Substance use in pregnancy is a significant public health problem in the United States with serious consequences for the health of children. The consequences for the almost 6% of women who use illicit drugs during pregnancy include preterm birth, low birth weight, and long-term changes in childhood behavior and development. Many women want to reduce their substance use in pregnancy, but find it difficult to talk about substance use with family, friends, and health care providers because of the stigma. In the face of such stigma, women may turn to the Internet for information sharing and social support. Marijuana has received increased attention in the media because of the increasing ease of access as some states legalize the drug for medical and recreational use. The purpose of this study is to explore how women communicate about marijuana use in pregnancy on an online forum. We will select posts and responses to a public online question and answer forum using the keywords “marijuana” and “pregnancy”. Qualitative analysis of the data set will progress in three stages: 1) content analysis to describe the questions that participants post to the forum, the types and medical accuracy of answers given by responders; 2) examination of language use focusing on stigma, shame, and judgment; and 3) discourse analysis to determine participants’ underlying beliefs and values about substance use in pregnancy. Analysis will be accomplished using a team approach to iteratively develop interpretations of the data. Our findings will help us understand how women communicate online about substance use in pregnancy with implications for effective research and health care for this population.

Perhaps due to the unique demographic, the stories of single mothers who adopt special needs children from foster care are largely unheard. Very few people know the joys and successes that these single mothers have experienced, and due to this knowledge gap, the diagnosis of a special needs foster child can come across as if it were a death sentence. Due to these stories being unheard, the status-quo remains, and special needs children are often over looked when potential foster parents are searching. This stems from the false belief that many potential foster parents have; they believe they (and most people) are unable to care for the demands of a special need child. This research project challenges the belief that only certain people can care for special needs children, and the stigma of special needs adoptions. This challenge is illustrated through the oral history of one family. This research project goes in-depth to explore the struggles, challenges, successes, and joys that this family has experienced. Autism, epilepsy, child-hood schizophrenia, trauma, and paranoia are just a few of the medical struggles these children deal with. Yet, despite having the odds stacked against them, each child is working hard in school, and has overcome the expectations placed against them. This research seeks to challenge the many stigmas and assumptions placed upon this family, and those in a similar place. By bringing the reality of the situation to light, stereotypes will be challenged and this will hopefully aid in building an atmosphere of acceptance. Ideally this project will help teach adults, and children, about foster care, stigmas, and special needs. Dissemination of this knowledge will be enacted through academic papers and a children’s book.

Physiological condition contributes to the productivity of anadromous salmonids and is particularly relevant in species that include large-scale migrations in their life histories. Sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) cease feeding before beginning their spawning migration to freshwaters and rely solely on energy storage for physiological function and survival. A considerable amount of energy is derived from lipids and previous research has highlighted the nutritional value of the eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid (omega-3 fatty acids) for human health. Additionally there is now a broad recognition that salmonids play an integral part in coastal food webs and provide substantial energetic resource subsidies to numerous consumers such as bears, birds, and resident fishes. What remains largely unknown about salmon lipid physiology is an understanding if a temporal selection for the metabolism of specific fatty acids exists, and if so then to what extent. Here, we characterized lipid (fatty acid) profiles across three major stages in freshwater migration (freshwater entry, midway, and senescence). Fatty acids were isolated by following a modified Bligh-Dyer protocol. We used gas chromatography and modeling functions to identify and quantify fatty acid trends. Total fatty acids were used as an indicator of available stored energy in tissues, while the relative quantities of individual fatty acids provide information on how these lipids are allocated to either energy for migration or specific physiological functions. Total fatty acids declined through the salmon run, but declines were not even across individual fatty acids. The proportion of several fatty acids (e.g. 24:1n-9) drastically decreased by senescence, while some fatty acid reserves were nearly completely metabolized (e.g. 18:3n-3). Our results have implications for understanding the mechanism and extent that migrating salmonids utilize lipids, which may partially determine their overall reproductive success.

The Hidden Valley is a new theory that extends the Standard Model, our current best description of particles and forces that make up our universe. The Hidden Valley theory, along with others, extends the Standard Model in an attempt describe phenomena like dark matter not yet included in the Standard Model. Hidden Valley particles do not interact with Standard Model particles, and are therefore impossible to directly detect. But by using their predicted decay products, we may be able to prove their existence. We are currently running simulations to try to give us an idea of what we should be looking for when we use data from the Large Haddon Collider at CERN. Features of the model and the search strategy will be presented.

The Hidden Valley is a new theory that extends the Standard Model, our current best description of particles and forces that make up our universe. The Hidden Valley theory, along with others, extends the Standard Model in an attempt to describe phenomena like dark matter not yet included in the Standard Model. Hidden Valley particles do not interact with Standard Model particles, and are therefore impossible to directly detect. But by using their predicted decay products we maybe be able to prove their existence. We are running simulations to try to give us an idea of what we should be looking for when we use data from the Large Haddon Collider at CERN. Features of the model and the search strategy will be presented.