Poster Session

Video provided is of MacKenzie Paul\u27s presentation. Abstracts Humanities Emma Beeler, Mississippi University for Women Adultery and Fidelity in the Lais of Marie de France Using both literary and historical analysis, I will examine contrasting depictions of adultery and fidelity within the lais written by 12th-century poet Marie de France. A lai is a type of narrative poem, ranging in length from 118 to 1184 lines. Many of Marie de France’s lais follow the literary trope known as courtly love; however, the reader is encouraged to sympathize with different characters depending on the lai. In some lais, the reader is encouraged to sympathize with the adulterous spouse, and in others, with the faithful spouse. To understand these different depictions, I will consider Medieval marriage law, church doctrine, and social factors, as well as literary aspects of the lais. Social Sciences Maddison Caldwell, Northeast Mississippi Community College Parenting Styles: Effects on Lifelong Growth This project will examine parenting styles and how each can affect lifelong development. The parenting styles authoritative, authoritarian, permissive, and uninvolved will be explored. This project will require extensive analysis through different studies and scholarly articles. Parenting styles affect a child’s behavior, social competence, personality, well-being, and career choices. A parent’s choice of a parenting style affects their child their whole entire life. The authoritative parenting style was found to be the most beneficial style that can be used by a parent, while the authoritarian style was prone to cause conflict within the family. When the permissive parenting style is used, children were found to not set boundaries for themselves. Lasty, the uninvolved parenting styles causes relationship difficulties the child inhibits. I will also include a graph to show and explain how the different styles affect different aspects of life. This project clearly explains the four parenting styles and how they affect lifelong development throughout a child’s life. MacKenzie Paul, Mississippi State University To Sweeten or Not to Sweeten: The Unique Impact of Emotional Support and Fatalism on Sugar Consumption Among Southeastern Native Americans In 2020, 14.8% of Mississippi adults and 12.6% of Louisiana adults reported having diabetes, as compared to the national average of 10.8%. Furthermore, Native Americans of Mississippi and Louisiana experience disproportionately higher diabetes prevalence at 38% and 34% respectively. Research has shown that excessive sugar consumption is associated with an increased risk of developing type-2 diabetes. Psychosocial variables such as chronic disease fatalism and emotional support may also influence diabetes self-care behaviors including food consumption patterns like sugar intake. Therefore, the objective of this study is to examine the impact of emotional support and fatalism on sugar consumption among Southeastern Native Americans. The Mississippi INBRE Telenutrition Center Community Health Assessment Survey was utilized to survey 368 adults from Mississippi and Louisiana. Eighty-one of the participants, who self-identified as Native American, were included in the study. A hierarchal linear regression analysis showed that increased emotional support was significantly related with reduced sugar consumption (β = -0.307, p = 0.004), and increased fatalism was significantly associated with elevated sugar consumption (β = 0.286, p = 0.007). More research is necessary to substantiate this relationship among a broader Southeastern Native American population and identify potential implications for diabetes management in this disparate group. STEM Shirli Salihaj, Mississippi University for Women Surface Reconstruction via the Curvature Interpolation Method The surface reconstruction for scattered data becomes a problem as the number of sample points increases to construct a continuous function that satisfies given conditions in three dimensions (3D). However, it is known that this problem does not have a definite solution and therefore requires numerical approximations. This project studies the Curvature Interpolation Method with Iterative Refinement (IR-CIM), an innovative algorithm that produces smooth and reliable surfaces from 3D point cloud data. I use pre-collected data by Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) technology and MATLAB to perform digital image processing. I first study interpolation on 2D data and then practice with 3D data sets with simple interpolation methods to practice the implementation of IR-CIM for LiDAR data. The research objective is to compare the efficiency and accuracy of the IR-CIM with the inverse distance weighting method. Furthermore, I will verify that the IR-CIM outperforms the inverse distance weighting method and show that it is a good alternative to replace the outdated algorithm when processing LiDAR data. Sara Lynn Sligh, Mississippi University for Women Effects of Chloride Ion Channel Activators on CFTR Expression The purpose of this research is to determine the effects of newly synthesized compounds, which have shown the ability to function as chloride ion channel activators, on the expression of Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane-conductance Regulator (CFTR), a protein found within Cystic Fibrosis Bronchial Epithelial (CFBE) cells. Mutations in the CFTR protein cause the genetic disease Cystic Fibrosis (CF). To conduct this research, a tissue culture utilizing three main cell lines is being performed. The three main cell lines are CFBE-wild type, CFBE-ΔF508, and CFBE-41ø. CFBE-wildtype contains the normal, functional CFTR protein. CFBE-ΔF508 contains the nonfunctional CFTR protein as well as the mutation that is responsible for over 70% of CF cases. CFBE-41ø is the parental cell line and will function as a negative control. The main method used to determine the effects of the new compounds is Immunofluorescence Cytochemistry. Through this method, images are generated that identify the location of CFTR within the cell while maintaining the cell’s integrity. These experiments are being run weekly to generate data via images captured by an immunofluorescent microscope. Stephen Trest, Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College The Bonnet Carre Spillway and Its Effects on South Mississippi\u27s Economy The Bonnet Carre Spillway is a flood control system located in Saint Charles Parish, Louisiana. In recent years, this spillway has been opened longer and more often than it had in the past. As a result, there has been a much larger quantity of fresh water in the Mississippi Sound, and this has killed a large quantity of marine life. This seriously impacts our local fishing economy. Many fishers have had to take entire seasons off because it would not be profitable to operate in these conditions. On top of the effects on fishing, the excess fresh water contributes to the flesh-eating bacteria outbreak which has plagued our beaches for years. 2019 was the first time in history that the Bonnet Carre was opened twice in one year, and it was also a particularly bad year for flesh-eating bacteria on our beaches; tourism is a major industry on the coast, and the beach is the main reason for that. We need a healthy Mississippi Sound for our coastal economy to thrive, and the repeated flooding of fresh water through the Bonnet Carre is negatively affecting that. Since flooding New Orleans is not an option, I will go over the other possible solution: restoring the Mississippi River Delta

