Social media use is at an all-time historic high for the United States, so we considered one popular social media platform, Twitter, and tried to see if we could predict how a group of people felt about an issue by only using posts from social media. For our research, we looked at tweets that focused on the 2016 United States presidential election. Using these tweets, we tried to find a correlation between tweet sentiment and the election results. We wrote a program to collect tweets that mentioned one of the two candidates, then sorted the tweets by state and developed a sentiment algorithm to see which candidate the tweet favored, or if it was neutral. After collecting the data from Twitter and comparing it to the results of the Electoral College, we found that Twitter sentiments corresponded with 66.7% of the actual outcome of the Electoral College. The overall sentiment of all tweets collected leaned more positively towards Donald Trump than it did for Hillary Clinton. Using the data that was collected, we also looked at how different geographical locations affected a candidate’s popularity, analyzed what issues were most prevalent in tweets, and looked at the ratio of a state’s population versus the number of tweets gathered.
{"title":"Sentiment Analysis of Tweets to Gain Insights into the 2016 US Election","authors":"Ankur Agrawal, Timothy Hamling","doi":"10.52214/CUSJ.V11I.6359","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.52214/CUSJ.V11I.6359","url":null,"abstract":"Social media use is at an all-time historic high for the United States, so we considered one popular social media platform, Twitter, and tried to see if we could predict how a group of people felt about an issue by only using posts from social media. For our research, we looked at tweets that focused on the 2016 United States presidential election. Using these tweets, we tried to find a correlation between tweet sentiment and the election results. We wrote a program to collect tweets that mentioned one of the two candidates, then sorted the tweets by state and developed a sentiment algorithm to see which candidate the tweet favored, or if it was neutral. After collecting the data from Twitter and comparing it to the results of the Electoral College, we found that Twitter sentiments corresponded with 66.7% of the actual outcome of the Electoral College. The overall sentiment of all tweets collected leaned more positively towards Donald Trump than it did for Hillary Clinton. Using the data that was collected, we also looked at how different geographical locations affected a candidate’s popularity, analyzed what issues were most prevalent in tweets, and looked at the ratio of a state’s population versus the number of tweets gathered.","PeriodicalId":339464,"journal":{"name":"Columbia Undergraduate Science Journal","volume":"54 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-01-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125160437","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Dear readers, The 2015–16 academic year saw many great developments at the Columbia Undergraduate Science Journal. Most notably, our team brought the new Columbia Research Scholars Journal from concept to first issue. The mission of this new journal is to connect high school researchers from around the world, so that they can meet fellow scientists within their respective fields and share their results. This year, we were amazed to see a diverse array of high-quality research projects, from plant-microbial fuel cells to visual adaptation in schizophrenia. The final selection of papers includes work in biology, chemistry, environmental engineering, computer science, and physics. In this year’s CUSJ Spring Symposium, held on April 10th, we were excited to welcome many undergraduate researchers in the New York area as well as some of our most distinguished high school CRSJ contributors. For the first time, we held a poster contest designed to reward great communication skills and novel research. The Awards of Excellence this year went to Justin Cheung and Andrew Saydjari. This year’s edition of the CUSJ includes four papers from Columbia University undergraduates in the areas of biomedicine and computational genomics. In the past, our policy has been to publish only research conducted by Columbia undergraduates. In order for the CUSJ to grow, we have decided to review submissions from undergraduates anywhere in the world. The CUSJ, CRSJ, and our successful events this year were made possible by the dedicated and meticulous work of our editing team and CEO Helen Yang. We all felt privileged to examine so many insightful research projects, and our new editors gained significant experience in reviewing submissions for two different journals. I am confident that next year’s board will uphold our rigorous review standards and successfully take on new ventures in our mission to bring science to the public. –Sean Ballinger
