Toulmin House Conversation

Dr. Kern Jackson and Frye Gaillard discuss the Toulmin House, a historic building that was moved to the University of South Alabama in 1975. Frye Gaillard shares his personal connection to the house, which belonged to his family, the Toulmins, from the 1820s until his childhood. He reflects on the complexities of the house’s history, including its construction by enslaved people and its use as a family residence

Exploring the Relationship Between Anxiety and Virtual Reality Sickness

As virtual reality (VR) becomes more commonly used in education, it is important to understand the technology’s weakness and mitigate any potential negative effects on student success. One adverse side-effect of VR use is simulation-induced motion sickness, known in the context of VR as VR sickness. Previous research by Howard and Van Zandt (2021) found that possessing a phobia had a significant positive correlation with VR sickness, but only if the phobia is triggered by the simulation, suggesting that symptoms are actually connected to the anxiety the phobia induces. This study explored the hypothesized correlation between anxiety and VR sickness, and added to the existing literature by seeking a deeper understanding of a phenomenon closely tied to the success of VR implementation. Sixty-five undergraduate university students used an Oculus Quest to view two 360 YouTube videos: one with low motion intensity and one with high motion intensity. Anxiety and VR sickness were measured before and after each video using a series of questionnaires; balance and heart rate were measured before, during, and after each video using a Wii Balance Board and BIOPAC MP36 system respectively. Statistical analysis comprised a series of three-way mixed ANOVAs testing for correlations between pre- and post-immersion trait anxiety, state anxiety, VR sickness, balance, and heart rate. I also ran two multiple regression models testing the ability of confounding variables (age, gender, ethnicity, technological xvi experience, prior VR experience, and motion sickness susceptibility) along with state and trait anxiety to predict post-immersion VR sickness for each video. The results showed the effects of state and trait anxiety can replicate the effects VR sickness outside of VR exposure, creating the risk of a false positive with regard to VR sickness. However, genuine VR sickness does also become more severe in the presence of heightened state anxiety. There is reason to suspect this correlation remains in place across levels of motion intensity in VR content and across the general population. The study also offers insight into best practices for implementing VR as an instructional method. Instructors implementing VR should take note of students exhibiting signs of very high anxiety and remain mindful of the possibility that those students could have a harder time completing VR tasks than students with low anxiety

Medical Graphic Novels: Comic Art and Medicine

Leesha Coleman, USA Biomedical Librarian, gave a presentation at the West Regional Library of the Mobile Public Library. She discussed the use of medical graphic novels and the incorporation of art in science degrees

Side Channel Detection of PC Rootkits using Nonlinear Phase Space

Cyberattacks are increasing in size and scope yearly, and the most effective and common means of attack is through malicious software executed on target devices of interest. Malware threats vary widely in terms of behavior and impact and, thus, effective methods of detection are constantly being sought from the academic research community to offset both volume and complexity. Rootkits are malware that represent a highly feared threat because they can change operating system integrity and alter otherwise normally functioning software. Although normal methods of detection that are based on signatures of known malware code are the standard line of defense, rootkits that have never been seen before (zero-day threats) are not easily defeated because of their ability to evade scanners and present false system information. In this research, we propose to evaluate a novel approach of rootkit detection based on collection of time-serial voltage data from the internal motherboard of standard desktop PCs.https://jagworks.southalabama.edu/honors_college_posters/1010/thumbnail.jp

Gertrude Stein: Autobiography and Play

By using Gertrude Stein’s two autobiographies, this thesis attempts to examine the use and evolution of play in writing. In The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, play stands within the language and games that Stein invites her readers to engage in. By using Roger Caillois’ characteristics of play, Stein’s writing can be seen as different from the high, serious modernism at the time with writers like William Faulkner and T.S. Eliot. After the publication of Toklas, Stein reverted into a crippling writer’s block because she could no longer find interest in the world to think and write about. However, after an experience with a dead Englishwoman, she was thrown back into a world of questions with no straightforward answer, which lead her to begin writing again. Everybody’s Autobiography is a meditation on these questions that haunted her at first but became a playful mystery to think about

