Cen Rui

125 leaves; illustrations."岑瑞", a name given to me in China by the orphanage, is a docupoetic work that attempts to construct an identity so that I might achieve closure on my personal adoption. At least, that was the plan. What both the critical thesis and creative portion will reveal is how the complex nature of language, documents, identities, and daughterhood all come together to both construct and reject a concrete identity—and, in turn, reject closure.ESSAY||Introduction: Identity and Closure||Adoption: China and Tropes||Docupoetry||The Mother||The Language of Asian America||“Conclusion”||CREATIVE WORK||岑

Observing the Effects of the Protein HE4 on Ovarian Cancer Progression in Danio rerio Embryos

51 leaves; illustrations.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 42-51).Ovarian cancer is a leading cause of cancer-related death for females in the United States. Epithelial ovarian carcinomas, the most common type of ovarian cancer, are difficult to diagnose in the early stages of the disease. One of the tests used to diagnose ovarian cancer, the HE4 test, measures the amount of the human epididymis protein 4 (HE4) present. HE4 is a secretory protein shown to be overexpressed in patients with ovarian cancer and has been shown to potentially be involved in promoting cancer proliferation. This study attempted to test the following hypothesis: if HE4 promotes cancer progression, then cells that express higher levels of HE4 should cause increased tumor growth in and lower relative survival rate of zebrafish embryos because HE4 is upregulated in ovarian cancer cells. Zebrafish embryos were injected with either OVCAR8 HE4-overexpressing GFP cells or OVCAR8 wild-type cells, followed by imaging of injected embryos 2 and 3 days-post-injections and measurement of survival rate through 6 days-post-fertilization. Over the course of experimentation, however, this study turned into a methods paper due to the amount of troubleshooting that needed to be done. This paper thus details the method that should be used in the future to test this hypothesis.ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS||ABSTRACT||INTRODUCTION||OVARIAN CANCER||OVERVIEW||THREE TYPES OF OVARIAN CANCER||TREATMENT||OVCAR8 CELL LINE||PROTEIN HE4||OVERVIEW||CA-125 TEST||HE4 TEST||ROMA TEST||ZEBRAFISH||HYPOTHESIS||METHODS||GENERATING CELLS FOR INJECTIONS||PREPARATION OF INJECTION NEEDLES||ZEBRAFISH EMBRYOS||PREPARATION OF CELLS FOR INJECTIONS||XENOTRANSPLANTATION||ZEBRAFISH IMAGING --RESULTS||GENERATING CELLS FOR INJECTIONS||PREPARATION OF INJECTION NEEDLES||ZEBRAFISH EMBRYOS||PREPARATION OF CELLS FOR INJECTIONS --XENOTRANSPLANTATION||SURVIVAL RATE||ZEBRAFISH IMAGING||DISCUSSION||INTRODUCTION||GENERATING CELLS FOR INJECTIONS||ZEBRAFISH EMBRYOS||PREPARATION OF CELLS FOR INJECTIONS||XENOTRANSPLANTATION||SURVIVAL RATE||ZEBRAFISH IMAGING||HE4||ZEBRAFISH MODEL IN CURRENT RESEARCH||CONCLUSION||REFERENCE

Unraveling a potential cryptic species complex of Polydora colonia and Polydora spongicola through morphology and DNA barcoding

46 leaves; illustrations.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 38-44).Marine biological invasions are a critical problem concerning biodiversity and habitat structure in the ocean. Rates of introductions are exacerbated by human activities in our interconnected world such as international shipping, travel, and commercial fishing. Introductions are difficult to track and manage, and this problem is made even more difficult by the existence of cryptic species complexes. These complexes are defined as two or more genetically different species "hiding" under a single species due to morphological or phylogenetic similarities. These complexes can be elucidated using genetic tools such as DNA barcoding. Cryptic invasions may occur if one species in the complex is native to an area, and another species is introduced and becomes established without detection. One group of organisms at the intersection of concerns on invasive species and cryptic species complex is the Polychaeta. The Polychaeta, a group of marine annelid worms, contains cryptic species complexes, some of which are  known to cause ecological and economic damage when introduced. This thesis investigates the possibility that two sponge-boring polychaete species, Polydora colonia and Polydora spongicola, may be part of a cryptic species complex. This question is addressed using DNA barcoding and morphological examination. This thesis is the first genetic study of Polydora colonia. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS||ABSTRACT 2||INTRODUCTION 3||METHODS --Specimen collection||Specimen extraction||Specimen identification, morphological analysis, and fixation||DNA extraction and analysis --Phylogenetic analysis||RESULTS||Morphology||16S rRNA Gene Analysis -- 18S rRNA Gene Analysis||DISCUSSIO

