We are the safety net: skills for suicide prevention evaluating a training to increase recognition and response to signs of suicide among at-risk peers

Thesis (Ph.D.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2017This pilot study evaluated the effects of a brief suicide prevention training. The intervention was efficient and targeted peer intervention for those least likely to engage in proactive help seeking on their own behalf. The results were promising but mixed. The results showed that the intervention can increase suicide literacy and confidence about safety planning and help seeking on behalf of an at-risk peer. Significant differences were found in the small sample with variables most relevant to the ability to recognize peers at risk for suicide and act effectively on their behalf. Variables not directly emphasized in the training and those with high baseline scores did not show change. The brevity of the intervention lends itself to potential dissemination opportunities in educational and healthcare settings such as new student orientations, teacher in-service trainings, hospital staff training and community-based outreach

Two genes, dig-1 and mig-10, involved in nervous system development in C. elegans

We are using genetic and molecular techniques to study a simple model organism, C. elegans, to determine the cues involved in the formation of the nervous system. Two molecules currently being studied in the laboratory play roles in the formation of the IL2 neurons, a class of sensory neurons in C. elegans. The first gene, dig-1, influences the sensory process or dendrite and is involved in adhesion as well as potentially providing directional information during development. The second gene, mig-10, influences the axon and may be involved in a cell signal cascade. Genetic screens of C. elegans using Ethyl methyl sulfonate (EMS) as a mutagen resulted in the isolation of mutants with defects in the IL2 sensory map; sensory processes followed aberrant paths, appearing to be defasciculated. Complementation tests showed that the mutations failed to complement n1321, a known allele of dig-1; thus, these new mutations were alleles of dig-1 (Ryder unpub. results). Several of these new alleles of dig-1, including nu336 and n1480, have been further studied to elucidate the role of this gene in sensory map formation. A dig-1 candidate gene was identified that encodes a protein that is a member of the immunoglobulin super-family (IgSF). The candidate gene is predicted to be a large gene, with a transcript of approximately 45Kb. The encoded protein contains three distinct regions and is similar to the hyalectan family of proteoglycans. N terminal region 1 contains immunoglobulin and fibronectin-like domains. Central region 2 is an area that is highly repeated with a potential to have GAGs attached. C-terminal region 3 contains domains associated with adhesion. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) products from alleles nu336 and n1480 were amplified and sequenced from the candidate gene. The DNA lesion present in the candidate gene from both alleles fit the method for how that mutation was generated. The point mutation in allele nu336 removes a potential glycosylation site. The large re-arrangement in allele n1480 truncates the transcript, suggesting that the protein is also truncated. The sequencing results along with rescuing data (R. Proenca, personal communication) showed that the candidate gene for dig-1 was the gene of interest. Each of the alleles was further studied to determine how severe that allele was by looking at the neuronal process aspect and the brood size as well as displacement of the gonad. In general, alleles with severe defects in the nervous system also had severe gonad displacement, suggesting the gene functions similarly in the two tissues. To determine if the gene was expressed at the RNA level, reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was used. Most of the RT-PCRs amplified a cDNA of the appropriate size that showed dig-1 was expressed at the RNA level. RT-PCR further suggested that all three regions were in one transcript as well as confirming part of the predicted exon structure to be correct. In addition, northern analysis showed the presence of a large transcript in wildtype worms as well as a smaller truncated transcript from allele n1480. To investigate developmental differences mixed stage of RNA and embryonic RNA from wildtype animals were compared using gene specific primers. The initial RT-PCR showed potential alternative splicing occurring at the 5? end of the gene during development. To examine expression at the protein level, two recombinant proteins from dig-1 were successfully made by cloning cDNA products from the 5?and 3? end of dig-1. The constructs were sequenced and shown to be in frame. The recombinant proteins (Ant1Con1 and Ant3Con3) were mass produced and sent to a commercial source for injection into pre-screened rabbits. Western analysis showed the presence of an antibody in the serum from two of the rabbits. These antibodies should prove useful in future determination of correctness of our models of DIG-1 function. IgSF members have been shown to have many roles in nervous system development. DIG-1 could act in either an attractive or a repellent role to position sensory processes during development. DIG-1 might also change its function over time; early in development DIG-1 could be adhesive and later become repellant as more sugars are added. The gene mig-10 is involved in sensory map formation. To localize MIG-10 expression, several transgenic animals were generated by injection of two constructs that should recombine in the worm to create a MIG-10::GFP fusion protein. Ten transgenic lines were generated and screened by PCR for the presence of the correct recombinant construct. If this construct makes functional, rescuing protein, the GFP expression should reflect the expression pattern of the MIG-10 protein