Survey of the Boletes from Fish River Nature Preserve

Boletes are a special kind of mushroom inside of the Kingdom Fungi that are distinguished from other mushrooms by their uniquely pored hymenium, as opposed to gills. Many boletes are ectomycorrhizal, meaning they are mutualists with vascular plants, and thus beneficial to the overall health of the terrestrial ecosystem. Some are well-known for their edibility and are of economic importance. In the United States 59 genus-level clades comprising 290 operational taxonomic units have been reported. The southeastern US and Gulf Coast regions however are less researched and recorded for their mushroom ecology. In Alabama, only 56 bolete species have been reported so far. Specimens in this project were collected from Baldwin and Mobile Counties, AL, with the majority of specimens collected at The Fish River Nature Preserve. The Fish River Nature Preserve (FRNP) is located south of Fairhope in Baldwin County, and was recently purchased by the South Alabama Land Trust Conservation group. This property includes an upper level section with a tract dominated by oaks and another by pines, which is fire-controlled, and one near the river dominated by palmetto palms. Upon collection, all collected specimens were brought from the field to the South Alabama campus lab for technical descriptions, imaging, freezing of a small tissue sample, dehydration preservation of the fruiting body, and storage of the specimen. Microscopic work followed that and included the measurement of basidiospores. A primary list of the suspected species of each specimen was created based on morphological descriptions, and spore measurements. The frozen tissue sample then underwent DNA extraction via Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) amplification. Specimens that yielded DNA products were then uploaded into GenBan via Blasting to find matches of named sequences that are already in the GenBank database. A total of 26 specimens were collected at the FRNP and Mobile County. 19 of the 26 specimens\u27 identities were confirmed via DNA blasting from which 2 were confirmed to the genus level and the other 17 the the species level. Those remaining 7 that did not yield a DNA confirmed identity were identified morphologically. Together with morphological descriptions and DNA confirmation, a total of 17 species were identified, and they include: A. russellii (NTN-16); B. alutaceus (NTN-09); B. vermiculosoides (NTN-21); E. floridanus (NTN-14); G. castaneus (NTN-01; NTN-03, NTN-06, NTN-12, NTN-17, NTN-22); H. rubellus (NTN-10, NTN-13); L. albellum (NTN-04, NTN-18); P. bellus (NTN-02); P. rhodoxanthus (NTN-15); S. floccopus (NTN-05); S. decipiens (NTN-23); T. balloui (NTN-11); T. rhoadsiae (NTN-08); T. rubrobrunneus (NTN-20, NTN-26); X.affine (NTN-24, NTN-25); X. intermedius (NTN-07); X. subtomentosus (NTN-19). One species, B. alutaceus (NTN-09) commonly known as the “Leather Colored Bolete” is a species native to New England that was identified on the FRNP with no previously reported collections in Southern Alabama.https://jagworks.southalabama.edu/honors_college_posters/1022/thumbnail.jp

DNA Methylation of the AGTR1 Gene in a Hypertensive Population of Kenyans

Cardiovascular disease (CVD), the leading cause of death worldwide, is rapidly increasing in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs), particularly those of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)(World Health Organization). Hypertension is the leading risk factor for CVD and is a multifactorial disease with no single genetic cause. Increasingly, evidence indicates that hypertension is predisposed by environmental regulation of genes through heritable, yet modifiable, epigenetic changes to DNA leading to changes in gene expression, e.g. methylation. While understanding the etiology of hypertension in LMICs is a global priority, few epigenetic studies exist from populations living in SSA (Fan). The renin-angiotensin system (RAS) is the primary hormonal pathway that regulates blood pressure through changes in salt and water retention. Previously, we have found a high prevalence of hypertension (55 % had systolic blood pressure (SBP) \u3e130 mmHg) in a rural population of Kenyans that was not correlated with lifestyle or behavioral factors (Williams).https://jagworks.southalabama.edu/honors_college_posters/1026/thumbnail.jp

The Role of Inflammatory Cells in the Sex Dimorphism of Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension

Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH) is a disease associated with high blood pressure specifically in the lung circulation. Symptoms include dyspnea and cyanosis, and the mean survival post-diagnosis is 2.8 years without treatment. PAH can be characterized by accumulating vascular damage which results in lesion formation causing a decrease in the diameter of vessels, obstruction of flow, and ultimately increased pressure on the right heart leading to failure. These lesions define an arteriopathy that is a hallmark of PAH which is, in part, dependent on infiltration of inflammatory cells into the vascular wall. PAH presents uniquely in males and females with females being diagnosed more often than males, but with males having a much worse prognosis than females. We recently reported that in the SUGEN/Hypoxia model of PAH there is increased circulating MCP-1 and GM-CSF, indicative of macrophage-driven infiltration. Further we found that CXCL-10 was increased in females, indicative of T-cell infiltration. We hypothesized that males would exhibit macrophage expression in the vascular wall, whereas females would have T-cell infiltration. Following histological staining of both male and female samples our preliminary data suggests females exhibit more T cells and male exhibit more macrophages. This data suggests unique inflammatory cell phenotypes that correlate with sex in PH.https://jagworks.southalabama.edu/honors_college_posters/1015/thumbnail.jp

Interspecific Venom Variation Among Three Microsympatric Scorpion Species Facilitates Niche Partitioning, Diplocentrus lindo, Vaejovis intermedius, Centruroides vittatus

Scorpions are globally distributed and very well known for their use of venom for prey capture and defense. Despite their abundance and high number of species, very little is known about the venom used by scorpions, and how the components of venom work to maximize the success of the individual. The venom of a species is directly produced by the venom gland, which can be found at the very end of the tail in the telson. To further our understanding of scorpion venom, we generated the first venom gland transcriptomes for three species from three different families, Centruroides vittatus, Diplocentrus lindo, and Vaejovis intermedius, all of which are found within the same region of West Texas including in microsympatry. To do this, we used Illumina RNA sequencing on a total of 22 individuals to identify the toxin families utilized by each species. Data indicates that, even though the species likely eat the same prey, defend themselves from the same predators, and live in the same habitat, they have drastically different venom components. This potentially allows each species to tailor their venom, facilitating niche partitioning, allowing these species to coexist within the same location. Our transcriptome analysis of the venom gland in each of these species also provides data for future researchers who wish to understand scorpion venoms and their potential utility for human applications

Enabling More Efficient Solar Thermal Energy Production and Storage

Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) stores & transfers energy using a Thermal Energy Storage Fluid (EIA AEO 2022)https://jagworks.southalabama.edu/honors_college_posters/1009/thumbnail.jp