Spark Gap

Spark Gap is an invisible electrical force made visible in spaces between things. This usually describes the space of air between two conductors; a non-conductive gap in an otherwise complete electric circuit, across which a quick luminous disruptive electrical discharge occurs. This interstitial space is the distance between two ideas, arced with a running leap. The arc can also be the difference between two things, a gap that becomes apparent only when the two are held in close proximity. In my thesis exhibition, Spark Gap, a sea urchin shaped orb sits atop a tower of ladders. The orb is broken into five sections and reassembled, each fault line occurring along the perfect zigzag line of its cellular structure. On the floor, there is a linen shag rug, marked as if struck by lightning. This exhibition is named for an interstitial charge, arcing across distance or difference. But this charge is also found in intersections and similarities. Imagine the friction created by rubbing together the circles of a Venn diagram: the overlapping section would begin to spark. It is in these gaps and overlaps that I find the impetus for my work

Whose Art Museum? Immersive Gaming as Irruption

This paper introduces Mantles in the Museum, an immersive game that helps ameliorate student discomfort in art museums and to support discourse in, through, and around art museums. Within the game the students take on the roles of critics who use one of five interpretive frameworks, often differing from the student’s own, to select works from a real museum to go to an international exhibition. Assuming these roles empowers students to be in the museum and to assess the works, students are given leave to engage in a vigorous critique process and to examine the art-world from a new perspective

XFEB, A Direct Target of ZIC1, is Involved in Neural Crest Development

The peripheral nervous system, melanocytes and craniofacial cartilage and bone arise from neural crest cells that develop during early embryonic neural development. Transcription and signaling factors form a network to regulate this development. For example, it has been shown that Zic1 and Pax3 in conjunction are able to induce full neural crest cell development (Monsoro-Burq et al., 2005). Xfeb and Gbx2 also play roles during neural crest cell development as they are present in the same regions and developmental stages as the neural crest (Plouhinec et al., 2014; Li et al., 2009). A microarray identified Xfeb as a direct, downstream target of Zic1 (Li et al., 2006). An additional lab also identified Xfeb as a neural crest gene induced by Zic1 (Plouhinec et al., 2014). We hypothesize that Pax3, Xfeb, Gbx2 and Zic1 are all part of the same gene regulatory network controlling neural crest development. To investigate the relationship between the Xfeb, Pax3, Gbx2, and Zic1 genes, we first upregulated Xfeb gene expression with sense RNA and down regulated Xfeb gene expression with morpholino oligonucleotides (MO). We used in situ hybridization to visualize neural crest induction by staining for Slug RNA expression, a known neural crest marker. Our results showed that embryos injected with Xfeb sense RNA expanded Slug expression while those injected with Xfeb MO diminished Slug expression. Given other labs’ results suggesting that Zic1 plus Pax3 or Zic1 plus Gbx2 induced ectopic Slug expression, we will determine whether Xfeb plus Pax3 or Xfeb plus Gbx2 genes can induce ectopic Slug expression. These experiments will allow us to determine whether Xfeb acts in neural crest induction and will allow us to place Xfeb into the gene regulatory network that drives neural crest development

White Men in White coats: Children’s Attributions of Scientific Knowledge based on Race and Gender

Children use others’ characteristics (e.g., intelligence and niceness) to evaluate how much a person knows (Landrum et al., 2016). However, little is known about how gender and race influence children\u27s perception of adults\u27 scientific knowledge. The current study examined how children ages 5-8 (N = 25; 11 girls, 14 boys) perceive adults’ scientific knowledge. In the first task, children saw 8 different adults of varying race and gender (White man, White woman, Black man, Black woman) and rated their knowledge using a five-point scale. Children then chose one person out of two adults who they thought knew more about a scientific topic across 12 trials. In the last task, children saw 4 different adults of varying race and gender and chose which person was the scientist. Preliminary analyses showed no significant differences between children’s knowledge ratings and selection of Black and White men and women. However, children chose White men as scientists in the greatest proportion of trials. The current study will expand our understanding of how children’s perception of an adult’s scientific knowledge is impacted by the adults’ race and gender

Antithrombin attenuates myocardial dysfunction and reverses systemic fluid accumulation following burn and smoke inhalation injury: a randomized, controlled, experimental study