{"title":"A Letter from the Editor-in-Chief","authors":"S. Ballinger","doi":"10.52214/cusj.v10i.6363","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.52214/cusj.v10i.6363","url":null,"abstract":"Dear readers, \u0000The 2015–16 academic year saw many great developments at the Columbia Undergraduate Science Journal. Most notably, our team brought the new Columbia Research Scholars Journal from concept to first issue. The mission of this new journal is to connect high school researchers from around the world, so that they can meet fellow scientists within their respective fields and share their results. This year, we were amazed to see a diverse array of high-quality research projects, from plant-microbial fuel cells to visual adaptation in schizophrenia. The final selection of papers includes work in biology, chemistry, environmental engineering, computer science, and physics. \u0000In this year’s CUSJ Spring Symposium, held on April 10th, we were excited to welcome many undergraduate researchers in the New York area as well as some of our most distinguished high school CRSJ contributors. For the first time, we held a poster contest designed to reward great communication skills and novel research. The Awards of Excellence this year went to Justin Cheung and Andrew Saydjari. \u0000This year’s edition of the CUSJ includes four papers from Columbia University undergraduates in the areas of biomedicine and computational genomics. In the past, our policy has been to publish only research conducted by Columbia undergraduates. In order for the CUSJ to grow, we have decided to review submissions from undergraduates anywhere in the world. \u0000The CUSJ, CRSJ, and our successful events this year were made possible by the dedicated and meticulous work of our editing team and CEO Helen Yang. We all felt privileged to examine so many insightful research projects, and our new editors gained significant experience in reviewing submissions for two different journals. I am confident that next year’s board will uphold our rigorous review standards and successfully take on new ventures in our mission to bring science to the public. \u0000–Sean Ballinger","PeriodicalId":339464,"journal":{"name":"Columbia Undergraduate Science Journal","volume":"9 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-04-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129090924","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
After years of hard physical and mental training, they take their first steps to the shuttle, waving goodbye to all the spectators and Earth. These astronauts, originally scientists, teachers, pilots, and engineers, each endured at least three years of rigorous professional training before even applying to an astronaut program. Earning a bachelor’s degree is the minimum requirement for NASA positions, and the astronauts train beyond the classroom by swimming laps in a space suit to experience zero-gravity. A day in an astronaut’s life might start by climbing aboard the “vomit comet,” an aircraft that flies a parabolic path to simulate microgravity conditions. Astronauts also accustom themselves to move and work in weightlessness at the Neutral Buoyancy Lab in NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC). Behind the walls of this facility in Houston, Texas, these astronauts-in-training submerge themselves in a massive swimming pool while in clunky space suits. They navigate in full-scale underwater mockups of their shuttle and familiarize themselves with the life-size replica of the International Space Station (ISS). After years of training, these space pioneers stand at the launch pad with 1000 jet aircraft pilot-in-command hours in their pockets, thoroughly acquainted with every module on the ISS. NASA statistics claim that the launch shuttle sends our astronauts hurling into space at 18,000 mph, a speed nine times faster than the average rifle bullet. In just six hours, they arrive at the actual ISS, which spans about the width of an American football field. The docking process is actually the most complicated component of their journey; the spacecraft cannot dock without entering the correct orbit at the correct time, and there is no room for a mistake that might send the spacecraft crashing into the ISS. When the astronauts finally do make it onboard the ISS, they’ll find themselves inside a leviathan weighing nearly one million pounds. The astronauts have more space than a six-bedroom house and are required to exercise in the station’s gymnasium. They might walk through the main central truss and look through the 360o bay window, and then visit laboratories where physicists attempt to detect dark matter and biologists study muscle atrophy in zebrafish. To prevent loss of muscle and bone mass, our astronauts engage in scheduled exercise and various spaceship repairs every day, leaving them only an hour or two of free time in the mornings. Control center staff back on Earth likewise cannot sit back and relax. Orbital debris presents a constant, imminent danger to the wellbeing of the ISS. Station-crew and on-ground staff must do all that they can to protect this $150 billion flying space station from large debris while simultaneously conducting research and repairing the ship. The ISS is anything but permanent. Our astronauts’ toil will amount to nothing if we cannot raise the funds necessary to keep the station in orbit. Boeing predicts that
