WEATHERING THE STORM: DIAGNOSTIC MONITORING FOR PREVENTIVE CONSERVATION AT SPRUCE TREE HOUSE, MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK, COLORADO

This paper examines Spruce Tree House, an alcovate site located in Mesa Verde National Park, as a model for monitoring the impacts of the natural environment on the deterioration of a unique collection of archaeological resources. At present, it is the only alcove site in the park that has been fully documented by park service archaeologists. In the past, preservation at Mesa Verde has focused on the minimal remedial stabilization of the prehistoric masonry structures. A comprehensive study of broad deterioration patterns across the alcovate sites in the park and the possible causes of these patterns has never been performed. Identifying common sources of deterioration site-wide has the potential to lead to a comprehensive maintenance plan that could slow deterioration through preventive as well as remedial actions, thereby protecting the resources and decreasing the amount of emergency rehabilitation work needed. Implementation of a monitoring program is the first step in this process, as it allows us to identify patterns and establish causality, leading eventually to non-invasive preventive and protective measures. This paper proposes that the presence of water is the main cause of deterioration at the site. A specific monitoring program has been put forth in order to verify that this is still an active problem at the site. The program includes the use of soil moisture meters, motion activated cameras and at least one weather station to record the external environmental conditions for comparison with occurrences within the alcove

Accelerated Weight Gain Among Children During Summer Versus School Year and Related Racial/Ethnic Disparities: A Systematic Review

Introduction: The objective of this study was to compile and summarize research examining variations in weight gain among students during the summer in comparison to the school year, with a focus on racial/ethnic disparities and students who are at risk of overweight. Methods: A systematic search of PubMed and Embase was conducted. Reference lists of identified articles and Google Scholar were also reviewed. Studies that assessed summer weight gain in school children were included. Inclusion criteria were: 1) a focus on children and adolescents aged 5 to 17 attending school; 2) a measured body composition before and after the summer vacation; 3) English-language articles; and 4) publication in a peer-reviewed journal since January 1, 1990. Data were extracted from selected studies in the following categories: study purpose, setting, study design, population, sample size, data collection method, and findings. Results: Seven eligible studies were included in the review. Six of the 7 studies reported accelerated summer weight gain for at least a portion of the study population, with an effect of summer on weight gain identified for the following subgroups: black, Hispanic, and overweight children and adolescents. Conclusion: There may be a trend in increased rate of weight gain during summer school vacation, particularly for high-risk groups, including certain racial/ethnic populations and overweight children and adolescents. Potential solutions for the problem of accelerated summer weight gain include greater access to recreational facilities, physical activity programming, and summer food programs. Further research in this area is needed as summer weight gain may exacerbate existing health disparities

A Typology of Positive and Negative Self-Interruptions in Voluntary Multitasking

Human multitasking is often the result of voluntary interruptions in the performance of an ongoing task. These selfinterruptionsoccur in the absence of external triggers such as alerts or notifications. Compared to externally inducedinterruptions, self-interruptions have not received enough research attention. To address this gap, this paper develops adetailed classification of self-interruptions arising from positive and negative feelings regarding task progress and prospectsof goal attainment. The validation of the proposed typology in an experimental multitasking environment with pre-definedtasks shows that negative feelings trigger more self-interruptions than positive feelings and that more self-interruptionsproduce more errors and lower accuracy in all tasks. Therefore, negative triggers of self-interruptions unleash a downwardspiral that ultimately affects performance

“When a Tornado Hits Your Life:” Exploring Cyber Sexual Abuse Survivors’ Perspectives on Recovery

Introduction: Forty-eight US states and 11 countries have enacted legislation criminalizingthe act of revenge porn, or cyber sexual abuse. This represents a shift in recognition ofthe effects of cyber sexual abuse, as survivors continue to face societal norms of victim-blaming. By capturing stories of individuals who consider having overcome their experienceof cyber sexual abuse, we aim to understand the process of recovery. Methods: We conductedqualitative interviews with 15 adults who indicated, through a digital eligibility form, that theyhad “overcome” their incident of cyber sexual abuse. Utilizing a grounded theory approach, theauthors coded the data, met to determine consistency, and arrived at consensus on the themes. Results: Analysis identified six themes, with the fourth theme characterizing the temporalrelationship between the first three and the last two: (1) Survivors exhibited externalized andinternalized stigma; (2) Survivors experienced varying levels of professionalism and supportfrom law enforcement and legal professionals; (3) A substantial burden on the survivor toeducate and explain about cyber sexual abuse; (4) The “Fuck it!” point: The point where thereis a noticeable shift in survivors’ attitudes and behaviors in their stories; (5) All survivors wereforced to become their own advocate, many an advocate for others; (6) Survivors embraced anacceptance of a “new normal. Discussion: Future research needs to focus on how changingstructured protocols and trainings can contribute to shifting the burden of blame in cases ofcyber sexual abuse from the survivor to the abuser