Determinants of Arsenicosis Patients’ Perception and Social Implications of Arsenic Poisoning through Groundwater in Bangladesh

Adverse human health effects ranging from skin lesions to internal cancers as well as widespread social and psychological problems caused by arsenic contaminated drinking water in Bangladesh may be the biggest arsenic calamity in the world. From an arsenicosis patients survey, this paper empirically analyzes the determinants of arsenicosis patients’ perception about chronic arsenic poisoning and social and psychological implications of arsenicosis. In this study, cross-sectional data were collected from the Matlab and Hajiganj Upzillas of Chandpur district which are known to be highly contaminated with arsenic in their underground water. Respondents informed that arsenic poisoning causes a wide range of social and psychological problems. Female respondents were less vulnerable in the case of social problems (p < 0.01) and more vulnerable for the psychological problems (p < 0.001) of arsenicosis than male respondents. The results based on logit analysis showed that education (p < 0.01) and household income (p < 0.05) were significantly correlated to respondents’ perception about arsenicosis. The arsenicosis related special program (s) needs a clear understanding of people’s perception about arsenic exposure for abating the health burden as well as social and psychological problems

Post-natal parental care in a Cretaceous diapsid from northeastern China

Post-natal parental care seems to have evolved numerous times in vertebrates. Among extant amniotes, it is present in crocodilians, birds, and mammals. However, evidence of this behavior is extremely rare in the fossil record and is only reported for two types of dinosaurs, and a varanopid ‘pelycosaur’. Here we report new evidence for post-natal parental care in Philydrosaurus, a choristodere, from the Yixian Formation of western Liaoning Province, China. We review the fossil record of reproduction in choristoderes, and this represents the oldest record of post-natal parental care in diapsids to our knowledge

Science Programs for a 2 m-class Telescope at Dome C, Antarctica: PILOT, the Pathfinder for an International Large Optical Telescope

The cold, dry and stable air above the summits of the Antarctic plateau provides the best ground-based observing conditions from optical to sub-mm wavelengths to be found on the Earth. PILOT is a proposed 2 m telescope, to be built at Dome C in Antarctica, able to exploit these conditions for conducting astronomy at optical and infrared wavelengths. While PILOT is intended as a pathfinder towards the construction of future grand-design facilities, it will also be able to undertake a range of fundamental science investigations in its own right. This paper provides the performance specifications for PILOT, including its instrumentation. It then describes the kinds of science projects that it could best conduct. These range from planetary science to the search for other solar systems, from star formation within the Galaxy to the star formation history of the Universe, and from gravitational lensing caused by exo-planets to that produced by the cosmic web of dark matter. PILOT would be particularly powerful for wide-field imaging at infrared wavelengths, achieving near-diffraction limited performance with simple tip-tilt wavefront correction. PILOT would also be capable of near-diffraction limited performance in the optical wavebands, as well be able to open new wavebands for regular ground based observation; in the mid-IR from 17 to 40 microns and in the sub-mm at 200 microns.Comment: 74 pages, 14 figures, PASA, in pres

