In spite of rapid advances in detection and treatment, cancer remains one of the most deadly diseases, killing over 1500 Americans each day. The ability of cancer cells to metastasize is the driving force behind the high mortality. For this reason, early detection and improved treatment technologies are crucial to enhance the survival rate of patients. The progression of cancer pathology begins with the accumulation of DNA mutation that transforms a normal cell into a proliferating tumor cell. This unregulated cell growth is governed by disruption in reactive oxygen species, iron homeostasis, and up-regulation of ribonucelotide reductase. Studies show chelators have significant antiproliferative properties reducing tumor growth through iron chelation. Unfortunately, they also bind to iron in normal cells, therefore, there is a great need to develop chelators that bind specifically to iron in cancer cells to prevent cell proliferation. Our study focuses on the design of a new class of site-directed iron chelators using gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) as targeted molecular carriers. These AuNPs are capped with thiolate ligands that are modified using EDC/NHS coupling chemistry for attachment of chelators and targeting moieties that recognize cancer cell surfaces. We will present the synthesis strategy and characterization methods used for confirming the presence of chelators on the AuNP surface. These methods include ultraviolet-visible, fluorescence, infrared, and dynamic light scattering spectroscopies. Metal binding studies demonstrating iron uptake will also be presented.

Language models characterize the probability of a sequence of words for use in a variety of natural language processing applications, including automatic speech recognition. Web text is a key source of data for developing the language models used in such systems because of its sheer volume, and the fact that much of it is freely available to the public. However, web text varies broadly in genre, depending on purpose, audience, formality, and other characteristics. For example, the difference between the formal exposition of a Wikipedia article and the informal banter between two Twitter users. When using web text to train language models for conversational speech recognition in particular, it is important to find text that resembles that speaking style. When training a language model using various web text sources, we use a measure of worth called perplexity. By selecting web text that matches the conversational style of speech, the language model perplexity improves, which generally leads to higher accuracy speech recognition. I work on selecting text taken from Twitter. This involves research on what kinds of Twitter searches will result in tweets containing useful text, as well as how to identify Twitter users who post useful text.

Disfluent speech has typically been regarded as noise in spoken language processing: aspects of speech that should be ignored in order to automatically detect and understand the intended meaning of spoken language. However, it has also been suggested that disfluencies provide information about a speaker's cognitive processes and efforts to manage the discussion. Most work on disfluencies has investigated very controlled scenarios or conversational speech. In our work, we are studying high-stakes debates, including Supreme Court oral arguments and congressional hearings on the financial crisis, in addition to informal conversations among strangers and family members. By studying disfluent speech in both high and low stress situations, we can better understand the impact of stress on disfluency rates. We use text alignment techniques to understand the relationship between the perceived mistakes and correction. We subdivide and partition disfluencies into categories by classifying inserted, deleted, and substituted words according to their semantic similarity; thus, making correlations between social context and disfluency rate more evident in addition to providing a better interpretation of speaker opinions. Preliminary results show that lawyers have a tendency to model their speech patterns off of the justices they are speaking to, but not vice versa. That is, lawyers tend to be more disfluent when the justices are speaking disfluently, which indicates that disfluent speech reflects social context. Thus, we hope to develop ways to automatically detect and understand deeper meaning in spoken language, such as defensiveness and strength of opinions, through our study of disfluent speech.

Recent longitudinal studies show a trend of declining emotional health paired with an increased demand for counseling services among college students. It has been proposed that this population faces difficulties in regulating emotions, especially in the face of challenges that are new and unique to them. In the clinical field, mindfulness practice is gaining evidence as a way to increase individuals' self-awareness, acceptance and present moment attention – qualities that have robust evidence of being beneficial for the effective regulation of emotions. The rationale of this research is that mindfulness practice could potentially increase the capacity for allowing painful emotional experiences and thus reduce maladaptive automatic responses to stressors (i.e. denying or suppressing negative emotions). The main aim of this study is to explore whether Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) mindfulness skills, which are six distinct skills designed to cultivate the different components of mindfulness in everyday life, can be efficacious at reducing difficulties in emotion regulation and increasing mindfulness in a non-clinical population of college students. In addition, since few studies have evaluated the feasibility and acceptability of mindfulness-based interventions in college settings, this study fills in the gap by evaluating feasibility and acceptability using specified, testable criteria, and by exploring an alternative method of instruction: using audio recordings of DBT mindfulness practice. The study design is a between-subjects randomized controlled trial comparing an intervention group which will receive a two-week mindfulness training, with a non-intervention group which will not receive the intervention. The hypotheses of this study are that the intervention will be 1) efficacious at increasing mindfulness, 2) reducing anxiety and 3) decreasing emotion dysregulation, will be 4) acceptable in terms of participant retention and opinion toward the intervention, and 5) feasible in terms of adequate participant recruitment and compliance to the intervention protocol.

