Since the mid-1990s, the Implicit Association Test (IAT) has been used in psychological experiments to measure the strength of a person’s automatic associations between concepts and attributes. The Brief IAT (BIAT) uses a procedure similar to the standard IAT, but with simplified instructions and different task structures. Unlike the standard version, the BIAT instructs subjects to focus on only two of four categories (focal categories) and respond to them with a “focal” key and to the other two categories (non-focal categories) with a “non-focal” key. By means of the BIAT, the present study examined whether race categories (represented by surnames) are associated with positive or negative valence (represented by pleasant-meaning or unpleasant-meaning words). It also correlated the BIAT’s association strengths with those obtained from the standard IAT. One hundred and ten volunteer undergraduate students from the University of Washington completed six BIATs and two standard IATs. Three of the six BIATs differed from the other three only in the identity of the fourth category (e.g., Black American versus White American names). The two standard IATs, which used the same four categories as their BIAT equivalents, also differed from each other in the identity of their fourth category. Self-report measures of race attitude were administered. D scores, an effect-size measure, were calculated to estimate the strengths of association between categories. The significance of this research lies in its potential to support the development of more valid and useful IAT methods for evaluating a person’s implicit attitudes toward socially-sensitive concepts.

Plastic debris in the marine environment has been a growing concern due to its durability in the ocean environment and the potential to have a variety of impacts on marine organisms. Characterization of plastic debris is approached via size as macroplastics (> 5mm), microplastics (5-0.330mm), and nanoplastics (<0.330mm), all of which are located in surface waters, within the water column, on beaches and within seafloor sediments. This is a preliminary study on monitoring plastics debris in marine sediments in Puget Sound with the goal of establish a baseline to determine the concentrations of plastics in marine benthic communities and work to deepen our understanding of the impacts of plastic debris on marine ecosystems throughout the Pacific Northwest. In collaboration with the Washington State Department of Ecology’s, Marine Sediment Monitoring Team (MSMT) and the Puget Sound Ecosystem Monitoring Program (PSEMP), ten samples weighing 200 grams each were processed and analyzed from different stations around Puget Sound. Plastic fibers of various colors and sizes were found throughout the samples as well as white plastic shards; foam and film. After multiple density separations it was determined that Bellingham had the highest concentration of microplastics at 2.48E-03 milligram (mg) of microplastics per gram (g) of sediment. The lowest concentration was found at Sinclair Inlet with 4E-05 (mg/g) of microplastics. Further analysis was performed to determine whether there was a correlation between concentration of microplastics and particle size of sand, silt and clay at each of the ten stations sampled. When comparing percent of sand, silt and clay it was determined that there was no correlation with an R value of 0.04 for sand, 0.01 for silt and 0.1 for clay. Future studies include identifying each plastic fiber using infrared spectroscopy and processing/analyzing samples gathered from past years.

Alexandrium is a genus of dinoflagellate that produces saxitoxin, which is known to cause paralytic shellfish poisoning when shellfish contaminated with high concentrations of Alexandrium are consumed. Due to the possibility of toxicity and negative economic impacts, the presence of Alexandrium is regularly monitored throughout the Puget Sound. Alexandrium spends part of its life cycle as a cyst in the sediment before germinating to become a free-swimming dinoflagellate. Alexandrium cysts in surface sediments are used to determine the present spatial distribution of this organism. Cyst concentrations in sediment cores can be used to evaluate historical presence and temporal variability. A research project from 2005, funded by NOAA’s ECOHAB program, has shown that surface sediments in Quartermaster Harbor (QMH), a harbor with low flushing rates due to its geographical orientation, have the highest abundance of Alexandrium cysts in Puget Sound. In July 2010, sediment cores were collected from five locations in Puget Sound to determine the historical distribution of Alexandrium. The purpose of this study is to quantify Alexandrium cyst concentrations in a 202 cm Kasten core collected from the inner harbor of QMH. Sediments were prepared for by sieving material between 20 and 90 µm and staining with Primulin before being analyzed for Alexandrium presence under epifluorescence using an FITS filter on a compound microscope. Preliminary results show maximum cysts/mL sediment near the surface, regressing to 0 cysts/mL sediment below 30 cm. The core was characterized by analyzing the grain-size distribution and organic content of each sub-sample of the core in order to determine if there is a relationship between cyst abundance and these properties. 210Pb dating was completed in order to correlate cyst abundance and local changes to the harbor.

