AtomsMasher: Personal Reactive Automation for the Web

The rise of "Web 2.0" has seen an explosion of web sites for the social sharing of personal information. To enable users to make valuable use of the rich yet fragmented sea of public, social, and personal information, data mashups emerged to provide a means for combining and filtering such information into coherent feeds and visualizations. In this paper we present AtomsMasher (AM), a new framework which extends data mashups into the realm of context-aware reactive behaviors. Reactive scripts in AM can be made to trigger automatically in response to changes in its world model derived from multiple web-based data feeds. By exposing a simple state-model abstraction and query language abstractions of data derived from heterogeneous web feeds through a simulation-based interactive script debugging environment, AM greatly simplifies the process of creating such automation in a way that is flexible, predictable, scalable and within the reach of everyday Web programmers

The United States and Japan: A Cross Cultural Analysis of Gender Roles and Intimate Relationships

This research looks at the relationship between gender roles and dating scripts among emerging adults (18-25) in the United States and Japan. If a relationship exists, how does it function? Research data was conducted from a variety of academic journals: Journal of Social Psychology, Asian Journal of Social Psychology, Journal of Sex Research, and others. This research deals with emerging adults within the U.S. and Japan to provide a cultural analysis of two unique cultures. A brief history of dating and intimate relationships is given for both cultures to show a change over time. Due to prior research in psychology, the terms dating scripts, proactive scripts, and reactive scripts are emphasized for American culture. The term Amae is used because of the cultural attachment for all types of relationships in Japan. This research finds that the dating scripts are reinforced on television in the U.S. In looking at gender differences, this research finds that men follow the proactive script, while women follow the reactive script within American culture. Within Japanese culture, Amae is essential for everyday relationships and particularly important in regards to dating. While dating is gendered in the United States, it is not in Japan. Understanding dating among emerging adults within both cultures can lead to further understanding of gender roles, as well as ways in which people interact

Best Practices in Consent Education: An Analysis

The need for sexual assault prevention work on college campuses is largely accepted; however, higher education and student affairs professionals continue to debate the best way to do this work. In this analysis, I explore sex-neutral, sex-positive, and punitive foci for sexual assault prevention and consent education. After analyzing the effectiveness of each of these foci, I suggest that sexual assault prevention and consent education on college campuses cannot be limited to only reactive strategies. I provide examples of tactics that different functional areas can utilize as well as examples from my own work in student affairs. Expanding the focus of sexual assault prevention and consent education will require student affairs professionals across functional areas to take on more responsibility for this important work. I conclude by advocating for the creation of a specific personnel position to oversee sexual assault prevention and consent on campus

Data parsing for optimized molecular geometry calculations

The purpose of this project is to optimize and streamline to process of using ADF and ReaxFF. There is no efficient way to effectively add constraints to a compound and run it through ADF, take the ADF output and create a file that can be run through Reaxff, then take that Reaxff output and come to conclusions on it. To streamline this process, scripts were developed using Python to parse information out of data generated by ADF

Transcriptomic footprints disclose specificity of reactive oxygen species signaling in Arabidopsis

Reactive oxygen species ( ROS) are key players in the regulation of plant development, stress responses, and programmed cell death. Previous studies indicated that depending on the type of ROS ( hydrogen peroxide, superoxide, or singlet oxygen) or its subcellular production site ( plastidic, cytosolic, peroxisomal, or apoplastic), a different physiological, biochemical, and molecular response is provoked. We used transcriptome data generated from ROS-related microarray experiments to assess the specificity of ROS-driven transcript expression. Data sets obtained by exogenous application of oxidative stress-causing agents ( methyl viologen, Alternaria alternata toxin, 3-aminotriazole, and ozone) and from a mutant ( fluorescent) and transgenic plants, in which the activity of an individual antioxidant enzyme was perturbed ( catalase, cytosolic ascorbate peroxidase, and copper/zinc superoxide dismutase), were compared. In total, the abundance of nearly 26,000 transcripts of Arabidopsis ( Arabidopsis thaliana) was monitored in response to different ROS. Overall, 8,056, 5,312, and 3,925 transcripts showed at least a 3-, 4-, or 5- fold change in expression, respectively. In addition to marker transcripts that were specifically regulated by hydrogen peroxide, superoxide, or singlet oxygen, several transcripts were identified as general oxidative stress response markers because their steady-state levels were at least 5- fold elevated in most experiments. We also assessed the expression characteristics of all annotated transcription factors and inferred new candidate regulatory transcripts that could be responsible for orchestrating the specific transcriptomic signatures triggered by different ROS. Our analysis provides a framework that will assist future efforts to address the impact of ROS signals within environmental stress conditions and elucidate the molecular mechanisms of the oxidative stress response in plants

A Closer Look at Relational Aggression

This research examines relational aggression and its increasing prominence in our culture today, specifically with school-aged children. Relational aggression, behaviors that inflict harm through manipulating, damaging, or controlling of relationships, has been proven to be an issue, but it is not easily recognized. Research has found a majority of schools do not mention relational aggression in their bullying contracts. Rather, schools focus on physical aggression, which leads to uneducated students and adults on the issue examined. This research discusses the definition, affects, causes, and needed preventions of relational aggression. Studies found that many aspects of an individual’s life work together to create relationally aggressive tendencies. This research looks at those aspects closely in attempts to educate and implement prevention plans for school-aged children