Does exposure to positive climate action by others enhance efficacy and motivation to act?

Polling reveals that Northeast Ohio (NEO) residents are concerned about and desire action on climate change: 73% of NEO residents believe climate change is happening; 67% believe it is already affecting local weather; 65% think citizens should do more to address climate change. However, people across the Ohio routinely underestimate the concern of others by 21% and support for policies that address climate change by 29%. This is a problem because when individuals don’t think that other people care as much as they do, they are less likely to take action themselves. Does information about the concern and positive actions of fellow community members mobilize individuals to take action? “Community Voices” (CV), is a form of social media designed for display on digital signage and websites. CV combines images and quotes drawn from interviews to create and reinforce social norms. Prior research indicates that exposure to CV enhances concern and commitment to environmental action. We are designing a study to assess whether CV content can help close the gap between perceived and actual public support for climate action. In 2023 we conducted extensive interviews with a diversity of NEO residents who are engaged in a variety of positive climate action. Based on prior research2, we are designing an online experiment to assess whether exposure to CV content developed from these interviews increases motivation for climate action. Specifically, we hypothesize that exposure will: decrease psychological distance from climate change, increase the perception of climate action as a norm, and increase efficacy

Effects of Class Background on Marriage Attitudes in Oberlin Students

The rise of feminism transformed the economic function of marriage in America. As upper-class women joined higher education and the workforce, marriages with two incomes doubled the financial advantage of partnerships for wealthier people. Meanwhile, as debt and cost of living rose for poorer Americans, and the burden of child/elder care became harder to outsource, financial deterrents to marriage mounted in lower socio-economic strata. Subsequently, practices around marriage have diverged on class lines. Everything from age at first marriage, divorce rates, unmarried cohabitation, etc, are dramatically and increasingly different for wealthier vs poorer people. Questions follow. Has the social concept of marriage diverged along class lines? How likely are people to marry within their class? What are the motivators and deterrents to marriage for people of different class backgrounds? I conducted a mixed methods study, based on these questions. Data from the 2010 General Sociological Survey was analyzed to assess rates of cross-class relationships. Additionally, I conducted two in depth interviews with Oberlin students concerning their class backgrounds and general attitudes towards marriage. Results indicate that individuals are highly likely to marry within their class, even in supposedly class-homogenizing mate selection arenas such as college campuses. Qualitative data suggests this is in part due to a desire for a partner with similar class-informed values. Emotional labor vs ease, and financial incentives vs deterrents were cited as two such values. Additionally similar spending habits, lifestyles, and class-informed communication patterns, are perceived to increase likelihood of cohesion, and decrease conflict

Mail Myself to You: A Cinematic Journey Through the Oberlin College Mail Art Collection

Oberlin College’s Clarence Ward Art Library is the home of the Harley Francis Terra Candella and Reid Wood State of Being mail art archives, a vast collection of art which had been mailed from artist to artist through the postal service. The mail art movement began in the early 1960’s, emerging out of the Fluxus art movement and Ray Johnson’s New York Correspondence School. Mail artists have since desired to forge an artistic community outside of museum and gallery systems, an “eternal network” built on the principles of art being free and collaborative. The over 20,000 works of mail art in the Oberlin College Mail Art Collection– spanning a period of 45 years and 70 countries– have been handled entirely by student workers since their original donation and purchase. Every year, new students are trained on the library’s cataloging practices and history of mail art, able to interact intimately with every postcard, artist stamp, and envelope in the collection. The spring of 2024 marks Reid Wood’s final donation of mail art to the Clarence Ward Art Library, an apt moment to reflect on the history of mail art in Oberlin and beyond. This animated documentary film will explore the legacy and future of this extensive archive, posing questions regarding the ways humans communicate through art and the practices of preserving the memory of art that resists convention

Constructing Multicusped Hyperbolic Manifolds That are Isospectral and Not Isometric

In a recent paper Garoufalidis and Reid constructed pairs of 1-cusped hyperbolic 3-manifolds which are isospectral but not isometric. We extend this work to the multicusped setting by constructing isospectral but not isometric hyperbolic 3-manifolds with arbitrarily many cusps. The manifolds we construct have the same Eisenstein series, the same infinite discrete spectrum and the same complex length spectrum. Our construction makes crucial use of Sunada\u27s method and the strong approximation theorem of Nori and Weisfeiler

Carbon Adsorbent Properties Impact Hydrated Electron Activity and Perfluorocarboxylic Acid (PFCA) Destruction