{"title":"Our Future in the Stars","authors":"A. Seetharaman, B. Lewis, Helen Yang","doi":"10.52214/cusj.v9i.6365","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.52214/cusj.v9i.6365","url":null,"abstract":"After years of hard physical and mental training, they take their first steps to the shuttle, waving goodbye to all the spectators and Earth. These astronauts, originally scientists, teachers, pilots, and engineers, each endured at least three years of rigorous professional training before even applying to an astronaut program. Earning a bachelor’s degree is the minimum requirement for NASA positions, and the astronauts train beyond the classroom by swimming laps in a space suit to experience zero-gravity. A day in an astronaut’s life might start by climbing aboard the “vomit comet,” an aircraft that flies a parabolic path to simulate microgravity conditions. Astronauts also accustom themselves to move and work in weightlessness at the Neutral Buoyancy Lab in NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC). Behind the walls of this facility in Houston, Texas, these astronauts-in-training submerge themselves in a massive swimming pool while in clunky space suits. They navigate in full-scale underwater mockups of their shuttle and familiarize themselves with the life-size replica of the International Space Station (ISS). \u0000After years of training, these space pioneers stand at the launch pad with 1000 jet aircraft pilot-in-command hours in their pockets, thoroughly acquainted with every module on the ISS. NASA statistics claim that the launch shuttle sends our astronauts hurling into space at 18,000 mph, a speed nine times faster than the average rifle bullet. In just six hours, they arrive at the actual ISS, which spans about the width of an American football field. The docking process is actually the most complicated component of their journey; the spacecraft cannot dock without entering the correct orbit at the correct time, and there is no room for a mistake that might send the spacecraft crashing into the ISS. \u0000 \u0000 \u0000 \u0000When the astronauts finally do make it onboard the ISS, they’ll find themselves inside a leviathan weighing nearly one million pounds. The astronauts have more space than a six-bedroom house and are required to exercise in the station’s gymnasium. They might walk through the main central truss and look through the 360o bay window, and then visit laboratories where physicists attempt to detect dark matter and biologists study muscle atrophy in zebrafish. To prevent loss of muscle and bone mass, our astronauts engage in scheduled exercise and various spaceship repairs every day, leaving them only an hour or two of free time in the mornings. Control center staff back on Earth likewise cannot sit back and relax. Orbital debris presents a constant, imminent danger to the wellbeing of the ISS. Station-crew and on-ground staff must do all that they can to protect this $150 billion flying space station from large debris while simultaneously conducting research and repairing the ship. \u0000 \u0000The ISS is anything but permanent. Our astronauts’ toil will amount to nothing if we cannot raise the funds necessary to keep the station in orbit. Boeing predicts that ","PeriodicalId":339464,"journal":{"name":"Columbia Undergraduate Science Journal","volume":"21 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-03-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114507294","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Recent research increasingly suggests that autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) can be caused by genetic factors. ASDs are one of the fastest growing neurodevelopmental disorders, encompassing a spectrum of disorders marked by difficulties with social interaction, communication (verbal and non-verbal), and unusual, repetitive behaviors. The etiology, or specific factors that cause a disorder, are is relatively uncertain for ASDs. Consequently, viable treatment options for ASDs have received greater attention among autism researchers – in particular, the neurological consequences of genetic mutations found in people with ASDs. In the past year, the literature has presented many novel treatments to address this promising neurobiological etiology of ASDs. The current trajectory of autism research, supported by a wealth of studies connecting genetic mutations in neural substrates to the core symptoms of ASDs, suggests a greater appreciation for and understanding of the genetic complexity that underlies ASDs. Additionally, results of ASD twin studies have encouraged consideration of environmental factors that may act as triggers for gene mutations associated with ASDs. Genetic and environmental factors are increasingly accepted as joint contributors to the etiology of ASDs, rather than isolated factors strictly regulated by nature or nurture, respectively. While there has been substantial progress on the geneticneurobiological front of ASD research in the past decade, there is a burgeoning avenue of geneticenvironmental ASD research. With impending changes to the definition of ASDs in the newest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (5th edition) in May 2013, it is likely that these multifactorial etiologies of ASDs will receive even greater attention in the field.