Perception of Reception: Communication between Parents and Their Children on the Autism Spectrum

62 leaves; illustrations.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 44-53).Language impairment has the potential to negatively impact the ability of a child with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) to both communicate and learn throughout their childhood. One possible influence on a child with ASD’s level of language impairment is the verbal communication which they receive from their parents. In order to further investigate the dynamics of parent speech to their children with ASD, 6 pre-existing unstructured free-play videos of parent-child dyads were subjected to secondary analysis. Only the audio from these recordings was utilized during coding. Coding procedures evaluated the quality and quantity of parent speech as a function of the intended purpose of the communication for the children and diagnostic status of the child. Coding categories included Directive Non-word, Supportive Non-word, Directive Semantic, and Supportive Semantic. These four codes were summarized as Child-directed communication, as the intention of the speech is either to encourage or to redirect the focus of the child. Child participants were also assessed using the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS) and the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS). The small sample size (n = 6, 3 typically developing (TD) child participants and 3 children on the autism spectrum) of the present study was too small to justify inferential statistical analysis; nonetheless, results found correlations between Non-word Supportive parent speech and diagnostic status, Non-word parent speech and SRS, and mother age when compared with total child-directed speech. These findings can inform the development of future studies to help progress the understanding of the language development of neurodivergent children.Table of Contents||Abstract||What is Autism?||Quantity of Parent-Child Verbal Communication||Quality of Parent-Child Verbal Communication||Parent Perception of Child’s Diagnosis and Verbal Communication||Communication Divergence among Parent-Child Dyads with ASD||Rationale for Present Study||Method||Participants||Materials||Procedure||Data Analysis||Results||Exploratory Correlations||SRS and PANAS Scores||Additional Qualitative Analysis||Non-word Supportive Compared with ASD Diagnosis||Non-word Parent Speech Compared with SRS Score||Maternal Age Compared with Child-Directed Speech||Trends Within Coding Categories||Discussion||Exploratory Correlations||Gender of Child Compared with Non-word Supportive Speech||SRS Score Compared with Non-word Supportive Speech||Maternal Education Level Compared with Non-word Speech||Paternal Education Level Compared with Child-Directed Speech||Age of Child Compared with Semantic Directive Speech||Paternal Age Compared with Child-Directed Speech||SRS and PANAS Scores||Additional Qualitative Analysis||Non-word Supportive compared with ASD Diagnosis||Non-word Parent Speech Compared with SRS Score||Maternal Age Compared with Child-Directed Speech||Trends Within Coding Categories||Limitations||Future Directives||Conclusion||References||Appendix