Toward a Psycholinguistic Model of Irony Comprehension

This dissertation examines how listeners reach pragmatic interpretations of irony in real-time. Over four experiments I addressed limitations of prior work by using fine-grained measures of time course, providing strong contexts to support ironic interpretations, and accounting for factors known to be important for other linguistic phenomena (e.g., frequency). Experiment 1 used a visual world eye-tracking paradigm to understand how comprehenders use context and frequency information to interpret irony. While there was an overall delay for ironic utterances compared to literal ones, the speed of interpretation was modulated by frequency. Participants interpreted frequent ironic criticisms (e.g., “fabulous chef” about a bad chef) more quickly than infrequent ironic compliments (e.g., “terrible chef” about a good chef). In Experiment 2A, I tested whether comprehending irony (i.e., drawing a pragmatic inference) differs from merely computing the opposite of an utterance. The results showed that frequency of interpretation (criticisms vs. compliments) did not influence processing speed or overall interpretations for opposites. Thus, processing irony involves more than simply evaluating the truth-value condition of an utterance (e.g., pragmatic inferences about the speaker’s intentions). This was corroborated by Experiment 2B, which showed that understanding irony involves drawing conclusions about speakers in a way that understanding opposites does not. Opposite speakers were considered weirder and more confusing than ironic speakers. Given the delay in reaching ironic interpretations (Exp. 1), Experiments 3 and 4 examined the cognitive mechanics that contribute to inhibiting a literal interpretation of an utterance and/or promoting an ironic one. Experiment 3 tested whether comprehending irony engages cognitive control to resolve among competing representations (literal vs. ironic). Results showed that hearing an ironic utterance engaged cognitive control, which then facilitated performance on a subsequent high-conflict Stroop trial. Thus, comprehenders experience conflict between the literal and ironic interpretations. In Experiment 4, however, irony interpretation was not facilitated by prior cognitive control engagement. This may reflect experimental limitations or late-arriving conflict. I end by presenting a model wherein access to the literal and ironic interpretations generates conflict that is resolved by cognitive control. In addition, frequency modulates cue strength and generates delays for infrequent ironic compliments

Production of a SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein Vaccine Using the Baculovirus Expression Vector System

Various COVID-19 vaccines are currently in development, as the COVID-19 pandemic has created an unmet need for protection against the SARS-CoV-2 virus. While there are many different types of vaccines, we focused on developing one that would be safe, affordable, and quickly available for emergency use. A vaccine synthesized using recombinant proteins utilizes a reliable and well-studied technological platform, avoids the safety risks inherent to viral vectors, and provides a cost-effective, scalable method of production of antigen used to induce an immune response. Other vaccines on the market notably include Pfizer’s and Moderna’s mRNA based vaccines. Although these are widely used, there is still a large demand for an inexpensive yet safe and effective vaccine. Herein, we propose the production of 500 million doses of a recombinant spike protein-based COVID-19 vaccine in a quick time frame and cost-effective manner, using the baculovirus expression vector system (BEVS). Our upstream process involves a three-stage cellular scale-up from shake flasks to WAVE bioreactors to perfusion to production bioreactors, as well as an additional two-stage viral amplification from flasks to WAVE bioreactors. Our downstream process involves a six-stage protein recovery with depth filtration, his-tag chromatography, viral inactivation, ion-exchange chromatography, viral filtration, and diafiltration. We will be partnering with a contract manufacturing organization (CMO) for this project, as we do not have the time to quickly build a plant to get these vaccines out for emergency use. This arrangement makes this process highly profitable. Selling each dose for $16 yields net earnings near$2 billion and an extremely high IRR due to the lack of permanent and fixed costs other than our rental fee. The IRR for the CMO is estimated to be at least 16% with the NPV of the plant at $855,000 and an ROI of 18%

The biological embedding of early-life socioeconomic status and family adversity in children's genome-wide DNA methylation.

AimTo examine variation in child DNA methylation to assess its potential as a pathway for effects of childhood social adversity on health across the life course.Materials & methodsIn a diverse, prospective community sample of 178 kindergarten children, associations between three types of social experience and DNA methylation within buccal epithelial cells later in childhood were examined.ResultsFamily income, parental education and family psychosocial adversity each associated with increased or decreased DNA methylation (488, 354 and 102 sites, respectively) within a unique set of genomic CpG sites. Gene ontology analyses pointed to genes serving immune and developmental regulation functions.ConclusionFindings provided support for DNA methylation as a biomarker linking early-life social experiences with later life health in humans

Literature Review on the Effectiveness of POC Lactate Tests for Post-Operative Sepsis Discharge

Background: Every year in the USA, there are at least two million surgery-related infections; around 11% are derived from decompression spinal cord surgery. Generally, later detection of sepsis leads to significant burdens on the healthcare system; this manifests financially, temporally, and in poorer patient outcomes. “SepsisCheckToGo” is a toolkit aimed to minimize the number of sepsis complications in spinal surgery patients postoperatively; the kit would include a pulse oximeter, thermometer, and fingertip POC lactate tests to detect early sepsis signs after discharge and before the follow-up visit (which would occur around one month after initial discharge). Methods: Our team did a literature review on NIH PubMed; we aimed to gather existing information on the effectiveness of point-of-care lactate tests. After compiling relevant data, our team analyzed each article for statistics on the effectiveness of point-of-care lactate tests in the context of post-surgical usage. These findings were analyzed for any relevant information on sepsis prevention. Results: Data from many different studies showed that point-of-care finger lactate tests have reliable accuracy in blood lactate values. The tools were compared to gold-standard tests and maintained accuracy while being easy to use. However, there is a significant lack of evidence for the contribution of point-of-care lactate testing in improving rates of post-operative sepsis. Conclusion: Point-of-care lactate tests are simple for healthcare providers to use in a variety of different contexts; thus, they are reliable for quick measurements of lactate levels. Unfortunately, there is lack of evidence that this has much utility in patient diagnosis/management to cause any significant changes in patient outcome, particularly in the detection/prevention of genuine sepsis. Therefore, this tool may not be useful for the “SepsisCheckToGo” kit, as it could increase healthcare costs and add unnecessary steps to patients’ post-surgery steps without real evidence of alleviated outcomes