Introduction: We hypothesized that maintaining physiological plasma levels of antithrombin attenuates myocardial dysfunction and inflammation as well as vascular leakage associated with burn and smoke inhalation injury. Therefore, the present prospective, randomized experiment was conducted using an established ovine model. Methods: Following 40% of total body surface area, third degree flame burn and 4 × 12 breaths of cold cotton smoke, chronically instrumented sheep were randomly assigned to receive an intravenous infusion of 6 IU/kg/h recombinant human antithrombin (rhAT) or normal saline (control group; n = 6 each). In addition, six sheep were designated as sham animals (not injured, continuous infusion of vehicle). During the 48 h study period the animals were awake, mechanically ventilated and fluid resuscitated according to standard formulas. Results: Compared to the sham group, myocardial contractility was severely impaired in control animals, as suggested by lower stroke volume and left ventricular stroke work indexes. As a compensatory mechanism, heart rate increased, thereby increasing myocardial oxygen consumption. In parallel, myocardial inflammation was induced via nitric oxide production, neutrophil accumulation (myeloperoxidase activity) and activation of the p38-mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway resulting in cytokine release (tumor necrosis factor-alpha, interleukin-6) in control vs. sham animals. rhAT-treatment significantly attenuated these inflammatory changes leading to a myocardial contractility and myocardial oxygen consumption comparable to sham animals. In control animals, systemic fluid accumulation progressively increased over time resulting in a cumulative positive fluid balance of about 4,000 ml at the end of the study period. Contrarily, in rhAT-treated animals there was only an initial fluid accumulation until 24 h that was reversed back to the level of sham animals during the second day. Conclusions: Based on these findings, the supplementation of rhAT may represent a valuable therapeutic approach for cardiovascular dysfunction and inflammation after burn and smoke inhalation injury.<br

Exploring the Life Course Perspective in Maternal and Child Health through Community-Based Participatory Focus Groups: Social Risks Assessment

Little is known about the patterns of risk factors experienced by communities of color and how diverse community contexts shape the health trajectory of women from the early childhood period to the time of their pregnancies. Thus, we conducted a focus group study to identify social risks over the life course that contribute to maternal and child health from the perspective of community members residing in low income urban areas. Ten community-based participatory focus groups were conducted with residents from selected communities in Tampa, Florida, from September to November 2013. We used the life course perspective to illuminate and explain the experiences reported by the interviewees. A total of 78 residents participated in the focus groups. Children and adolescents’ health risks were childhood obesity, lack of physical activity, and low self-esteem. Women’s health risks were low self-esteem, low educational level, low health literacy, inadequate parenting skills, and financial problems. Risks during pregnancy included stress, low self-esteem, inadequate eating patterns, lack of physical activity, healthcare issues, lack of social support, and lack of father involvement during pregnancy. Multiple risk factors contribute to maternal and child health in low income communities in Tampa Bay. The intersection of risk factors in different life periods suggest possible pathways, cumulative, and latent effects, which must be considered in future longitudinal studies and when developing effective maternal and child health programs and policies

Diamond Surface Functionalization via Visible Light-Driven C-H Activation for Nanoscale Quantum Sensing

Nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond are a promising platform for nanoscale nuclear magnetic resonance sensing. Despite significant progress towards using NV centers to detect and localize nuclear spins down to the single spin level, NV-based spectroscopy of individual, intact, arbitrary target molecules remains elusive. NV molecular sensing requires that target molecules are immobilized within a few nanometers of NV centers with long spin coherence time. The inert nature of diamond typically requires harsh functionalization techniques such as thermal annealing or plasma processing, limiting the scope of functional groups that can be attached to the surface. Solution-phase chemical methods can be more readily generalized to install diverse functional groups, but they have not been widely explored for single-crystal diamond surfaces. Moreover, realizing shallow NV centers with long spin coherence times requires highly ordered single-crystal surfaces, and solution-phase functionalization has not yet been shown to be compatible with such demanding conditions. In this work, we report a versatile strategy to directly functionalize C-H bonds on single-crystal diamond surfaces under ambient conditions using visible light. This functionalization method is compatible with charge stable NV centers within 10 nm of the surface with spin coherence times comparable to the state of the art. As a proof of principle, we use shallow ensembles of NV centers to detect nuclear spins from functional groups attached to the surface. Our approach to surface functionalization based on visible light-driven C-H bond activation opens the door to deploying NV centers as a broad tool for chemical sensing and single-molecule spectroscopy