{"title":"The Evolving Role and Nature of Gene Mutations in the Neuropathology of Autism Spectrum Disorders","authors":"A. Tchaconas","doi":"10.52214/cusj.v7i.6368","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.52214/cusj.v7i.6368","url":null,"abstract":"Recent research increasingly suggests that autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) can be caused by genetic factors. ASDs are one of the fastest growing neurodevelopmental disorders, encompassing a spectrum of disorders marked by difficulties with social interaction, communication (verbal and non-verbal), and unusual, repetitive behaviors. The etiology, or specific factors that cause a disorder, are is relatively uncertain for ASDs. Consequently, viable treatment options for ASDs have received greater attention among autism researchers – in particular, the neurological consequences of genetic mutations found in people with ASDs. In the past year, the literature has presented many novel treatments to address this promising neurobiological etiology of ASDs. The current trajectory of autism research, supported by a wealth of studies connecting genetic mutations in neural substrates to the core symptoms of ASDs, suggests a greater appreciation for and understanding of the genetic complexity that underlies ASDs. Additionally, results of ASD twin studies have encouraged consideration of environmental factors that may act as triggers for gene mutations associated with ASDs. Genetic and environmental factors are increasingly accepted as joint contributors to the etiology of ASDs, rather than isolated factors strictly regulated by nature or nurture, respectively. While there has been substantial progress on the geneticneurobiological front of ASD research in the past decade, there is a burgeoning avenue of geneticenvironmental ASD research. With impending changes to the definition of ASDs in the newest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (5th edition) in May 2013, it is likely that these multifactorial etiologies of ASDs will receive even greater attention in the field.","PeriodicalId":339464,"journal":{"name":"Columbia Undergraduate Science Journal","volume":"61 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-03-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129091977","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Behavioral disorders arise from environmental, lifestyle, and genetic factors. Past studies have shown evidence for the hereditability of several major behavioral neuropsychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia, depression, and bipolar disorder. In these cases, certain genetic defects are passed down from parental generations and increase an offspring’s risk of inheriting a specific disorder. While neuropsychiatric disease susceptibility cannot be attributed solely to genetics, it is important to study how one’s genetic makeup can affect various facets of human behavior. Uncovering this link between genes and behavior could lead to the discovery of new biological factors involved in the development of highly prevalent neurological responses and disorders. A recent study in behavioral genetics has shown that there may be a genetic basis for irrational phobias. It highlights the possibility that phobias are a form of inherited defense mechanism passed down through familial genes. In this study, researchers Dias and Ressler from the Emory School of Medicine subjected mice to fear conditioning by exposing them to the scent of chemical acetophenone, which smells like cherry blossoms, before administering electric shocks to the mice. Offspring of these mice (which were not exposed to the same conditioning as their parents) showed fearful responses to the odor of acetophenone, even when smelling it for the first time. This demonstrated that they had acquired a phobia of the chemical odor. Structural abnormalities were also discovered in the olfactory bulbs of the offspring mice. Upon sequencing the mice’s sperm DNA, Dias found that the gene encoding M71, an odo receptor activated by acetophenone, was methylated in the conditioned parental and direct offspring generations. However, it is unknown whether this epigenetic alteration in sperm DNA was responsible for the offspring’s heightened odor sensitivity. It is possible that different biological mechanisms worked in conjunction to translate the inherited ancestral experiences to irrational phobias in the offspring. Other studies in behavioral genetics have shown that some neuropsychiatric disorders are less heritable—or have a weaker genetic component—than others. For example, while genes may account for more than half of the risk for certain neuropsychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, the hereditability of anxiety and depression appear to be lower. According to Dr. Pine at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, approximately 30-50% of the risk for anxiety and depression is genetic, while the other 50% to 70% of the risk may be attributed to environmental factors, such as substance use, stress, diet, and childhood experiences. Anxiety disorders are the most common form of mental illness in the U.S., affecting 18% of the total population. Depression is also common, with around 10% of Americans experiencing a major depressive disorder at some point in their lives. Despite the
