2023 Celebration of Faculty Scholarship

A bibliography of works featured in the 2023 Celebration of Faculty Scholarship event sponsored by Loyola University Chicago Libraries. The event featured articles, books, and other materials created by Loyola faculty members in the academic year 2022-2023

Agile Project Advisors: Theory to Practice in Program Development

Agile Project Advisors provides an unpaid internship opportunity that allows students qualified individuals in the field of software development to work under the company remotely. At APA, interns are assigned work relevant to various programs, divided by skill and preference. Such applications include an accountability partner tool, a capabilities test, a personal values program, a habit creator, and an improvement feedback mechanism. The role of the developer is to apply their experience and intuitive knowledge to document and make progress on the task, effectively bringing theoretical concepts to real-world application

Community and Government Engagement Intern at Catholic Charities

Loyola University of Chicago offers a grant program where undergraduate students are paired with a non-profit organization to develop transferable skills throughout the year. The program allows you to obtain 3 credits for Engaged Learning and contributes students with a $2,000 grant per semester. I had the opportunity of being an intern at Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago in the position of Community and Government Engagement. Catholic Charities as an organization, assists with housing, food, case management, and other services to transform the lives of immigrants, and homeless people of all ages. My job has been to retrieve monthly statistics from major projects imparted for immigrants sponsored by 150 parishes across Lake and Cook Counties. I am also a content creator for ongoing events and have assisted in translating documents for the public. I have also cited partnership projects on new development strategies for people who need assistance with their daily living

Insights from the Halls: Reflection in School Nursing

In the Spring 2024 semester, Luz-Angelica completed her engaged learning opportunity at Irving Middle School (IMS), in Maywood, a village in Proviso Township, Cook County, Illinois. During her internship at IMS, she had the opportunity to work closely with the school nurse to address the complex challenges faced by students, including absenteeism, bullying, and physical altercations. It was evident that these issues were interconnected and often stemmed from underlying social and economic factors. Having a hands-on role in assessing and partaking in therapeutic communication alongside the school nurse and other staff members, helped foster valuable insights into the importance of a holistic approach to supporting students in underserved communities and the critical role that healthcare professionals play in promoting student well-being and academic success

Quantifying Phosphatidylethanol from Dried Blood Spots by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry​

Phosphatidylethanol (PEth) is a phase II biomarker formed in the walls of red blood cells that shows excellent sensitivity and specificity as a screening biomarker for chronic alcohol use and abuse. The goal was to develop a “point of care” means of detection and quantitation of PEth to identify alcohol misuse by patients in a clinical setting. This new method is effective at measuring the total amount of ethanol incorporated into the blood phospholipids in whole, dried, and potentially decomposed blood (ex. postmortem). This work is based on US patent 11,085,939 B2 titled “Quantifying Phosphatidylethanol from Blood Samples” published in 2021

Understanding Mesoamerican Life Cycles and Rituals Through Figurines

Children of ancient times are frequently overlooked within the archaeological record. For this presentation, I examined different aspects of Mesoamerican culture in order to identify two figurines discovered at the Postclassic site of Tzunun, Mexico. These figurines shine light onto ritualistic objects and ceremonies regarding childbirth as well as aiding to clarify the roles and expectations of Mesoamerican children. They allow us to investigate the past and in turn to reconstruct Maya life cycles and how children progressed into adulthood in Mesoamerican, and more specifically, Maya society

Diet Reconstruction of El Sidrón Neandertals Using ART, an Experimental Approach

The study aims to experimentally examine the diet of the El Sidrón Neandertals. Previous dental microwear research suggests these individuals relied on Physcomitrella patens (forest moss), Schizophyllum commune (split-gill mushrooms), and Pinus koraiensis (pine nuts); however, the formation processes of microwear have recently been debated. Due to the lack of meat found in the calculus, it has been suggested that these ancestors were vegetarian. This experiment will create dental microwear using Artificial Resynthesis Technology using the foods aforementioned, shedding light on both the formation processes of microwear and the diet of these hominins

Inhibitors of the Bacterial Enzyme ArgE as Potential Novel Antibiotics

Bacteria are becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics, and therefore there is an urgent need to discover novel antibiotics targeting alternate pathways. This project studies inhibitors of dizinc metalloenzyme acetylornithine deacetylase (ArgE), an enzyme found in the arginine biosynthesis pathway of bacteria. Inhibiting this enzyme would kill bacteria without mechanism-based toxicity to humans. We screened classes of potential inhibitors and tested compounds in a 214 nm assay, finding IC50 values for the most potent inhibitors. We also tested select inhibitors in a thermal shift assay with Escherichia coli ArgE to determine the stability of the enzyme in the presence of inhibitors

Cyclobutanone Inhibitors of Diaminopimelate Desuccinylase (DapE) as Potential New Antibiotics

Based on our previous success in using cyclobutanone derivatives as enzyme inhibitors, we have designed and prepared a 37-member library of α-aminocyclobutanone amides and sulfonamides, screened for inhibition of the bacterial enzyme diaminopimelate desuccinylase (DapE), which is a promising antibiotic target, and identified several inhibitors with micromolar inhibitory potency. Molecular docking suggests binding of the deprotonated hydrate of the strained cyclobutanone, and thermal shift analysis with the most potent inhibitor (3y, IC50 = 23.1 µM) enabled determination of a Ki value of 10.2 +/− 0.26 µM and observed two separate Tm values for H. influenzae DapE (HiDapE)

Emoji Use in Social Media Posts: Relationships with Personality Traits and Word Usage

Prior research has demonstrated relationships between personality traits of social media users and the language used in their posts. Few studies have examined whether there are relationships between personality traits of users and how they use emojis in their social media posts. Emojis are digital pictographs used to express ideas and emotions. There are thousands of emojis, which depict faces with expressions, objects, animals, and activities. We conducted a study with two samples (n = 76 and n = 245) in which we examined how emoji use on X (formerly Twitter) related to users’ personality traits and language use in posts. Personality traits were assessed from participants in an online survey. With participants’ consent, we analyzed word usage in posts. Word frequencies were calculated using the Linguistic Inquiry Word Count (LIWC). In both samples, the results showed that those who used the most emojis had the lowest levels of openness to experience. Emoji use was unrelated to the other personality traits. In sample 1, emoji use was also related to use of words related to family, positive emotion, and sadness and less frequent use of articles and words related to insight. In sample 2, more frequent use of emojis in posts was related to more frequent use of you pronouns, I pronouns, and more frequent use of negative function words and words related to time. The results support the view that social media users’ characteristics may be gleaned from the content of their social media posts