Something in the "Middle": Writing Longing as a Form of Prolonged Closure

71 leaves.Includes bibliographical references (leave 65-71).Writers siphon complicated emotions surrounding longing into numerous forms. Poetry and screenwriting poignantly narrate the concept of longing in their own respective manners. These formats allow for strong mimetic connections between audience and writing. Screenwriting involves mimesis in a structural sense, imitating qualities of life in a formulaic way. Poetry, on the other hand, abstracts these reality-based occurrences in a way that provides a looser formation of written, often unconscious, thought. With this fluidity, writers can release their innermost desires and falsified realities. There is an implicit relationship between longing as a form of prolonged closure and the writers’ exploitation of this emotion. Despite the formatting differences, there are many connections between poetry and screenwriting, and that directly plays a part in the ties to the formats’ mimetic reading. These poets and screenwriters write about prolonged closure to fulfill their own longing that can never be fulfilled within reality. In tandem with this reading on closure, I will also present my personal writings on the topic. I combined the structure conventions of poetry and screenwriting, mixing these genres in such a way to express this longing as a form of prolonged closure, because these forms flow together naturally for me. The script's third-person narration helps me view personal areas within my life from an omniscient perspective. Looking deeper into this concept of a lack of fulfillment, the structure and format of the coinciding genres will be formative into my research. I will also be looking into the utilization of the hypothetical and toying with reality, the fragmented ambiguity within both genres, the form of longing itself, and closure’s circular narrative, all of which directly shape a readers’ interpretation of both poetry and screenwriting and the capabilities of defining both. I will look at poetry such as The Surrender Theory, a collection of poems that deals with this incredibly personal relationship with closure and how to find it, dealing with love and loss and how to cope with both. I will look at scripts for the films Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and (500) Days of Summer, both screenplays that agonize over the struggle of closure surrounding a relationship and portray vastly different ways to handle said processing. Finally, I will also extricate analytical pieces regarding the writing of closure and mimesis as a whole, from McConnell, Riffaterre, Hamburger, Meyer, Maran, Longenbach, and Carlson. These analyses can help articulate my own personal writing's deeper consciousness, the context within the piece, the idea of the “middle” – an ambiguous, ever-present feeling of floating between the start and end of something – and acknowledge how my writing falls within the previously stated structural premises' intertwining of the poetry and screenwriting genres to best exemplify longing’s prolonged closure. Poetry often explores the dynamic between very personal, private thought and the transference of that to a more public, communal form of expression. Screenwriting, however, tends to lend itself to the visual – film, the use of actors, the culmination of music and cinematography – in a way that poetry does not. Poetry therefore becomes a much more private and individualistic medium whereas screenwriting is often meant to be broadcasted, which therefore creates a clashing dynamic when combined. However, I believe that both forms tend to pull on each other’s qualities more often than not. Poetry, although it may seem incredibly personal and private, tricks readers into the belief that it is in the rawest, most pure form of writing when, really, it is often a caricature based on reality. Screenwriting typically does the opposite. Scripts utilize these hypothetically fictional or overblown characters to hide behind the imaginative when exploiting reality. Many view screenwriting solely as pure falsity created from scratch, when typically, it sprouts from a pre-existing, private understanding of a truth based within reality. Together, this mixture of poetry and screenwriting merge private and public, persona versus personal, and create a highly ambiguous understanding of what reality the writer presents to those who read. For my own personal writing, romance tends to creep into every piece. The romantic experiences that I found myself speaking on were open-ended, lacked closure, and generally left me feeling confused, isolated, and on a mountain of high highs and low lows. Poetry, and eventually screenwriting, allowed for me to process these feelings into words and scenes, using different characters and contexts to rewrite and relive my reality. Poetry delves into the very personal details, the crumbs, of a situation, whereas screenwriting stretches the subject in a way that feels much more closed-off due to the nature of a three-act structure. Having the elongated subject matter combined with the present, more intense moments provides a space where the "middle" gets convoluted. Breaks in this three-act structure creates confusion, disrupting what typically appears to be the "middle" to question the very nature of a "middle" at all. In doing so, writing these experiences in a hypothetical way, in a stream of consciousness, and sometimes even in intoxicated-esque manners allowed me to understand and work through how I felt about the situations presented before me in an unrestricted sense. Encapsulating my own personal frustration with the "middle" became an advantage, creating a narrative that blurs the lines between this reality and fantasy. Things such as playing out situations, overblowing supposedly mundane moments, and relating time to these scenarios became a common theme throughout my piece, especially regarding the poetic lines. Poetry and screenwriting typically do not correlate. The forms clash, screenwriting normally a tightly structured format that heavily focuses on characters, dialogue, and plot, whereas poetry focuses on the abstract, a more imagery-based reimagining. Together, these forms push and pull at concepts like character, plot, detail, style, format, language, and overall general interpretation. Combining these differing facets within one piece was a challenge; balancing dialogue with imagery or symbolism with plot becomes a tricky line to walk. I experimented with visual media such as color (in using red as a way to express an unconscious aftermath of thoughts), the mixing of formats, and different symbol and character usage. I took traditional formats within screenplays and poetry and intertwined the two to create a nearly unrecognizable format to best relay my inner emotions and desires. Through combining the forms, it allowed me to best comprehend concepts of love, loss, closure, alcohol, addiction, physical and emotional intimacy, wishes and doubts, hypotheticals, fantasies, overthinking, and every other potential thought process present while in a relationship that never quite started or ended.THE CRITICAL ESSAY||INTRODUCTION||STRUCTURE AND FORMAT||THE HYPOTHETICAL AND STRETCHING REALITY||CONFUSING AND AMBIGUOUS WRITING||PROLONGED LONGING AND CLOSURE’S CIRCULAR, NON-LINEAR CONSISTENCY||THE “END”||REFLECTION||SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE||WORKS CITED||ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPH

Assessing impacts of multiple parasites on Striped Bass (Morone saxatilis) across age classes, rivers and salinity in Chesapeake Bay.