行为障碍是由环境、生活方式和遗传因素引起的。过去的研究已经显示了一些主要的行为神经精神疾病的遗传证据，如精神分裂症、抑郁症和双相情感障碍。在这些情况下，某些遗传缺陷从父母几代遗传下来，增加了后代遗传某种特定疾病的风险。虽然神经精神疾病的易感性不能仅仅归因于遗传，但研究一个人的基因构成如何影响人类行为的各个方面是很重要的。揭示基因和行为之间的这种联系可能会导致发现涉及高度普遍的神经反应和疾病发展的新的生物学因素。最近的一项行为遗传学研究表明，非理性恐惧症可能有遗传基础。它强调了一种可能性，即恐惧症是一种通过家族基因传递下来的遗传防御机制。在这项研究中，来自埃默里医学院的研究人员迪亚斯和雷斯勒在对老鼠进行电击之前，通过将老鼠暴露在闻起来像樱花的化学苯乙酮的气味中，让它们进行恐惧调节。这些小鼠的后代(不像他们的父母那样暴露在相同的条件下)对苯乙酮的气味表现出恐惧的反应，即使是第一次闻到它。这表明它们对化学气味有一种恐惧症。在后代小鼠的嗅球中也发现了结构异常。在对小鼠精子DNA进行测序后，迪亚斯发现编码M71的基因(一种被苯乙酮激活的odo受体)在条件条件下的亲代和直系后代中被甲基化。然而，尚不清楚精子DNA的这种表观遗传改变是否导致了后代气味敏感性的提高。有可能是不同的生物机制共同作用，将遗传的祖先经历转化为后代的非理性恐惧症。行为遗传学的其他研究表明，一些神经精神疾病的遗传性较弱，或者遗传成分较弱。例如，虽然基因可能占某些神经精神疾病(如精神分裂症或双相情感障碍)风险的一半以上，但焦虑和抑郁的可遗传性似乎较低。冷泉港实验室(Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)的Pine博士表示，大约30-50%的焦虑和抑郁风险是遗传的，而另外50% - 70%的风险可能归因于环境因素，如药物使用、压力、饮食和童年经历。焦虑症是美国最常见的精神疾病，影响了总人口的18%。抑郁症也很常见，大约10%的美国人在他们生命中的某个阶段经历过严重的抑郁症。尽管患病率很高，但与其他神经精神疾病相比，焦虑和抑郁的遗传倾向较弱。作为科学家，我们必须确定为什么会这样。是因为基因缺陷数量的不同吗?例如，与焦虑和抑郁相关的基因变异是否少于与其他更易遗传的疾病相关的基因变异?或者是抑郁/焦虑基因在进化上不那么保守?只有回答了这些问题，我们才能对这些疾病的遗传根源有一个坚定的了解，并找到预防或对抗这些疾病的方法。我们必须检查基因缺陷本身。也许，在遗传率相对较低的行为障碍中，基因变异只对大脑的主要通路造成最小程度的破坏。在这种情况下，研究引发行为反应的非遗传因素将是明智的。此外，心理动力学治疗方法——在精神病医生的帮助下减轻病人的精神紧张——可能比侵入性的医疗程序更有帮助。另一方面，个性化医疗，如基因治疗，可能是治疗精神分裂症等显著遗传性疾病的最佳选择。通过基因检测的进步，医生能够进行症状前诊断测试，以了解有遗传性神经系统疾病家族史的患者的风险。检测可以检测异常，包括患者DNA或RNA样本中缺失或严重改变的基因部分，或失活或丢失的基因。在其他情况下，测试可能会检测到来自单个基因的过量RNA，表明它在体内过度表达。识别和修复遗传密码中这些有问题的序列需要广泛的人类基因组知识。提供个性化医疗的医生必须考虑到病人的基因构成，以确定针对某种疾病的最佳治疗形式。 通过基因研究，我们正在慢慢揭开许多神经精神疾病的生物学基础。了解基因在高度普遍的神经反应(如焦虑和恐惧症)中的作用，对于为患有这些疾病的患者设计有效的治疗方法至关重要。具体来说，通过识别与遗传性神经精神疾病相关的遗传标记，我们可以分析患者的疾病遗传风险和对现有药物治疗的反应性。这些知识将对医学界和医学的未来产生强大的影响。
{"title":"The Genetics of Human Behavior","authors":"D. Streid, Katherine J. Kim","doi":"10.52214/cusj.v9i.6366","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.52214/cusj.v9i.6366","url":null,"abstract":"Behavioral disorders arise from environmental, lifestyle, and genetic factors. Past studies have shown evidence for the hereditability of several major behavioral neuropsychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia, depression, and bipolar disorder. In these cases, certain genetic defects are passed down from parental generations and increase an offspring’s risk of inheriting a specific disorder. While neuropsychiatric disease susceptibility cannot be attributed solely to genetics, it is important to study how one’s genetic makeup can affect various facets of human behavior. Uncovering this link between genes and behavior could lead to the discovery of new biological factors involved in the development of highly prevalent neurological responses and disorders. \u0000A recent study in behavioral genetics has shown that there may be a genetic basis for irrational phobias. It highlights the possibility that phobias are a form of inherited defense mechanism passed down through familial genes. In this study, researchers Dias and Ressler from the Emory School of Medicine subjected mice to fear conditioning by exposing them to the scent of chemical acetophenone, which smells like cherry blossoms, before administering electric shocks to the mice. Offspring of these mice (which were not exposed to the same conditioning as their parents) showed fearful responses to the odor of acetophenone, even when smelling it for the first time. This demonstrated that they had acquired a phobia of the chemical odor. \u0000Structural abnormalities were also discovered in the olfactory bulbs of the offspring mice. Upon sequencing the mice’s sperm DNA, Dias found that the gene encoding M71, an odo receptor activated by acetophenone, was methylated in the conditioned parental and direct offspring generations. However, it is unknown whether this epigenetic alteration in sperm DNA was responsible for the offspring’s heightened odor sensitivity. It is possible that different biological mechanisms worked in conjunction to translate the inherited ancestral experiences to irrational phobias in the offspring. \u0000Other studies in behavioral genetics have shown that some neuropsychiatric disorders are less heritable—or have a weaker genetic component—than others. For example, while genes may account for more than half of the risk for certain neuropsychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, the hereditability of anxiety and depression appear to be lower. According to Dr. Pine at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, approximately 30-50% of the risk for anxiety and depression is genetic, while the other 50% to 70% of the risk may be attributed to environmental factors, such as substance use, stress, diet, and childhood experiences. \u0000Anxiety disorders are the most common form of mental illness in the U.S., affecting 18% of the total population. Depression is also common, with around 10% of Americans experiencing a major depressive disorder at some point in their lives. Despite the ","PeriodicalId":339464,"journal":{"name":"Columbia Undergraduate Science Journal","volume":"152 9 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-01-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131241689","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