Archives, Numbers, Meaning: The Eighteenth-Century Playbill at Scale

In response to the growing prominence of quantification in the humanities, scholars of media and digital culture have highlighted the friction between the cultural and disciplinary roles of data and the epistemologies of humanistic inquiry. Johanna Drucker aptly characterizes the humanities as fields that emphasize “the situated, partial, and constitutive character of knowledge production,” while data are often taken to be representations of “observer-independent reality.” Lisa Gitelman and Virginia Jackson likewise critique the dominant assumption of data’s transparency: data, they insist, “are always already ‘cooked’ and never entirely ‘raw.’” The choices involved in data collection and preparation are not objective; they are shaped by the always subjective, often tacit, and sometimes shared presuppositions of the domain-specialist researcher. Practitioners of computational approaches to literature have shown that analyzing large corpora of texts “at a distance” may reveal phenomena not readily accessible through close reading of individual texts. Yet, the notion of distance fosters an illusion of objectivity that often occludes the preconditions of such work: the transformation of cultural artifacts into objects in a series that can be embedded into computational spaces. Printed codices must become .txt files; properties of artifacts must be organized into a .csv file. That is, texts, archival materials, and historical individuals must become data, in a process that involves choices about collection, curation, and preparation. The effects of this process seldom have been theorized as part of these large-scale analyses. To bring a more nuanced understanding of data’s mediated and constructed nature to the work of large-scale digital analysis requires a historicized and theorized account of the resources that enable it. New digital collections and databases have undoubtedly presented researchers with powerful ways to explore cultural artifacts, but their interfaces frequently efface the criteria for inclusion and exclusion in their underlying collections, bolstering the illusion that they are authoritative and comprehensive. As a way of accounting for the underlying instability of the digital archive, Bonnie Mak advocates an “archaeological approach” to collections, such as Early English Books Online, which bears the traces of earlier catalogs and microfilm resources. In this essay we model one such approach, theorizing a new dataset of our own creation as a description that mediates and transforms our relationship to the objects it describes. While quantitative humanities scholarship is currently preoccupied with how to make meaning from large-scale analyses, we wish to shift attention to the meaning-making problems on the other side of the numbers. Rather than the massive datasets, sophisticated computational models, or rich visualizations that characterize many digital humanities approaches, we offer an account of the preconditions that enable such approaches, and we do so with regard to a single feature—that of genre. In tracing the transformation of archival artifacts into data objects, we argue that a more reflective approach to quantitative analysis opens up new interpretive terrain—terrain that takes advantage of the opportunities available at scale while maintaining the humanities’ commitment to ambiguity, mediation, and situatedness. Such an approach is necessary if the digital humanities are to remain humanistic and avoid the worst excesses of data determinism

An infusion of the modern spirit into the ancient form:’ Textual Objects and Historical Consciousness in George Eliot’s Romola.

In George Eliot’s Romola, manuscripts represent the ability of objects to embody the past. Through various characters’ interactions with manuscripts, Eliot explores competing ways of using and valuing history, from Bardo’s obsessive collecting to Savonarola’s ideological co-optation. As the story progresses, however, manuscripts all but disappear and are replaced by printed texts. Through this depiction of technological change, Eliot advances her case for a particular kind of historical consciousness, one that engages critically—rather than fetishistically or opportunistically—with the past. Print, Eliot suggests, allows history to become widely accessible for public consumption, thereby weakening the aura of the past and allowing readers to simultaneously recognize its alterity and its intimate relationship to the present. Eliot suggests that the role of history is to guide and advance the interests of humanity in the present; as such, she uses Renaissance anxieties over the movement from manuscript to print to interrogate Victorian concerns surrounding the proliferation of inexpensive printed materials

The Effect of Music Tempo on Squat Performance

Burket, J., Eubank, T., Reed, C., Sanders, J. Shippensburg University, Shippensburg, PA Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine whether music tempo affects squat performance. Methods: A total of eleven healthy college aged subjects (Age range: 18 ~ 22 yrs, Weight: 81.4±12.0 kg, Height: 1.7±0.1 m) volunteered in the study and eight subjects (one female and seven males) completed the study. After obtaining baseline measures, subjects performed heavy barbell squat exercise under three conditions. The three conditions were to perform the squat exercise with load equal to 60% of their body weight until failure while listening to fast tempo (200 bpm), slow tempo (60 bpm) and no music. The order of the trial was randomized and each trial was separated by a minimum of 7 days. Using descriptive statistics and one-way analysis of variance, data were analyzed to compare the difference in performance under three conditions. Results: Compared to fast music and no music condition, subjects performed more repetition of squat under slow music condition (34.8±29.6 vs. 33.5±22.7 vs. 35.1± 37.0 reps). However, the difference was not significant (p\u3e0.05). Although not significant, subjects reported higher rate of perceived exertion (RPE) under slow music condition while exercise heart rate and systolic blood pressure were reported to be lower with slow music condition. Conclusion: The results of the study indicate that music tempo has no significant influence on heavy squat exercise performance or cardiovascular measures during exercise. Future studies are needed to further examine possible effect of music tempo when using a larger variation

Epigenetic Modifications Mediate Experience-Induced Neuroplasticity; Relevance to the Etiology and Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Covalent chemical modifications, including the acetylation of core histone proteins and methylation of cytosine in or near promoter regions of DNA, influence the efficiency with which genes are transcribed. Chemical modifications that regulate gene expression within postmitotic differentiated neurons can reflect environmental influences, including exposure to stress. These chemical modifications or “marks” may reflect downstream consequences of the transduction of extracellular chemical messengers, such as neurotransmitters, growth factors and hormones, by receptors located at the surface of the neuron or within the cell itself. The ability to decipher the epigenetic code may serve as a record of early childhood adversity that sensitizes to additional epigenetic changes caused by traumatic exposures in adulthood. Further, epigenetic therapeutic interventions may be possible that would attenuate the severity of adverse consequences associated with traumatic exposures in the child and adult. Ideally, targeted epigenetic therapeutic interventions would address stress-induced dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and promote expression of therapeutically beneficial neuroplasticity factors