Striped Bass (Morone saxatilis) are ecologically and economically important anadromous species that live along the East Coast of the United States between Canada and Florida. Most of the fish are born in the tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay, which is where the samples for this study were collected, including fish from the age classes: Young-Of-Year (YOY) ( 0.05), indicating fish with and without parasites present are in similar conditions. However, there were more Striped Bass infected with parasites (n=419, 73%) compared to those without (n=155, 27%), and many of these infected fish were YOY (n=331, 79%). Second, there was a difference between the Striped Bass collected across nine tributaries. The furthest North tributaries (Upper Bay, Rhode and Choptank) had fish with the highest parasite intensity and richness (> 100 individuals per sample). Third, there was a difference between Striped Bass collected from the various salinity ranges (0.00-12.99 ppt). The higher salinity levels (7.00-12.99 ppt) had more fish infected with high parasite intensity but less parasite variability compared to the lower salinity levels (0.00-6.99 ppt). Overall, there may be a difference in the health condition of the Striped Bass compared to non parasitized fish, but more samples across all age classes need to be collected.NOAA Chesapeake Bay OfficeAcknowledgements||Abstract||Introduction||Background on Striped Bass(Morone saxatilis)||Review of each parasite taxa-Impact of Marine Parasites||Phylum:Acanthocephala||Phylum:Nematoda||(Subclass:Digenea)||(Class:Monogenea)||(Family:Argulidae)||(Family:Caligidae)||(Family:Ergasilidae)||(Order:Isopoda)||Objectives for Present Study||Methods||Study Area||Data Collection||Fulton’s Condition Factor||Organizing Raw Data in EXCEL||R||Results||Parasite Intensity across Striped Bass from the Chesapeake Bay Parasite Richness across Striped Bass from the Chesapeake Bay||Parasite Intensity and Richness across Ontogeny of Striped Bass||Parasite Intensity and Richness in Striped Bass across Tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay||Parasite Intensity and Richness in Striped Bass across Salinity Ranges||Parasite Intensity and Richness in YOY Striped Bass across Salinity Ranges||Discussion||Discussion of Parasite Intensity and Health Condition of the Striped Bass||Discussion of Parasite Richness and Health Condition of the Striped Bass||Discussion of Parasite Intensity and Richness across Ontogeny of Striped Bass||Discussion of Parasite Intensity and Richness of Striped Bass across Tributaries||Discussion of Parasite Intensity and Richness of Striped Bass across Salinity Ranges||Discussion of Parasite Intensity and Richness of YOY Striped Bass across Salinity Ranges||Reference Lis

Representations of American Identity and Political Expression in Popular Soccer Discourse

137 leaves; illustrations.Included bibliographical references (leaves 93-137).This thesis addresses the question of how American soccer identity is represented in popular discourse, in order to better understand the intersection of mediated sports, culture, and marketplace conflict. Grant Wahl’s archived digital publications for Sports Illustrated and best selling books The Beckham Experiment and Masters of Modern Soccer were rhetorically analyzed to identify explicit and implicit argumentative language in popular soccer conversations. Sut Jhally's theories of the commodification of sports are employed to understand how argumentative language functions to construct American identity in soccer spaces. This research finds that popular discourse produces, circulates, and consumes "American" as a negative brand in soccer, often associating it with hubris and incompetence and masking larger economic inequities.INTRODUCTION||CHAPTER 1: The Politics of Sports Rhetoric||CHAPTER 2: Circulation of Political Sentiments in American Soccer||CHAPTER 3: Beckham and the Production of American Soccer Branding||CHAPTER 4: American Soccer Consumption, and Subjection to the Spectacle||CONCLUSION||WORKS CITED||BIBLIOGRAPH

