study, we investigated how trait rumination influences linguistic processing of emotional material while inducing negative mood.

Methods: A sample of undergraduates (N=209) participated in a lab-based negative mood induction, in which they wrote about a negative personal experience while listening to sadness-inducing music (Barber, Adagio for Strings). Narratives were analyzed using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (Pennebaker, Booth, & Francis, 2007) to examine patterns of word use, including frequency, types of pronouns, emotion words, causal and certainty words. Participants also completed affect ratings before and after negative mood induction.

Results: High ruminators had significantly lower ratios of positive to negative words (M= 2.60, SD= 1.93) than low ruminators, after controlling for age, gender, word count, and depression symptoms, (M= 3.06, SD= 1.64), F(1, 187)= 3.91, p< .05, 95% CI [.001, 1.10], with high ruminators using significantly more negative emotion words (M= 2.70, SD= 1.78) than low ruminators (M= 2.17, SD= 1.71), F(1, 202)= 3.70, p< .05, 95% CI [-1.01, .01]. No other significant differences were found.

Conclusions: These results suggest that trait rumination is associated with linguistic processing of emotional material during negative mood induction, such that high trait ruminators use greater negative emotion words relative to positive words, as compared to low trait ruminators.

An analysis into how aware are Black students, ages 18-26 at Kent State University, are of Afrocentric Rites of Passage. A qualitative method was utilized to collect literature to explain Afrocentric compared to Eurocentric application of education, exploring Afrocentric Rites of Passage fundamentalism and canonical texts, and how “Rites” can be a cultural matrix for education. Afrocentric Rites of Passage was chosen as the basis of research to challenge the methodology of education in USA. A questionnaire was also developed to collect personal data from Black students to assess the awareness of Afrocentric Rites of Passage at Kent State University. College begins the next step in solidifying our social identities for involvement in society. Concluding high school and embarking on the experience generally occurs ages 18-26 for modern education. The belief in college to a better economic future undermines the “need” of education for USA’s philosophy: “Go to school to get a better job!” With Eurocentric norms and views on reality dominating the USA, arguments from educators, counselors, and social workers alike have proposed the harmful implications of this phenomenon on the Black experience. Contributors to this articulation of research includes Ms. Pamela Hubbard, Kent State Ronald E. McNair Scholars program, Dr. Kumah-Abiwu, Dr. Frances Cress Welsing, Dr. Linda Myers, Paul Hill Jr., Dr. Molefi Asante, Dr. Naim Akbar, and other scholars who delve deeper into the African American experience as it relate to education.

Miscommunication is often seen as a detrimental aspect of human communication. However, miscommunication can differ in cause as well as severity. What distinguishes a miscommunication where conversation partners continue to put forth the effort from miscommunication where conversation partners simply give up? In this eye-tracking study, participants heard globally ambiguous statements that were either a result of an experimental error or speaker underspecification; participants either received positive or negative feedback on these ambiguous trials. We found that negative feedback, paired with the reliability of the message, will impact the amount of processing effort a comprehender puts forth—specifically, listeners were less forgiving of errors when they were penalized and when speakers instructions lacked effort. This suggests that language users weigh conversational contexts and outcomes as well as linguistic content during communication.

Keywords: ambiguity; intentions; communication; comprehension, context

Our project for the 2016 Undergraduate Symposium on Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity is entitled “The Tell-Tale Heart”- a One-Act Play adapted by Gerald P. Murphy. The play, involving many new aspects of technical theatre is based around a story told through narration and balletic-contemporary dance based on Edgar Allan Poe’s poem of the same name. The goal is to put on a successful production of this work that will evoke a new style of theatre from its participants.

Through the generous gift of a flash grant and the performance of this production, the creative team hopes to inspire the program to rethink theatre - To think outside the box. We challenge our audiences not be satisfied with traditional theatre. For this project we will be creating interactive thread installations, a new development in scenic design that will enhance our production value.

The hope is that this project will encourage other aspiring directors and designers to take chances and strive to work collaboratively in the future in order to progress the theatrical developmental process. We expect to incorporate a multitude of new and exciting technical advancements in our production. Mostly dealing with lighting design, we hope to introduce the school to these techniques so that they can be implemented in future productions.

On our production team, we also have a textiles liaison, Scott Ward. He will assist our technical team with the thread installations. We will all collaborate with our cast and crew to produce this new work.

Keywords: Hydrogels, Pluronic F127, drug release, florescence TR-BSA

Problem: Many of currently available methods of delivering a single factor have demonstrated a limited efficacy in stimulating tissue repair. This has been associated with the complexity of tissue healing process. Therefore, it is critical that multiple therapeutic factors should be delivered to act in concert with the normal process of tissue healing, which may provide physiologically relevant release profiles that mimic the natural healing response. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate a proof-of-concept of achieving the controlled release of drugs in a sequential fashion by developing composite of biodegradable hydrogels consisting of F-127 hydrogel and gelatin microspheres.

Methods: Two forms of hydrogels, Pluronic F127 and gelatin microspheres, were prepared separately by mixing them with a model drug (Texas Red bovine serum albumin, TR-BSA) and the prepared hydrogels were incubated at 37^oC over days. At selected time points, supernatants were collected to quantify the extent of drug release from the gels based on the intensity of the florescence from TR-BSA.

Results and Conclusion: Our data supports that the sequential delivery system can enable the release of TR-BSA loaded with F-127 gel over ~8hr and gradual release of TR-BSA loaded within gelatin microsphere over duration of days. This study implicates that a sequential release of two different drugs can be achieved by triggering an initial release of one drug from F-127 gel followed by slow release of another drug from gelatin microspheres.

Problem: Studies have examined the effects and importance of family support in the lives of LGBT youth. It has been inferred that family support is a beneficial factor in the mental health of LGBT children, adolescents, and young adults. However, few studies have included social connectedness as an additional variable contributing to perceived family support and levels of depression within LGBT college students. Therefore, this study investigated the role of perceived family support and social connectedness on depression in LGBT university students.

Hypothesis: Respondents’ depression levels will differ contingent upon family support and social connectedness. In particular, it is expected that social connectedness will moderate the relationship between perceived family support and depression levels.

Methods: To date, participants include 78 LGBT students at Kent State University. The respondents who choose to select what best described their gender consisted of 40 females, 12 males, 8 transgender/gender queer, 2 transgender (female to male), and 7 identify as other. Participants completed the following surveys online: a demographic questionnaire, Perceived Social Support-Family (PSS-FA) Scale, Social Connectedness Scale-R (SCS-R), and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression (CES-D) Scale. Distribution of the surveys online allowed for anonymity and the opportunity for participants to complete the surveys in any place of their choosing.

Results: Upon completion of data collection, regression analyses will be conducted to assess for moderating effects. The findings may have implications for reducing depression in LGBT college students who have little family support by promoting their sense of social connectedness.