Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program

IMPACT. 1: Preparation of 250-300 tax returns annually; over 3,000 tax returns prepared since 2004 -- 2. Help taxpayers receive over $400,000 in refunds each year, with total Federal refunds generated of over$5 million since 2004 -- 3. 60-70 student volunteers annually, who devote close to 1,000 hours each year to training, certification, and volunteering in the program.OSU PARTNERS: Accounting & MIS Department, Fisher College of BusinessCOMMUNITY PARTNERS: Tax Time Coalition of Central Ohio; Godman Guild; United Way of Central OhioPRIMARY CONTACT: Stephanie Lewis ([email protected])The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program, sponsored by the IRS, offers free, high-quality tax help to people who generally make $54,000 or less. Fisher College of Business students in the Master of Accounting program and Beta Alpha Psi go through an extensive training process and become IRS-certified volunteers, enabling them to provide basic tax return preparation and e-filing services to taxpayers in the community

Using NMR Spectroscopy and Computational Chemistry to Confirm the Structure of Novel Antibiotic Nocamycin O

In recent years, many medically promising antibiotics have been discovered in nature, especially in insect-microbe symbioses. One of the better-studied examples of this kind of defensive relationship is that of fungus-growing ants and the antibiotic-producing Actinobacteria. These bacteria produce several defensive chemicals with myriad uses, including one antibiotic that inhibits the growth of several bacterial strains, including other Actinobacteria. This antibiotic (known as nocamycin O) is a promising candidate for medicinal use due to its similarities to bacterial RNA polymerase inhibitors tirandamycin and streptolydigin, which inhibit several human pathogens. The determination of the structure of nocamycin O will be an important first step toward determining its function and its potential utility in the medical field. This can be done efficiently and accurately using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR). NMR can be used on its own to attempt to solve the structure of a compound, or in tandem with virtual chemical shift calculations that act as a check to correct the experimentally-derived structure. Overall, NMR and chemical shift calculations have become integral components to biochemical and biomedical research because they make structure elucidation much easier. My research sought to confirm the structure of nocamycin O using prior NMR data for the compound, as well as novel 2D NMR data collected in MeOD and DMSO with complementary 13C-NMR spectrum calculations performed using DFT in Spartan ‘18. Comparative analysis of NMR spectra for nocamycin O and nocamycin I revealed key differences in chemical shift values; the carbon with the additional -OH in nocamycin O experienced a shift change of almost 40 ppm, while other carbons in the molecule showed a change of 5-10 ppm. These changes were likely due to a difference in nuclear environment at these positions, which was confirmed via the DFT calculations and ROESY spectrum

Competition and forgetting during context-based episodic memory retrieval

Recent memory models highlight the importance of contextual information for remembering episodic events. A consequence of binding event memories with their context is that contextually related memories can interfere with the retrieval of targeted memories, leading to retrieval induced forgetting (RIF) of the competing memories (Anderson et al., 2000). A model built to explain this effect describes a nonmonotonic “U shaped” relationship between memory activation and changes in memory strength (Norman et al., 2007). Specifically, competing memories that activate to a moderate degree (vs. low or high activation) are more likely to be weakened and forgotten. However, the factors governing whether and how memories will activate and compete during retrieval are not well understood. Here, we test the hypothesis that events experienced closer in time will be more likely to compete during memory retrieval, leading to RIF.Psycholog

The role of toll-like receptor 7 in the neuropathogenesis of retrovirus infection in neonates

Viral infections of the central nervous system (CNS) in infants are rare; however, they are associated with high morbidity and mortality rates. These virus infections often induce strong innate immune responses in the brain including: the production of cytokines and chemokines, the activation of astrocytes and microglia and the recruitment of macrophages. Innate immune responses are often initiated by toll-like receptors (TLR). Several studies have demonstrated that toll-like receptor 7 (TLR7) can be stimulated by single-stranded RNA from multiple viruses. In the current study, we examined the mechanism by which TLR7 contributes to neuroinflammation in the neonatal brain using a mouse model of polytropic retrovirus infection. We found that TLR7 deficiency had no effect on neurologic disease, viral replication, or induction of interferon beta mRNA. However, TLR7 deficiency significantly altered neuroinflammatory responses including proinflammatory cytokine production, astrocyte activation, and microglial/macrophage activation. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of the necessity of TLR7 for innate immune responses to retrovirus infection in vivo. Additionally, this indicates that the immune response to retrovirus in the CNS may not be essential for disease pathogenesis in neonates

An Examination of Citizens United: Where We\u27re Going and How We Got There

Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission (2010) has been touted as both champion and destroyer of First Amendment free speech rights. It remains a controversial decision of which we are only beginning to see its true effects. The case brought rise to the Super PACs commonly denounced in the media and the vast amount of money that comes with them. We have seen negative and positive campaign ads that candidates for election don’t have to answer to. In order to truly understand these effects, I examined the Supreme Court’s decision to determine its line of reasoning as well as media reactions to the case results. Many have expressed concern over a corporation’s ability to buy elections by using their monetary resources for political advertisements. Others have taken a more humorous approach to the case outcome in order to explain the new regulations, or lack thereof, to the general public. While it is still too early to tell just how much PACs could affect the election process, it is clear that there has been a large amount of money (over $88 million on the 2012 election cycle alone) spent on media (such as television and radio advertisements) related to candidates for political office. Most of these advertisements have been negative in hopes of dissuading voters from certain candidates. More in-depth research would be required to determine how effective these ads are and ultimately how much of a true effect the extra money has made on the system