 I will argue that youth homelessness and society are intertwined existences and that we should move beyond narratives of blame and silence in order to find a more unconditional compassion for homeless youths. I will draw from my experiences volunteering at ROOTS Young Adult Shelter over the past three and one-half years, as well as from interviews conducted there during Summer 2013. The material gathered with be analyzed through Timothy Pachirat's (2013) "politics of invisibility" and Donna Haraway's (2007) "becoming with." The narrative we use to structure our opinions of homeless youths, what I call the personal agency narrative, attributes their situations to their laziness, addictiveness, and/or generally disagreeable behavior. However, an examination of the encounter with the homeless youth, which informs the personal agency narrative, reveals that the economic, political, and cultural contexts of youth homelessness, as well as the personal experiences (before and after becoming homeless) of homeless youths are left invisible. This, I believe, is a microcosmic analog to the broader pattern of dealing with youth homelessness as a society, within which we find a conditional compassion--we only are able to empathize with certain homeless youths-- which is tied to the personal agency narrative. I will argue that we should move beyond this conditionality, recognizing the multiple ties that bind society to youth homelessness, and vice versa, to see that society is in a state of becoming with youth homelessness. We therefore have a responsibility to youth homelessness.

The 21st century has seen the emergence and re-emergence of novel infectious diseases. Following in the footsteps of its communicable predecessors, the recent emergence in Saudi Arabia of a SARS-like novel coronavirus, or Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS-CoV), since 2012 has weaved narratives of globally interdependent economic, political, and social intimacies. I will examine the contrasting narratives that reflect investigations and responses to this novel threat from Middle Eastern, European, and North American media networks, the WHO, the global biomedical community, and the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Health through several intersecting discourses: intellectual property rights and viral sovereignty; the deliberation on the taxonomy of the novel coronavirus; and geopolitical differences in information sharing and biosecurity in the context of emergent 21st century epidemics. Using Priscilla Wald’s concept of outbreak narratives and the imaginative hold of myths as a framework, I will explore how the stories on the global effort to investigate and respond to the MERS outbreaks continue to be revealed, repackaged, and transformed as experts around the world scramble to uncover its epidemiological pathways. I argue that the consideration of these counter-narratives are critical for rethinking underlying, potentially harmful, factors beyond dominant epidemiological and biomedical discourses surrounding the MERS epidemics. Such considerations may serve as a microcosm for biopolitical barriers in the response to past, present, and future emergent diseases. These counter-narratives should be regarded in light of uncertainties that still cloud the etiology and transmission of the virus which has since infected 243 people and claimed 93 lives in 11 countries in Europe, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia.

When animals (humans among them) mourn, they honor the emotional bonds that make social living both desirable and possible.  Ebola, one of the most virulent primate diseases, wreaks havoc within this sociality, bringing death and triggering isolation.  Here I examine spaces of mourning - instances when mourning does or might occur - in the context of Ebola to explore how we can protect social connection in the face of disease.  Previous Ebola narratives have often portrayed mourning as an obstacle to public health.  Journalists and academics have largely ignored how isolating people from dying loved ones and depriving families of traditional mourning rituals affects the grieving process or how forcing people to quell grief as they exterminate Ebola-infected lab monkeys affects humans.  Only recently have scholars begun to explore difficulties Ebola survivors face grappling with grief amid stigma-induced isolation.  Here, I explore what it means to reread outbreak narratives in light of theories of mourning.  Drawing upon Judith Butler's concepts of grievability and precarious life, I challenge narratives touting extermination as the sole means of stopping Ebola from crossing species.  Together, these accounts highlight the shared vulnerability and capacity for social suffering uniting humans with other primates.  Through this work I explore how recognizing the significance of relationships within and between species vulnerable to Ebola might change human responses to this disease.  If we embrace this approach for Ebola, it opens new possibilities for handling other infectious diseases and for deciding which lives (among individuals of all species) count as grievable.

