071— Geneseo COVID-19 Study Group V: Long-Term Pharmaceutical Strategies and Prevention of COVID-19

A vaccine is a form of weakened or killed virus that is inserted in the body in the method of an injection. Some vaccines, such as the COVID-19 vaccine, contain only a part of the virus. This stimulates the immune system to produce immunity to a specific disease instead of first experiencing the disease to build that protection. The COVID-19 vaccine is a messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine that directs our cells how to make a specific protein (“spike protein”) to trigger an immune response inside our body, thus producing antibodies which protect us against COVID-19 particles. Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson are the authorized vaccines currently in distribution. Looking ahead, public health structures worldwide will continue to implement safety measures and track disease trends in order to protect the health of the human population. There are many steps being taken in the right direction with regards to vaccine distribution, testing, pharmaceuticals, treatment and policy. However, it will take the cooperation of all people to choose healthy behaviors such as masking, social distancing, and getting vaccinated, in order to achieve a state in which we may be safe to continue our lives as normal

“Extreme" porn? The implications of a label

Despite its prevalence, the term ‘extreme’ has received little critical attention. ‘Extremity’ is routinely employed in ways that imply its meanings are self-evident. However, the adjective itself offers no such clarity. This article focuses on one particular use of the term – ‘extreme porn’ – in order to illustrate a broader set of concerns about the pitfalls of labelling. The label ‘extreme’ is typically employed as a substitute for engaging with the term’s supposed referents (here, pornographic content). In its contemporary usage, ‘extreme’ primarily refers to a set of context-dependent judgements rather than absolute standards or any specific properties the ‘extreme’ item is alleged to have. Concurrently then, the label ‘extreme’ carries a host of implicit values, and the presumption that the term’s meanings are ‘obvious’ obfuscates those values. In the case of ‘extreme porn’, this obfuscation is significant because it has facilitated the cultural and legal suppression of pornography

192 -- Identification and Classification of Changes in Protein Expression and Localization Associated with Epithelial to Mesenchymal Transitions in Human Vulvar Carcinomas after Exposure to the Glucocorticoid Analog, Clobetasol

It has been well established that decreases in cellular adhesions are associated with progression of squamous cell carcinomas to a malignant state. We have found that clobetasol treatment of A431 cells results in the initial loss of E-cadherin preceded by the gain of vimentin expression. Our system provides an inducible model to study this process. During clobetasol induced EMT in the A431 cells the expression of vimentin increases, but the cells do not lose expression of their cytokeratin molecules. Using Raman spectroscopy, we can identify key changes in metabolites associated with EMT between the A431 cells that respond to clobetasol and those that do not. In addition, we can identify earlier time points indicative of changes induced by clobetasol that lead to EMT. Comparison of the untreated and treated cells using Raman spectroscopy will allow us to identify EMT of the clobetasol treated cells much earlier than we are now capable of doing using detection of E-cadherin and vimentin expression by immunofluorescence microscopy. Ultimately this will aid us in dissecting out the signaling pathway between clobetasol and loss of E-cadherin/gain of vimentin expression as well as identify characteristics that enable some cells to escape clobetasol induced EMT. Comparing the results found from these cells with cells expressing only cytokeratins or vimentin, respectively, can then be used for insight into how each influences the cellular architecture in cases where these subcellular molecules are coexpressed, namely in cells undergoing an epithelial to mesenchymal transition