For a successful pregnancy, the uterus and the cervix work together as a biomechanical structure to protect the fetus until term. During gestation, typically 37 weeks, the uterus undergoes a growth transformation to accommodate the growing fetus and to prepare for labor. This uterine growth is characterized by an increase of its wet weight, elastin content, and collagen content. Then at parturition, the uterus must contract while the cervix ripens and dilates to allow the passage of the fetus. The transformation mentioned above is believed to be responsible for the contractions, and any deviations from the expected biochemical transformation put both the mother and baby in danger. The goals of this study are to quantify and compare the biochemical and biomechanical properties of uterine tissue from normal and abnormal mouse models of pregnancy. This study utilizes Anthrax toxin receptor 2 knock-out mice (Antxr2 -/-), which exhibit an accumulation of collagen in the cervix and uterus as a result of a defect in the maintenance of their extracellular matrix (ECM). Uterine tissues from nonpregnant Antxr2 -/- and non-pregnant wild type mice (Antxr2 +/+) were tested. Tissue samples were tested for collagen content, collagen crosslink strength (i.e. collagen extractability) and were subjected to tensile mechanical testing. Results from the biochemical assays revealed that the Antxr2 -/- uterine samples had significantly higher levels of collagen. It was also revealed that collagen extractability was region-dependent. Lastly, mechanical testing proved that Antxr2 -/- uterine tissue is mechanically stronger than Antxr2 +/+ (peak stress 0.078 MPa and 0.04 MPa). This study presents one of the first attempts to correlate the biochemical makeup of the uterus to its biomechanical properties.
{"title":"Characterizing the Biomechanical and Biochemical Properties of Mouse Uterine Tissue","authors":"Eli Mondragón, K. Myers, Kyoko Yoshida","doi":"10.52214/cusj.v7i.6367","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.52214/cusj.v7i.6367","url":null,"abstract":"For a successful pregnancy, the uterus and the cervix work together as a biomechanical structure to protect the fetus until term. During gestation, typically 37 weeks, the uterus undergoes a growth transformation to accommodate the growing fetus and to prepare for labor. This uterine growth is characterized by an increase of its wet weight, elastin content, and collagen content. Then at parturition, the uterus must contract while the cervix ripens and dilates to allow the passage of the fetus. The transformation mentioned above is believed to be responsible for the contractions, and any deviations from the expected biochemical transformation put both the mother and baby in danger. The goals of this study are to quantify and compare the biochemical and biomechanical properties of uterine tissue from normal and abnormal mouse models of pregnancy. This study utilizes Anthrax toxin receptor 2 knock-out mice (Antxr2 -/-), which exhibit an accumulation of collagen in the cervix and uterus as a result of a defect in the maintenance of their extracellular matrix (ECM). Uterine tissues from nonpregnant Antxr2 -/- and non-pregnant wild type mice (Antxr2 +/+) were tested. Tissue samples were tested for collagen content, collagen crosslink strength (i.e. collagen extractability) and were subjected to tensile mechanical testing. Results from the biochemical assays revealed that the Antxr2 -/- uterine samples had significantly higher levels of collagen. It was also revealed that collagen extractability was region-dependent. Lastly, mechanical testing proved that Antxr2 -/- uterine tissue is mechanically stronger than Antxr2 +/+ (peak stress 0.078 MPa and 0.04 MPa). This study presents one of the first attempts to correlate the biochemical makeup of the uterus to its biomechanical properties.","PeriodicalId":339464,"journal":{"name":"Columbia Undergraduate Science Journal","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-01-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131032204","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The discovery that adjuvant treatment (chemotherapy and radiotherapy) after lumpectomy contributes to high survival rates has been a groundbreaking development in modern breast cancer care. Participatory decision-making (PDM) is a communication style that involves active interactions and discourse between doctors and patients. Although the receipt of adjuvant therapy for various types of cancers has been found to be linked to differences in patient-physician communication, few studies have explored whether this relationship exists in breast cancer treatment. The present study, one of the first explicitly to examine demographic and psychosocial factors that may be related to adjuvant treatment rates, surveyed a sample of inner-city breast cancer patients (N = 105) about the type of care they received, assessing concomitant levels of participatory decision making (PDM), and anxiety. The results demonstrated that patients who indicated higher PDM tended to have lower levels of anxiety (p < .01). Breast cancer patients who saw female oncologists were more likely to receive adjuvant treatment than breast cancer patients who saw male oncologists (p < .05). Contrary to popular belief, patients reported equivalent levels of PDM and anxiety regardless of their physician’s gender or their receipt of adjuvant treatment. The surprisingly low adjuvant treatment rates (45%) in this sample suggest possible system failures in breast cancer care and indicate that more attention needs to be given to public education on the importance of receiving follow-up treatment in breast cancer care.
