Though many fields that were previously male dominated have moved drastically towards gender equality, the field of computer science continues to reflect a large gender disparity; less than 20% of undergraduate degrees in computer science were given to women in 2009. Role congruity theory posits that women are more inclined to participate in activities that are congruent with their gender role. Current stereotypes of computer science reflect a societal perception that computer scientists work alone, and this stereotype is incongruent with the female gender role, specifically with communal goals. Previous research has found that communal goals, such as helping others and working with people, predict female interest in occupational fields. This research examined how perceptions of communal and agentic goals in a field are related to interest in a taking six different science classes. I hypothesized that women will be more interested in majors that endorse communal goals. Measures of personal importance of communal goals were taken as a potential mediator between interest in high communal and low communal majors. Surveys were handed out to students on campus at the University of Washington. The sample population included students attending the University of Washington who were 18 years of age or older. This study is a preliminary study to a series of experiments that will manipulate perceptions of communal goals in computer science classes. As many computer science departments hold a strict no-collaboration policy in their introductory courses, implications of this study may include how these policies potentially influence female college students to join or continue in the computer science major. Further, fostering perceptions of collaborative activities could potentially increase female participation in computer science through appealing to their interest in communal goals.

Women have been steadily increasing their representation in many careers that have been traditionally male-dominated; however, women continue to be underrepresented in computer science. If women learn that their gender is underrepresented, that could lower their interest or deter them from joining because they believe they do not belong in this field. On the other hand, it could increase their interest if they feel they are wanted. This study examined whether learning about the underrepresentation of women in computer science would increase women's interest in this field. We predicted that women's interest would increase especially if they see it as an opportunity to stand out and be unique. Female students in the psychology subject pool (PSP) at the University of Washington voluntarily signed up to participate in the study. There were two conditions: in the control condition, participants were given an article that stated computer science had high demand and that less than 30% of job openings are filled by college graduates; in the underrepresentation condition, participants were given an article that stated computer science had high demand for women and that less than 30% of college degrees are earned by women. After participants read the article they answered questions about their interest in computer science. Results were statistically significant: women who were told that women are underrepresented in computer science showed more interest and belonging in the field than those who were not told. These results imply that an intervention to raise awareness of underrepresentation of women in computer science could help more females become interested and likely to join this field.

Kaposi's Sarcoma-Associated Herpesvirus (KSHV) is a gamma2-herpesvirus that infects humans and can cause tumors in immunosuppressed individuals. Rhesus rhadinovirus (RRV) is a related herpesvirus of macaques that is similar to KSHV, but has significant differences as well. While KSHV infections are predominantly latent with only low levels of spontaneous replication, RRV replicates much more readily. For this reason, RRV is a useful tool in studying the mechanisms of reactivation and replication of rhadinoviruses. We sought to identify the regulatory promoter elements of the replication and transactivator (Rta) gene, which induces the lytic stage of the virus. To find this, we transfected cells with different length clones of the Rta promoter region and tested the activity using luciferase assays. We identified a potential binding site of the transcription factor Sp1 and tested its function through mutagenesis. Our results indicate that the Sp1 binding site is required for high level promoter activity suggesting that this is an important regulatory element within the promoter sequence. We also tested the activity of the RRV Rta promoter in the presence of the RRV latency associated nuclear antigen (LANA), a gene known to inhibit replication through suppression of Rta expression in KSHV. We found that with LANA present, the activity of the Rta promoter decreases significantly. Because Rta has a critical role in viral replication, the regulation of the Rta promoter by the cellular factor Sp1 and the viral gene LANA may have important implication on the RRV life cycle.