Exploring Neonatal Intensive Care Nurses’ Affective Responses to Providing End-of-Life Care

Significance. The Joint Commission established standards to evaluate comprehensive end-of-life infant care and the positive outcomes of such care are well documented. However, findings from multiple studies conducted over the last decade indicate that end-of-life care in the neonatal intensive care unit is not provided consistently or holistically to all dying infants. Because nurses are the healthcare professionals most often responsible for providing this care, anything that detracts from their ability to provide it, including their own affective responses, needs to be addressed. Aim. The purpose of this study was to explore—through lived and told stories—the affective, interactional, and meaning-related responses that NICU nurses have while caring for dying infants and their families. Sample, Design, and Methods. Neonatal intensive care nurses were recruited through the online membership discussion boards of the National Association of Neonatal Nurses. Participants were asked to access an online survey link and provide a written narrative describing an end-of-life care situation in which they experienced strong emotions. Demographic data also were collected. Findings. Narrative analysis revealed many affective responses, but three were the most frequent: responsibility, moral distress, and identification. Feelings of responsibility included (a) a commitment to deliver the best end-of-life care possible, (b) professional inadequacy, (c) disbelief, and d) advocacy. Feelings associated with moral distress were quite common and often related to conflicts between nurses, physicians, and families. Nurses reported feelings of identification with families of dying infants through (a) sharing their grief, (b) forming excess attachments, and (c) experiencing survivor-like guilt. Implications. Nurse educators are encouraged to discuss more extensively and perhaps through the use of simulation, the positive and negative emotions that may be experienced by nurses who are involved in end-of-life care situations. Nurse leaders are encouraged to promote supportive environments in NICUs and ensure debriefing opportunities for nurses who have recently cared for a dying infant. Significant associations, such as NICU nurses not perceiving their EOLC education as being helpful in providing that care clinically and the percentage of NICU nurses reporting the presence of an end-of-life care policy in their units of employment, also merit further examination

Gentlemen prefer modernism : \u27middlebrow\u27 culture and the transmutation of realism in the works of Louisa May Alcott, Edith Wharton, Willa Cather, and Fannie Hurst

This dissertation examines the emergence of a modernist aesthetic in early twentieth-century America and its effect on women writers, particularly those with allegiance to the nineteenth-century realist tradition fostered by William Dean Howellsand Henry James. A number of the anxieties about authorship and aesthetics expressed by early twentieth-century women writers have their roots in the nineteenth century, a period when more women began careers as writers; therefore, I analyze Louisa May Alcott as a nineteenth-century exemplar of the limitations imposed by Victorian gender constructions, particularly as they are informed by the ideology of women’s “influence.” Ialso consider the aesthetic limitations of the domestic and sentimental fiction genres on a woman\u27s desire for personal fulfillment as an artist. I argue that the onset of the modernist era does not erase the tensions between the notions of woman’s “appropriate cultural influence and artistic ambition, but it instead shifts the emphasis of women writers\u27 anxiety to aesthetic representation, especially as it concerns a move away from realism and into the mode of “transmutation,” an aesthetic propounded by Edith Whartonand continued in the work of Willa Gather and Fannie Hurst. Writers like Wharton,Gather, and Hurst are seldom classified as “modem”; they did write in a manner quite different from the most experimental narratives of their modernist contemporaries, andWharton and Gather in particular criticized modernist aesthetics. However, there are important parallels between the work of these women and the goals of the modernist movement that can offer insights into the complicated relationship between the emerging middlebrow” culture that consumed ever-growing numbers of popular and “literary texts and the literary critics who articulated “taste” for this culture in literary magazines,newspapers, and new formations like the “Book of the Month Club

Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli colonization of human colonic epithelium in vitro and ex vivo

Enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) are important foodborne pathogens causing gastroenteritis and more severe complications such as hemorrhagic colitis and hemolytic uremic syndrome. Pathology is most pronounced in the colon, but to date there is no direct clinical evidence showing EHEC binding to colonic epithelium in patients. In this study, we investigated EHEC adherence to the human colon by using in vitro organ culture (IVOC) of colonic biopsies and polarized T84 colon carcinoma cells. We showed for the first time that EHEC colonized human colonic biopsies by forming typical attaching/effacing (A/E) lesions which were dependent on EHEC type III secretion (T3S) and binding of the outer membrane protein intimin to the Translocated intimin receptor (Tir). A/E lesion formation was dependent on oxygen levels and suppressed under oxygen-rich culture conditions routinely used for IVOC. In contrast, EHEC adherence to polarized T84 cells occurred independently of T3S and intimin and did not involve Tir translocation into the host cell membrane. Neither colonization of biopsies nor T84 cells was significantly affected by expression of Shiga toxins. Our study suggests that EHEC colonize and form stable A/E lesions on the human colon which is likely to contribute to intestinal pathology during infection. Furthermore, care needs to be taken when using cell culture models as they might not reflect the in vivo situation