{"title":"Relationships between Oncologist Gender, Participatory Decision Making, Anxiety and Breast Cancer Care","authors":"Allyson J. Weseley, Kevin Xu","doi":"10.52214/cusj.v5i.6371","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.52214/cusj.v5i.6371","url":null,"abstract":"The discovery that adjuvant treatment (chemotherapy and radiotherapy) after lumpectomy contributes to high survival rates has been a groundbreaking development in modern breast cancer care. Participatory decision-making (PDM) is a communication style that involves active interactions and discourse between doctors and patients. Although the receipt of adjuvant therapy for various types of cancers has been found to be linked to differences in patient-physician communication, few studies have explored whether this relationship exists in breast cancer treatment. The present study, one of the first explicitly to examine demographic and psychosocial factors that may be related to adjuvant treatment rates, surveyed a sample of inner-city breast cancer patients (N = 105) about the type of care they received, assessing concomitant levels of participatory decision making (PDM), and anxiety. The results demonstrated that patients who indicated higher PDM tended to have lower levels of anxiety (p < .01). Breast cancer patients who saw female oncologists were more likely to receive adjuvant treatment than breast cancer patients who saw male oncologists (p < .05). Contrary to popular belief, patients reported equivalent levels of PDM and anxiety regardless of their physician’s gender or their receipt of adjuvant treatment. The surprisingly low adjuvant treatment rates (45%) in this sample suggest possible system failures in breast cancer care and indicate that more attention needs to be given to public education on the importance of receiving follow-up treatment in breast cancer care.","PeriodicalId":339464,"journal":{"name":"Columbia Undergraduate Science Journal","volume":"60 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-01-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126568974","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Dear Readers, 2014 proved to be an instrumental year for the growth and total revitalization of the Columbia Undergraduate Science Journal. Our associate editors, CEO and myself looked forward to recruiting a new editorial board made up of underclassmen and building strong relationships with these editors through weekly workshops and event planning meetings. I am especially proud of our board’s commitment to building strong relationships; what was once a journal that lacked mentorship opportunities has now blossomed into a tight-knit community of aspiring researchers who value the power of quality writing. A highlight of our events this past year was our Spring Undergraduate Research Symposium, which was held on April 20th, 2014. 22 research posters were presented by students from colleges across the Northeast Region. It was delightful to feel the passion from each of these students as they talked about their research, and we look forward to hosting the symposium again on April 26th, as we have expanded the event to include 30 posters. Looking at this year’s journal, I am also proud to see the various authors and research that we have been blessed to exhibit. For the first time, our editors have been given the opportunity to publish in the journal through our editorials section. We are thrilled to provide these fresh perspectives on scientific research to our audience and hope to continue this practice in future journals. In addition, the multi-page papers in this journal showcase the breadth of scientific research that our organization promotes. I sincerely hope that you enjoy the articles. All in all, the Columbia Undergraduate Science Journal has made major progress over the past year. “Stability leads to legitimacy” has been our mantra this academic year, and our e-board has provided the stability needed to give meaningful experiences for our editorial board and a quality publication for our readers. Thank you for your continued support. It has been an honor to serve as the Editor-in-Chief of the Columbia Undergraduate Science Journal for this past year. – Ritish Patnaik