Rushlight: 2022-2023, Renaissance

Wheaton College (Norton, MA) student literary magazine.Editor's NoteTorsoIntroductionIt's Not You, It's ThemI. BleusSeemingly SimpleRag DollGlassesSummer in MaineOn Letting a Friend GoThe Honey Jar, 2022Split ConformityUntitledLove's Lucky Ones?I Will Stay With YouCity CoupleLaser TagLight BeamPersonality SymptomsDrawing for MomColors of Standing TimeWildfireFading FlowerPJ & The Nine-Taled FoxLichee Black TeaFlash of Quarantine, 2020"Apple Pie" A Capella ArrangementTable SettingHappinessEye of EricRecovery ReflectionsFriendship FlowersongRocherster's JulyDifference Between Lemons & LimesPaper ChainThe City, Part 1II. AvenueIf Memory Serves RightCollectionAorta RuptureDied on the CourtAncientUpside DownUntitledBad TripChaosGodlike7N 759ColeAnd What Really Defines Art Anyways"All I Ask" A Capella ArrangementLet There be a FloristPlantAn Untitled Story About Two Young Boys in a PlaygroundRed WomanCandlelit WarmthSix Days AgoRat Animation"Nobody Knows"UltrasoundEmbeddedLook UpOcean of CellsThe Wrong Mixture, Wrong Combination, Wrong Equation; You Always Knew How to TakeOur Mother AutumnPiss ClosetThe One Way, WayFuchsia HybridaLittle Bee FriendNobodyLeftoversSearching Through DreamsUntitledElizabeth SchuylerMy DoctorsWaiting for resultsMedical GazeWalloWhen I Open My EyesWhat to do in case of EmergencyOn Gjöll, HomewardFanore BeachAnother AlbumHamburger SundayLensMy Cousin IvyMy ABC'sWheaton, Spring 2022FrolicSomething in the MiddleThe Duality of Being, 2022Maybe the real prison was the revolving door we got stuck in along the wayThe Story of Not ShoesSundryRose, 2022Ahad, 2022Face in my KneesMedia StrikeMother's TouchUntitledMetamorphosisThe Death of a VampirePortrait of KhushiFrankensteinIII. CovenantIIII. DetatchmentUntitled 69Tors

The Structural and Electrochemical Effects of Varying the Group 1 Counterion in Fluorinated Alkoxide Lanthanide Complexes

76 leaves; Illustrations.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 74-76).In this work, five new lanthanide complexes with varying counterions and coordination by fluorinated alkoxide ligands were synthesized and characterized via single crystal X-ray diffractometry, including [K(THF) 2 ][Ln(pin F ) 2 (THF) 2 ] (Ln = Yb, Lu), 3-Ln-K, [Li(THF)][Eu(pin F ) 2 (THF) 3 ], 4-Eu-Li, and [Li(THF)] 3 [Ln(pin F ) 3 (THF)] (Ln = Ce, Eu), 5-Ln-Li. Differences in planarity of a diamond core in bis-perfluoropinacolate species were found across the series of lanthanides. Changing the counterion resulted in significant structural changes, indicated by differences in the degree of THF solvation and buried volume. Increasing the stoichiometry of the synthesis revealed a pinwheel structure that was more symmetric by reflection than a three-fold rotation, and cyclic voltammetry of 5-Ce-Li showed an oxidation event at +0.45 V and a reduction event at –1.79 V relative to ferrocene.Abstract||Chapter 1: Introduction||Chapter 2: Experimental||Chapter 3: Results and Discussion||3.1: [K(THF)2][Ln(pinF)2(THF)2] and [K(THF)2][Ln(pinF)2(THF)3]||3.1.1: [K(THF)2][Ln(pinF)2(THF)2] (Ln = Yb, Lu)||3.1.2: [K(THF)2][Ln(pinF)2(THF)2] (Ln = Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Y, Ho, Yb, Lu) and [K(THF)2][Ln(pinF)2(THF)3] (Ln = La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm)||3.2: [Li(THF)][Eu(pinF)2(THF)3]||3.2.1: [Li(THF)][Eu(pinF)2(THF)3] vs [K(THF)2][Eu(pinF)2(THF)2]||3.2.2: Steric Analysis||3.3: [Li(THF)]3[Ln(pinF)3(THF)] (Ln = Ce, Eu)||3.3.1: [Li(THF)]3[Ln(pinF)3(THF)] (Ln = Ce, Eu) Comparison||3.3.2: Reduction Potentials||Chapter 4: Conclusion||Appendix||Reference