The purpose of this research is to investigate hidden health narratives on campus regarding the use of tobacco products to contextualize the legitimacy of smoke-free and tobacco-free university initiatives. This academic endeavor will also reveal the structural and institutionalized violence of the tobacco industry which targets marginalized communities to entice the uptake of regular smoking habits. An analysis of biopolitical power, structural violence, and social theory will help to reveal the hidden narratives of these populations, twice-targeted by the social stigmatization of tobacco use and the manipulative advertising of the tobacco industry. By exposing, analyzing, and deconstructing patterns of profit-driven tobacco marketing directed at student demographics, it is possible to examine geographies of blame regarding tobacco use, impact of tobacco use on non-smoking populations, and the misleading agendas behind the dominant narratives of tobacco industry advertising. By identifying and bringing to light these messages, it is possible to legitimize the anti-smoking and anti-tobacco movements happening at the University of Washington, and U.S. universities at large, with a critical analysis of the health risks involved.

 In 2009, the World Health Organization declared swine flu to be the first global flu pandemic in 40 years as a result of the outbreak of cases in Mexico. Although the mortality rate of the disease was lower than predicted, the narrative constructed around the disease offers important takeaways regarding how an outbreak is perceived and what groups become associated as disease carriers. Incorporating knowledge of Mexican-American relations, past and present, in the analysis of the media coverage broadens the understanding regarding the roles that racism and xenophobia play in responses to swine flu. However, the U.S media’s blaming of Mexico, especially when connecting to issues of immigration and borders, draw attention away from American culpability in the H1N1 experience. Using my digital medium as a holding space and synthesis for different thought provoking articles, imagery, and videos about this subject will allow the audience to understand the systematic conditions that influence the spread of diseases like H1N1. For example, by unpacking the capitalist economic imperatives of NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), a policy signed off by Canada, the US, and Mexico to create the world's largest free trade area, I examine how its neoliberal policies encouraged transnational corporations to open up industrial pig factories and its impacts on the environment, human health, labor practices, animal welfare, and immigration. I argue that these factors are symptoms of a “NAFTA Flu”, which shaped unequal disease development conditions and unequal access to treatment in Mexico, a perspective that anti-Mexican media ignore. Therefore, critiquing the U.S media framings of the outbreak undermines the stigmatization and blaming of the specific populations in traditional outbreak narratives.

How was U.S. immigration policy shaped by the 2009 Swine Flu outbreak? My project will explore the relationship between immigration policy, xenophobia, and Swine Flu. The uproar in the US stemming from the 2009 Swine Flu (H1N1) outbreak revealed a racialized narrative that targeted and stigmatized Mexican immigrants. Rising xenophobic sentiments were exploited to further the cause of anti-immigrant groups and to justify immigration limits. For example, xenophobia was so prominent that some citizens blindly advocated for the closing of the U.S. - Mexican border without considering the economic effect of such an action. As part of this project I will explore xenophobia itself as an outbreak linked to the Swine Flu outbreak. How did this xenophobia outbreak infiltrate the U.S.? Were U.S. immigration policy makers susceptible to xenophobia? Were they “infected” by the xenophobic outbreak? Is xenophobic sentiment evident in immigration policy? I will draw on empirical data (like immigration statistics and public opinion polls), analyze rhetoric used in immigration debates, and explore media representations, to reveal the connections between Swine Flu and U.S. Immigration policy. I argue that Swine Flu, and the xenophobic discourses surrounding it, had a profound effect on contemporary immigration narratives.

This paper analyzes the juxtaposing narratives between various documents and media portrayals from mining corporations, the Peruvian government, and the affected indigenous populations, focusing on how many of the more dominant narratives can often be misleading in reflecting the serious health effects from mining. Peru’s mining industry significantly influences the health of surrounding indigenous communities due to high levels of air and water pollution. Unfortunately, there is not a great deal of sincere concern for the wellbeing of these communities from either the corporations exploiting their land or the Peruvian government. Despite their efforts to express their suffering through protests, indigenous communities have seen few results. The mining industry and its detrimental health effects are often overlooked, and therefore many of these dominant corporate narratives and our own capitalist desires are all that we have to shape our understanding of how mining industries operate in other countries, such as Peru. However, the subaltern counter-narratives from indigenous populations concerning their health and rights can more accurately shape our understanding of the severity of these health effects caused by the mining industry.

