Abstracts

Coral restoration efforts aim to preserve biodiversity and build self-sustaining, sexually reproducing coral populations. It is important to increase coral growth and survivorship, genotypic diversity, and enhance overall resilience. Historically, coral practitioners exclusively utilized corals from...

The project's overall objective is to study afferent nociceptor activity in the corneas of transgenicmice as a novel method for studying oral cancer pain. Using a scanning laser confocal for Ca2+imaging in vivo, we will assess the change in fluorescence of Ca-reporter GCaMP3 expressingsensory neuron...

There has been a significant decrease in American's support for the death penalty over the years. Consequently, we have witnessed more states abolishing the use of the death penalty. According to the data from the General Social Survey (GSS) 57% of Americans aged 65+ were in favor of ...

Positive affect (PA) is an important construct in the etiology and maintenance of anxiety and depressive disorders, and therefore an important treatment target to address for youth with such psychopathology and related impairment. Prior studies have yielded mixed results regarding the role that chan...

Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) can lead to impairment of cognitive and executive functions. Individuals can also develop chronic pain that may be neuropathic which may further impair these functions. The present study evaluated chronic pain in individuals with TBI-related pain and their association...

Pancreatic islet microencapsulation and localized delivery of immunomodulatory molecules may improve islet transplantation outcomes in type-1 diabetes (T1D) patients by preventing allograft rejection and maintaining metabolic control without chronic and systemic immunosuppression. Here, we encapsula...

Serotonin regulates vertebrate and invertebrate behaviors such as feeding, mood, aggression, perception, reproduction, and sleep. Serotonin has been implicated in psychiatric disorders such as depression, and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI), such as fluoxetine (aka Prozac), inhibit th...

Eye tracking is a tool that captures where an individual is looking on a screen, which can tell us about various types of perceptual, social, cognitive, and emotional processing. While eye tracking systems are typically designed for adults, they are increasingly used with human and primate infants, ...

Humans may have behavioral adaptations that serve as an early defense against infectious pathogens, helping them to avoid exposure to sickness. While adults detect and avoid cues of sickness in faces, less is known about how these abilities develop in children. This understanding is important becaus...

Racial and ethnic minority women in the United States are subject to various forms of violent victimization that happen across several social contexts, including interpersonal (e.g., intimate households), community (e.g., where women live and work, local social services), and societal (e.g., justice...

Organoids are 3D cellular structures for organ modeling and drug testing. Retinal organoids are needed to study diseases like retinoblastoma; however, their development is particularly difficult. To form inner retina cells, the organoids need to be in a hypoxic state, yet the outer retina cells cons...

Preschool experiences have a significant effect on children's language development, however, it is unclear which classroom activities are associated with language abilities and whether this association differs for children with disabilities. Some Classroom activities are highly structured and teache...

Background: Diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is the most common lymphoma diagnosis. Targeted therapeutics originally focused on the cell-of-origin hypothesis, which divides DLBCL into subtypes based on the origin of oncogenic cells. However, newer classifications point to a wider diversity...

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women. Prognosis and treatment depend on many factors, including the presence of estrogen and/or progesterone receptors (ER/PR) and levels of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2). More research is needed to understand how demographic and clinicop...

Cognitive flexibility is the ability to switch between a set of task rules, while affective flexibility is the ability to switch between emotional and non-emotional aspects of a stimulus.  Although there is research examining both of these types of flexible judgements, few studies have directly...

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is the leading cause of blindness in adults. Early DR treatment prevents retinal damage and reduces the severity of DR complications. Therefore, early detection is paramount because it allows timely treatment before vision loss. The earliest clinical manifestation of DR is ...

Disease modelling is an extremely powerful tool that provides insight to disease pathology in areas of the body that cannot be easily studied. 3D Organoid culture has become a hallmark in disease modelling, especially for specialized tissues of the brain which are impossible to study at the cellular...

Type I diabetes (T1D) results from T cell destruction of pancreatic beta-cells that leads to insulin ablation. Autoimmune attacks on beta cells occur, due to defective immune tolerance and escape of autoreactive T cells from regulation. There is no cure available for T1D, and patients rely on exogen...

A symbiotic relationship between two organisms accounts for an array of interactions that offer an even greater variety of resources such as food, shelter, protection, essential compounds, and a competitive advantage. Although the benefits of certain mutualisms may be well studied and understood, th...

Prostate cancer (PC) is the second leading cause of cancer-related death among men. The standard of care for locally advanced PC is androgen deprivation (AD) therapy, which eventually fails, leading to incurable and terminal castration resistant PC (CRPC). CRPC has few therapeutic options, due to th...

This study seeks to better understand the spatial epidemiology of triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) and associated neighborhood and built environment factors. The study is based in Miami-Dade County (MDC), a metropolitan region with a legacy of racial segregation that remains an i...

Cancer patients are vulnerable to neuroendocrine dysregulation, implicating cancer progression and poorer health outcomes. Resilience through spirituality may promote better adjustment to cancer diagnosis. This study examined the degree to which patients' spirituality is associated with neuroendocri...

In my experiences making paintings, I find that the completed works often effectively serve as bridges between my conscious mind and that of my audience thereby providing an evolutionary affirmation that we are not alone. My interest in creating art is rooted in my understanding that artistic creati...

Objectives:RECOVER is an ongoing, prospective cohort study inviting first responders, healthcare workers, and other frontline workers to complete weekly surveys and RT-PCR C19 testing. Enrollment surveys inquire about the percentage of time face masks are worn outside of work, allowing us to address...

Fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) is a technique that uses a confocal microscope to study the diffusion of molecules within a membrane. During FRAP, fluorescently-labeled molecules within a specified region of interest (ROI) are photobleached using a high-power laser. After photoblea...

Coral restoration projects are increasingly focusing on sexual reproduction to boost genetic variation, particularly after disturbances. Many restoration projects use ceramic settlement tiles as recruitment substrates, but the composition of these tiles is rarely investigated as a means of promoting...

The use of FibroScan® measurements, which determines liver shear elasticity, has shown to correlate with the degree of liver fibrosis. Liver fibrosis is characterized by loss of function and diminished blood flow through the liver. A longitudinal study was conducted at the Schiff Center for Live...

In adults and children, oxytocin is a neuropeptide positively associated with social engagement. Endogenous peripheral oxytocin can be unobtrusively measured through saliva. However, little is understood about the early development of the endogenous oxytocin system in infancy. Here, we studied wheth...

The RAS oncogene, which is mutated in over 95% of pancreatic cancers, relies on reactive oxygen species (ROS) to invoke oncogenic signaling that allows tumor cells to proliferate and survive. However excess ROS can also kill or proliferatively arrest cancer cells through oxidative stress and DNA dam...

The Unified Protocol for Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders in Children and Adolescents (UP-C/A) is effective in treating a variety of psychopathologies in youth; however, this effectiveness has not been examined with an idiographic measure, such as the Top Problems (TPA) assessment. P...