Carbon-based adsorbents used to remove recalcitrant water contaminants, including perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), are often regenerated using energy-intensive treatments that can form harmful byproducts. We explore mechanisms for sorbent regeneration using hydrated electrons (e(aq) -) from sulfite ultraviolet photolysis (UV/sulfite) in water. We studied the UV/sulfite treatment on three carbon-based sorbents with varying material properties: granular activated carbon (GAC), carbon nanotubes (CNTs), and polyethylenimine-modified lignin (lignin). Reaction rates and defluorination of dissolved and adsorbed model perfluorocarboxylic acids (PFCAs), perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorobutanoic acid (PFBA), were measured. Monochloroacetic acid (MCAA) was employed to empirically quantify e(aq) - formation rates in heterogeneous suspensions. Results show that dissolved PFCAs react rapidly compared to adsorbed ones. Carbon particles in solution decreased aqueous reaction rates by inducing light attenuation, e(aq) - scavenging, and sulfite consumption. The magnitude of these effects depended on adsorbent properties and surface chemistry. GAC lowered PFOA destruction due to strong adsorption. CNT and lignin suspensions decreased e(aq )- formation rates by attenuating light. Lignin showed high e(aq) - quenching, likely due to its oxygenated functional groups. These results indicate that desorbing PFAS and separating the adsorbent before initiating PFAS degradation reactions will be the best engineering approach for adsorbent regeneration using UV/sulfite

Development of Activity-Based Protein Profiling Assays for the Human Rhomboid Proteases

Rhomboid intramembrane proteases (RIPs) are a family of serine hydrolases distinguished by their membrane-embedded active sites and proposed involvement in metabolic, and neurodegenerative diseases as well as cancer. Despite the ubiquity of these enzymes in all kingdoms of life, our knowledge of the enzymatic functions of RIPs is still quite limited. Consequently, the development of suitable substrate-based activity assays for these proteases has proved challenging due to the lack of known substrates. Activity-based protein profiling (ABPP) represents an alternative approach for studying the activity of these enzymes; in these assays, a small-molecule probe is used to engage the active enzyme by binding covalently to its active site. Here, we present our progress on the development of ABPP assays for the human RIPs. We expressed all five human RIPs (hRHBDL1, hRHBDL2, hRHBDL3, hRHBDL4, and hPARL), along with their inactive mutants, in HEK293T cells. We then screened a library of small molecule probes, including fluorophosphonates, b-lactams, and benzoxazinones, for their ability to engage the active enzymes, but not their inactive mutants, in a complex proteome. Probe labeling was visualized by performing the azide-alkyne Huisgen cycloaddition reaction with a functionalized rhodamine on probe-treated proteome followed by gel electrophoresis (SDS- PAGE). Through these efforts, we have identified activity-based probes for several of the human RIPs and observed differences in probe engagement in lysate versus intact cells. Our findings provide encouraging precedent for the development of suitable ABPP assays for each of the human RIPs as well as insight into the types of chemical scaffolds that could be used to generate inhibitors for these enzymes

Library Perspectives, Issue 70, Winter 2024

This issue includes items about the First Annual Edible Book Festival, updates to Azariah\u27s Café, the Libraries\u27 Winter Term courses, the digitization of Spanish plays from the 17th-20th century, upcoming events, and new Friends of the Oberlin College Libraries officers and council members.https://digitalcommons.oberlin.edu/perspectives/1129/thumbnail.jp

Synaptic vesicle glycoprotein 2C enhances vesicular storage of dopamine and counters dopaminergic toxicitySynaptic vesicle glycoprotein 2C enhances vesicular storage of dopamine and counters dopaminergic toxicity

Dopaminergic neurons of the substantia nigra exist in a persistent state of vulnerability resulting from high baseline oxidative stress, high-energy demand, and broad unmyelinated axonal arborisations. Impairments in the storage of dopamine compound this stress because of cytosolic reactions that transform the vital neurotransmitter into an endogenous neurotoxicant, and this toxicity is thought to contribute to the dopamine neuron degeneration that occurs Parkinson\u27s disease. We have previously identified synaptic vesicle glycoprotein 2C (SV2C) as a modifier of vesicular dopamine function, demonstrating that genetic ablation of SV2C in mice results in decreased dopamine content and evoked dopamine release in the striatum. Here, we adapted a previously published in vitro assay utilising false fluorescent neurotransmitter 206 (FFN206) to visualise how SV2C regulates vesicular dopamine dynamics and determined that SV2C promotes the uptake and retention of FFN206 within vesicles. In addition, we present data indicating that SV2C enhances the retention of dopamine in the vesicular compartment with radiolabelled dopamine in vesicles isolated from immortalised cells and from mouse brain. Further, we demonstrate that SV2C enhances the ability of vesicles to store the neurotoxicant 1-methyl-4-phenylpyridinium (MPP+) and that genetic ablation of SV2C results in enhanced 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP)-induced vulnerability in mice. Together, these findings suggest that SV2C functions to enhance vesicular storage of dopamine and neurotoxicants and helps maintain the integrity of dopaminergic neurons