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is a common chronic viral infection that can cause significant complications in bone marrow transplant (BMT) recipients and other immunocompromised people. Using stored serum from BMT patients who were CMV negative but had a CMV positive donor, we have identified a group of patients who appear to have had self-limited infection, where DNA from CMV was found in their serum then resolved without therapy. It is thought that donor-derived, entry specific neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) bind to the virus and prevent entry into cells and infection. In this study, we measured the CMV NAb activity in patients with self-limited infection and compared this to similar patients who developed chronic infection. Specifically, serially diluted patient sera was incubated with a standard quantity of CMV, and the relative decrease of cellular infection was assessed. Our CMV strain contains a green fluorescent protein (GFP) gene that is expressed by infected cells. The virus-serum mixture was incubated with human epithelial cells for one hour, and then washed away. On day 7, we measured the fluorescence emitted by infected cells and constructed a standard curve to compare the fluorescence of the cells with sera to those without virus and those without serum. We calculated the serum concentration required to neutralize 50% of the virus (IC-50). Because NAbs prevent CMV entry into cells, those with self-limited infection may have greater NAb activity (i.e. IC-50) than patients who develop infection. We have measured the IC-50 in serum from 7 healthy donors. These preliminary data indicated that people with high NAb activity have a log₂IC-50 of 9-11, where CMV negative people have a log₂IC-50 <3. We are now measuring the NAb activity of patient samples. If NAb activity is important for prevention of infection, this may aid development of CMV vaccines and therapeutics.

Propositions are cognitive structures centered on verbs of action or existences (e.g., Maria plays golf or Maria is a golfer). Implicit Association Tests (IATs) measure associations among concepts in the simpler form of categories that can often be represented by single words (e.g., nouns, adjectives, verbs). To test whether IATs can measure associations involving propositions, this research tested variations of an IAT measuring implicit-attitude associations of Democrat and Republican categories with valence. The first two variations replaced the two political party categories with concepts that could be exemplified by propositions (Democrat victory and Republican victory). A one-verb variation used exemplars in the form of recognizable names (e.g., Obama, Romney) followed by the verb “wins”. This worked successfully and was comparable in properties to the basic 2-category IAT. An opposed-verb variation used exemplars incorporating opposed verbs (e.g., Obama wins and Romney loses for the Democrat victory concept). This proved difficult for subjects, in addition to which the resulting IAT measure did not correlate as expected with self-reported political attitudes. A final phrase IAT variation returned to the two parties as concepts, but used exemplar stimuli in the form of short phrases (e.g., common core) extracted from full statements of Republican and Democrat policy positions (e.g., The U.S. government should specify basic requirements (‘common core’) for public education). Subjects received initial practice linking the short phrases to the full policy statements. The phrase IAT was easier for subjects than the opposed-verb IAT and correlated as expected with self-report measures, indicating its possibility of being used more generally to measure associations involving proposition-level concepts.

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a common herpes virus that causes severe illness in immunocompromised patients, such as transplant recipients. Due to scarcity of matching donors, it is sometimes necessary to give a patient who is CMV-negative hematopoietic stem cells from a donor who is positive, resulting in a 25% risk of infection. A study was performed 30 years ago to determine if giving patients immune globulin with high levels of CMV-specific antibodies (CMV-IVIG) could prevent infection. The hypothesis was that CMV-specific antibodies would bind to and neutralize the virus before it could establish infection in the patient. The results demonstrated decreased risk of infection among patients who received CMV-IVIG compared to those who did not (controls). However, because of the poor diagnostic and treatment options available for CMV at this time, there was no difference in the rate of illness or survival, so the strategy was abandoned. Using samples from this trial, we will measure the ability of antibodies to prevent CMV entry into epithelial cells utilizing a novel neutralizing-antibody (NAb) assay. A standard concentration of a green fluorescent protein (GFP) labeled, CMV strain is added to dilutions of patient sera. The virus and sera solutions are overlaid onto epithelial cells for one hour and then washed. The cells are incubated for one week and the intensity of GFP fluorescence is measured. We construct a standard curve and extrapolate the concentration of serum required to neutralize 50% of the virus (IC-50). We hypothesize that patients who received CMV-IVIG will have higher NAb activity than controls. We have completed testing of 17/63 patients. The mean log₂IC-50 of patients who received CMV-IVIG (n=8) was 6.25, compared to 5.33 in controls (n=9). Identification of a marker that predicts prevention of CMV infection would be important for CMV vaccine development.