Social science research has long been interested in determining what motivates individuals to regularly attend church with previous studies examining primarily individual (e.g., gender, religious beliefs), and contextual factors (e.g., fit with church, availability of church groups). Recent research has begun to investigate the influence of one’s family life such as attendance of children’s weekend activities and the influence of one’s professional life such as the extent to which the church endorses work values. A thorough understanding of church attendance will arise from taking into consideration the interplay among one’s family and professional lives. We hypothesized that individuals who experience high conflict between their work duties and family responsibilities (i.e., low work-life balance) will be less likely to attend church as they may seek to achieve balance by reducing their commitments. More importantly, we sought to identify variables that may attenuate this relationship; that is, we wanted to determine what might motivate individuals to regularly attend church despite perceived work-family conflict. To that effect, we proposed multiple moderating variables including the extent to which (1) one’s neighbors and coworkers attend church, (2) church provides a social support system, and (3) church attendance is perceived as satisfying basic needs. To test our hypotheses, we administered an online survey using Amazon MTurk to 200 working adults. Stepwise hierarchical regression analyses will be used to test our main effect and moderating hypotheses. We believe our research has critical implications for research and practice alike. We had hoped to better understand church attendance by adding work-life balance as a predictor while simultaneously offering nuance in identifying multiple moderators. Churches may benefit from our research by being able to develop retention mechanisms that may counteract a drop in church attendance due to increased pressures on individuals to maintain a sustainable work-life balance.

This project examines the role of gender inequality in HIV/AIDS and how this inequality perpetuates the susceptibility of women to contract the virus. Focusing on Ghana and Brazil, I explore how culture and society shape an imbalance that potentially increases risks to women in becoming sick through analysis of the relationship between social determinants of health, risk factors and vulnerability. I argue that preventative measures intended to fight against HIV/AIDS have failed to consider the social circumstances that place women at greater risk than men. In my analysis, I draw on and interpret Michel Foucault’s concept of biopolitics using feministic critique and gendered perspectives. I reference anecdotes from Stephanie Nolen’s “28: Stories of AIDS in Africa” to present personalized perspectives of the painfully multifaceted reality of the HIV/AIDS outbreak, while Silvana Paternostro’s personal accounts of sexual culture in Brazil in “In the Land of God and Man: Confronting Sexual Culture in Latin America,” serve as a framework for my examination of gendered social constructs in Brazil. I examine gender relations and the dynamic of marital relationships that often disproportionately allow the male greater power over the female, and how a male dominant ideology is reinforced by politics, culture and social norm. Distinguishing between gender and sex, I look at how gender inequality, the inequality of opportunities and power that follow being a certain sex, may expose mothers, daughters, sisters, and other women at risk in ways we may not have imagined.

The blood-stage of infection with the parasite Plasmodium induces clinical malaria. Murine infection with Plasmodium chabaudi provides a physiologically relevant model of the immune response to infection. Blood-stage parasites express Merozoite-Surface Protein (MSP) 1, which undergoes a series of proteolytic cleavage events. The remaining c-terminal MSP1-19 region is necessary for erythrocyte endocytosis and serves as an immunogenic target. Control of parasitemia and resolution of clinical malaria has been shown to be T cell dependent, both through secretion of signaling molecules and through activation of B cells. To understand how T cell populations develop in a manner specific to the parasite and the contribution they make to the overall immune response, we have developed a novel system to identify MSP1-19-specific CD4+ T cells using a peptide: major histocompatibility class II (pMHCII) tetramer of our own design and magnetic bead-based enrichment techniques. Enriched fractions are stained with fluorescent antibodies against phenotypic surface markers and analyzed by flow cytometry to identify previously described CD4+ cellular subsets. T follicular helper (Tfh) cells that are required for B cell antibody production are formed around day 8 post-infection near the peak of parasitemia. Surprisingly, the number of Tfh cells decreases between days 12-15 post-infection and begins to return by day 20, persisting during chronic, low-level infection. We hypothesize that Tfh cell death is driven by high levels of antigen presentation by B cells. To address this hypothesis, we will assess markers of cell death in both TCR signaling reporters and various transgenic mice that lack important CD4+ T cell signaling molecules. Characterization of T cell depletion could elucidate mechanisms of immune evasion critical to parasite survival and persistence of infection, possibly implicating new therapeutic targets.

