The Effects of Psychopathic Personality Factors and Gender on Substance Use, Depression, and Anxiety

From the Washington University Office of Undergraduate Research Digest (WUURD), Vol. 12, 05-01-2017. Published by the Office of Undergraduate Research. Joy Zalis Kiefer, Director of Undergraduate Research and Associate Dean in the College of Arts & Sciences; Lindsey Paunovich, Editor; Helen Human, Programs Manager and Assistant Dean in the College of Arts and Sciences Mentor: Deanna M. Barc

Auto-Theory as an Emerging Mode of Feminist Practice Across Media

Joan Hawkins describes Chris Kraus’s I Love Dick (1998) as “theoretical fiction,” meaning not simply fiction informed by theory but fiction in which “theory becomes an intrinsic part of the ‘plot,’ a mover and shaker in the fictional universe created by the author.” In similar fashion, Maggie Nelson’s The Argonauts (2015) and Paul B. Preciado’s Testo Junkie (2008) have been described as auto-theory, though this term has not yet been defined. My dissertation seeks to define and historicize this emerging mode of feminist practice, contextualizing it in light of the history of feminist performance art and conceptualism; African-American feminist artist Adrian Piper’s durational performance piece Food for the Spirit (1971) becomes an entry point for my discussion of auto-theory as a mode of feminist practice. This paper will provide an introduction to the framework and key concepts through which I approach “auto-theory”: a trans-medial, feminist and queer feminist practice that manifests across fiction, critical writing, sound, film, video, art writing and criticism, and performance art. In auto-theory, theorized personal anecdotes or embodied actions constellate with fragments from the history of philosophy to form potent analyses of gender, politics, academia, and contemporary art. Embodied experience becomes the primary material for generating theory, foregrounding disclosure and ambivalence as that which enhances critical rigour and relevance; this move is fundamentally feminist, even as many of these writers and artists openly problematize the feminist position. These writers have internalized such feminist precepts as “the personal is political” and have adjusted them according to new contexts. As postmodern subjects working in the wake of modernism—a long century in which the male-dominated spheres of literature and theory upheld “distance” and “disinterestedness” over emotionality or transparent investment— these artists and writers trouble the tenets of both the modernist canon as well as the younger canon of postmodern feminism

Take Care

''The exhibition series’ political proposition, kept in play throughout, pivots on care as a possible nodal point among actions, struggles, and visions that “re-place” care “as an arche of human existence and of social relations.” [4] In its organizing strategies, Take Care strives to take on the challenges posed by its program: to rethink affective dimensions of (curatorial) labour; decentre individual authorship; profile radical communities of care; reallocate cultural and institutional resources; cut through apathy and empathy; practice collective resiliency; respect existing initiatives and historical precedents; and generate new bonds. Take Care is, in short, a connective project.'' -- Publisher's websit

Crystal structure of the Nogo-receptor-2

The inhibition of axon regeneration upon mechanical injury is dependent on interactions between Nogo receptors (NgRs) and their myelin-derived ligands. NgRs are composed of a leucine-rich repeat (LRR) region, thought to be structurally similar among the different isoforms of the receptor, and a divergent “stalk” region. It has been shown by others that the LRR and stalk regions of NgR1 and NgR2 have distinct roles in conferring binding affinity to the myelin associated glycoprotein (MAG) in vivo . Here, we show that purified recombinant full length NgR1 and NgR2 maintain significantly higher binding affinity for purified MAG as compared to the isolated LRR region of either NgR1 or NgR2. We also present the crystal structure of the LRR and part of the stalk regions of NgR2 and compare it to the previously reported NgR1 structure with respect to the distinct signaling properties of the two receptor isoforms.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/83453/1/597_ftp.pd

Fermenting Feminism

"Fermenting Feminism brings together artists whose work responds to what it means to bring fermentation and feminism into the same critical space. These are works that approach fermentation through intersectional and trans-inclusive feminist frameworks, and works that approach feminisms through the metaphor and material practice of fermentation. As both a metaphor and a physical process, fermentation embodies bioavailability and accessibility, preservation and transformation, inter-species symbiosis and coevolution, biodiversity and futurity, harm reduction and care." -- p. [1]

Predicting circulating CA125 levels among healthy premenopausal women

Background: Cancer antigen 125 (CA125) is the most promising ovarian cancer screening biomarker to date. Multiple studies reported CA125 levels vary by personal characteristics, which could inform personalized CA125 thresholds. However, this has not been well described in premenopausal women. Methods: We evaluated predictors of CA125 levels among 815 premenopausal women from the New England Case Control Study (NEC). We developed linear and dichotomous (≥35 U/mL) CA125 prediction models and externally validated an abridged model restricting to available predictors among 473 premenopausal women in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition Study (EPIC). Results: The final linear CA125 prediction model included age, race, tubal ligation, endometriosis, menstrual phase at blood draw, and fibroids, which explained 7% of the total variance of CA125. The correlation between observed and predicted CA125 levels based on the abridged model (including age, race, and menstrual phase at blood draw) had similar correlation coefficients in NEC (r = 0.22) and in EPIC (r = 0.22). The dichotomous CA125 prediction model included age, tubal ligation, endometriosis, prior personal cancer diagnosis, family history of ovarian cancer, number of miscarriages, menstrual phase at blood draw, and smoking status with AUC of 0.83. The abridged dichotomous model (including age, number of miscarriages, menstrual phase at blood draw, and smoking status) showed similar AUCs in NEC (0.73) and in EPIC (0.78). Conclusions: We identified a combination of factors associated with CA125 levels in premenopausal women. Impact: Our model could be valuable in identifying healthy women likely to have elevated CA125 and consequently improve its specificity for ovarian cancer screening

Testing the relative sensitivity of 102 ecological variables as indicators of woodland condition in the New Forest, UK.

Forests globally are facing an increasing number of threats from modified disturbance regimes, novel stressors and changing environmental conditions. This has ultimately resulted in declines in the ecological condition of many forest and woodland ecosystems, leading to widespread tree mortality and stand dieback. Effective indicators of overall woodland ecological condition are therefore needed for environmental monitoring and to support management responses. To test the effectiveness of different variables that could potentially be used as indicators of woodland condition, 102 variables that describe woodland structure, composition, functioning, edaphic conditions and disturbance regimes were assessed along 12 replicate gradients of beech stand dieback. Results indicated that 35 variables differed significantly between at least two stages of the dieback gradient, indicating their sensitivity to stand dieback. Seven of these indicators related to woodland species composition, two to functional processes, 20 to structural features, four to edaphic conditions, and two to disturbance regimes. These results demonstrate that effective indicators can potentially be identified for each of the ecological categories. Effective composition indicators included species richness of ectomycorrhizal fungi, ground flora and epiphytic lichens; functional indicators were soil respiration rate and net nitrification rate; edaphic conditions included soil Na:Ca ratio, exchangeable sodium, total carbon, Ca:Al ratio; structural indicators included canopy openness, litter cover, sward height, and volume of deadwood, and for disturbance the indicator was Equus dung density. Other measures, such as shrub cover and species richness of carabid beetles and spiders, were not found to vary significantly along the dieback gradients, and were therefore not identified as effective indicators. These results demonstrate the value of gradient analysis for evaluating indicators of woodland condition, but also highlight the need for multi-site studies to identify indicators with widescale applicability