The relationship between consumer ethnocentrism, cosmopolitanism and product country image among younger generation consumers: the moderating role of country development status

Although the differences between developed and developing countries have been extensively studied in the context of globalization strategies, few studies have so far been conducted on the relationship between country development status and the possession by countries of a favorable (or unfavorable) product country image (PCI). Moreover, the results of such studies to date have been inconclusive. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the moderating role of country developmental status on PCI coupled with two antecedents of PCI, namely consumer ethnocentrism and cosmopolitanism. The paper also distinguishes between the PCI of the home and foreign country images of respondents. We test a new model that incorporates these constructs with a sample of 2655 younger generation consumers. The results show that country development status moderates some relationships but does not moderate others. These findings have significant implications for international companies from both developed and developing countries when developing global strategy

Amazonian Amphibian Diversity Is Primarily Derived from Late Miocene Andean Lineages

The Neotropics contains half of remaining rainforests and Earth's largest reservoir of amphibian biodiversity. However, determinants of Neotropical biodiversity (i.e., vicariance, dispersals, extinctions, and radiations) earlier than the Quaternary are largely unstudied. Using a novel method of ancestral area reconstruction and relaxed Bayesian clock analyses, we reconstructed the biogeography of the poison frog clade (Dendrobatidae). We rejected an Amazonian center-of-origin in favor of a complex connectivity model expanding over the Neotropics. We inferred 14 dispersals into and 18 out of Amazonia to adjacent regions; the Andes were the major source of dispersals into Amazonia. We found three episodes of lineage dispersal with two interleaved periods of vicariant events between South and Central America. During the late Miocene, Amazonian, and Central American-Chocoan lineages significantly increased their diversity compared to the Andean and Guianan-Venezuelan-Brazilian Shield counterparts. Significant percentage of dendrobatid diversity in Amazonia and Chocó resulted from repeated immigrations, with radiations at <10.0 million years ago (MYA), rather than in situ diversification. In contrast, the Andes, Venezuelan Highlands, and Guiana Shield have undergone extended in situ diversification at near constant rate since the Oligocene. The effects of Miocene paleogeographic events on Neotropical diversification dynamics provided the framework under which Quaternary patterns of endemism evolved

High Diversity, Low Disparity and Small Body Size in Plesiosaurs (Reptilia, Sauropterygia) from the Triassic–Jurassic Boundary

Invasion of the open ocean by tetrapods represents a major evolutionary transition that occurred independently in cetaceans, mosasauroids, chelonioids (sea turtles), ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs. Plesiosaurian reptiles invaded pelagic ocean environments immediately following the Late Triassic extinctions. This diversification is recorded by three intensively-sampled European fossil faunas, spanning 20 million years (Ma). These provide an unparalleled opportunity to document changes in key macroevolutionary parameters associated with secondary adaptation to pelagic life in tetrapods. A comprehensive assessment focuses on the oldest fauna, from the Blue Lias Formation of Street, and nearby localities, in Somerset, UK (Earliest Jurassic: 200 Ma), identifying three new species representing two small-bodied rhomaleosaurids (Stratesaurus taylori gen et sp. nov.; Avalonnectes arturi gen. et sp. nov) and the most basal plesiosauroid, Eoplesiosaurus antiquior gen. et sp. nov. The initial radiation of plesiosaurs was characterised by high, but short-lived, diversity of an archaic clade, Rhomaleosauridae. Representatives of this initial radiation were replaced by derived, neoplesiosaurian plesiosaurs at small-medium body sizes during a more gradual accumulation of morphological disparity. This gradualistic modality suggests that adaptive radiations within tetrapod subclades are not always characterised by the initially high levels of disparity observed in the Paleozoic origins of major metazoan body plans, or in the origin of tetrapods. High rhomaleosaurid diversity immediately following the Triassic-Jurassic boundary supports the gradual model of Late Triassic extinctions, mostly predating the boundary itself. Increase in both maximum and minimum body length early in plesiosaurian history suggests a driven evolutionary trend. However, Maximum-likelihood models suggest only passive expansion into higher body size categories

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals &lt;1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data