This project examines the ethical and social frames which facilitate environmental conditions that fuel the rampage of tuberculosis in India. Three key components of the basic biomedical outbreak narrative that are often overlooked will be brought forth to attention: the tuberculosis outbreak as more than just a bacterial spread, social constructs which shape the bacteria’s accessibility to victims, and socioeconomic determinants of treatment (and lack thereof). India accounts for approximately one-fifth of global tuberculosis occurrences, and with over 2 million cases in the country, tuberculosis is a continuously growing health concern, posing a major threat to the well-being of the population. Due to India's developing health care system, pollution, and poverty, these conditions amplify the ease of transmissibility and rate of infection. As treatment regimens are abandoned due to social stigma, medical side effects, and overwhelming price tags, the bacterium which causes TB (mycobacterium tuberculosis), tends to mutate and become drug-resistant to varying degrees; increasing the difficulty of containment and scientific development of effective medicines. Furthermore, the capitalist structure of the pharmaceutical industry contributes to the financial challenges which prevent the eradication of tuberculosis. Drawing on the theory of biopolitics while using sources of statistical information and analytical discourse,  my presentation seeks to explore various properties of the disease and discover how the complex interconnectedness of these underlying issues attribute to forms of structural violence, perpetuating the growth of tuberculosis in India.

Recent evidence has indicated that immune activation in mucosal surfaces is a critical determinant of HIV infection risk. HVTN914 Trial aims to quantitate immune activation in foreskin, blood and rectosigmoid mucosa from HIV-negative, uncircumcised men who have sex with men and who are at high risk for HIV acquisition. RNA of high quality and quantity must be isolated to quantitate rare immune transcripts present in these tissues. I isolated RNA from human foreskin, colon, rectum and blood samples to evaluate the RNA yield and quality. Results indicated that 91% of the samples met the required quality and quantity standards for future tests and could therefore be assessed by Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR). I then amplified an endogenous control mRNA to determine if expression of an endogenous control would be different among isolations. The blood samples amplified twice as rapidly as the other tissue types, indicating normalization to the endogenous control would be required. Our data suggests one possible cause for differential amplification is the increased phenol residue in the tissue isolations compared to blood, which can reduce reverse transcription or polymerase activity.

 Widespread use of tetracyclines in marine and fresh water aquaculture has resulted in tetracycline resistant (Tcr) bacteria in these environments. Previously, 15 of 25 Tcr Chilean bacteria were shown to carry seven different tet genes. The tet(A) was the most commonly identified gene [n=6]. In the present study, we reexamined nine bacteria that were previously negative for the 22 tet genes tested using PCR assays for the identification of tet(W), tet(X), and tet(39). Three of the isolates’ genera designation differed between phenotypic and 16S sequencing identification. The 16S identifications were used in the current study. Six (67%) of the isolates including 3 Acinetobacter spp., 1 Pseudomonas spp., 1 Psychrobacter spp., and 1 Corynebacterium spp. carried the tet(39) gene. None of the isolates carried either tet(W) or tet(X) genes. In the present study, 6 of the isolates carried the tet(39) gene making it as common as the tet(A) in the original study. Of the 4 genera identified 3 [Pseudomonas, Psychrobacter, and Corynebacterium] represented new genera not previously identified as carrying the tet(39) gene. We are currently testing the strains for their ability to transfer tet(39) by conjugation and/or transformation. The tet(39) gene was first identified in Acinetobacter spp. from freshwater trout farms, sewage and human clinical samples from Europe between 1986-1997. Since then the tet(39) gene has been identified in fish farms in Thailand, a polluted river in Nigeria and clinical samples in the US. This study shows that the tet(39) gene has been present in bacteria from Chilean fish farms since 1999. The tet(39) gene has wider host range in water associated bacteria than previously recognized and should be considered when examining Tcr water bacteria in the future. The current study illustrates that aquaculture contaminates the local environment into surrounding soils and water sources with antibiotic resistant bacteria and genes.