{"title":"A Letter from the Editor-in-Chief","authors":"Ritish Patnaik","doi":"10.52214/cusj.v9i.6364","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.52214/cusj.v9i.6364","url":null,"abstract":"Dear Readers, \u00002014 proved to be an instrumental year for the growth and total revitalization of the Columbia Undergraduate Science Journal. Our associate editors, CEO and myself looked forward to recruiting a new editorial board made up of underclassmen and building strong relationships with these editors through weekly workshops and event planning meetings. I am especially proud of our board’s commitment to building strong relationships; what was once a journal that lacked mentorship opportunities has now blossomed into a tight-knit community of aspiring researchers who value the power of quality writing. \u0000A highlight of our events this past year was our Spring Undergraduate Research Symposium, which was held on April 20th, 2014. 22 research posters were presented by students from colleges across the Northeast Region. It was delightful to feel the passion from each of these students as they talked about their research, and we look forward to hosting the symposium again on April 26th, as we have expanded the event to include 30 posters. \u0000 \u0000Looking at this year’s journal, I am also proud to see the various authors and research that we have been blessed to exhibit. For the first time, our editors have been given the opportunity to publish in the journal through our editorials section. We are thrilled to provide these fresh perspectives on scientific research to our audience and hope to continue this practice in future journals. In addition, the multi-page papers in this journal showcase the breadth of scientific research that our organization promotes. I sincerely hope that you enjoy the articles. \u0000All in all, the Columbia Undergraduate Science Journal has made major progress over the past year. “Stability leads to legitimacy” has been our mantra this academic year, and our e-board has provided the stability needed to give meaningful experiences for our editorial board and a quality publication for our readers. Thank you for your continued support. It has been an honor to serve as the Editor-in-Chief of the Columbia Undergraduate Science Journal for this past year. \u0000– Ritish Patnaik \u0000","PeriodicalId":339464,"journal":{"name":"Columbia Undergraduate Science Journal","volume":"10 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-01-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133987018","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Surface Acoustic Waves cause Net Reduction in Mouse and Human Melanoma Growth in vitro","authors":"Harold Jacob, J. Loike, Jona Zumeris, K. Kothari","doi":"10.52214/cusj.v5i.6372","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.52214/cusj.v5i.6372","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract and publication unavailable. ","PeriodicalId":339464,"journal":{"name":"Columbia Undergraduate Science Journal","volume":"11 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-01-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124292316","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Andra Mihali, C. Sorrento, Francine S Katz, Genevieve J. Kaunitz, J. Macdonald, S. Subramani, S. Rayport
In the brain, phosphate-activated glutaminase catalyzes the recycling of glutamine back to glutamate for excitatory neurotransmission. In mice, genetic knockdown of phosphate-activated glutaminase has been shown to confer resilience to schizophrenia-like symptoms, suggesting that inhibition of glutaminase may have therapeutic potential for the pharmacotherapy of schizophrenia. As there are no known neuroactive inhibitors of glutaminase, i.e. inhibitors that get into the brain, high-throughput screening of a library of 58,000 neuroative compounds was conducted using a fluorescence-based assay; this screen identified 320 potential glutaminase inhibitors. A secondary screen was carried out to access specificity; this yielded 10 hits. Using a kinetic analysis, two leads with low micromolar activity were found.
{"title":"Identification of Inhibitors of Phosphate-activated Glutaminase for the Pharmacotherapy of Schizophrenia","authors":"Andra Mihali, C. Sorrento, Francine S Katz, Genevieve J. Kaunitz, J. Macdonald, S. Subramani, S. Rayport","doi":"10.52214/cusj.v6i.6369","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.52214/cusj.v6i.6369","url":null,"abstract":"In the brain, phosphate-activated glutaminase catalyzes the recycling of glutamine back to glutamate for excitatory neurotransmission. In mice, genetic knockdown of phosphate-activated glutaminase has been shown to confer resilience to schizophrenia-like symptoms, suggesting that inhibition of glutaminase may have therapeutic potential for the pharmacotherapy of schizophrenia. As there are no known neuroactive inhibitors of glutaminase, i.e. inhibitors that get into the brain, high-throughput screening of a library of 58,000 neuroative compounds was conducted using a fluorescence-based assay; this screen identified 320 potential glutaminase inhibitors. A secondary screen was carried out to access specificity; this yielded 10 hits. Using a kinetic analysis, two leads with low micromolar activity were found.","PeriodicalId":339464,"journal":{"name":"Columbia Undergraduate Science Journal","volume":"35 1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133929829","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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