The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV - 1) infects and kills CD4 + T - lymphocytes causing a progressive loss of host immune competence, which ultimately leads to AIDS. RNA interference, as mediated by short interfering RNAs (siRNAs) designed to target viral mRNAs and expressed endogenously, offer a potential gene therapy approach to inhibit HIV replication. However, a simple and reliable method to screen the silencing activity of particular anti - HIV siRNAs is useful prior to conducting more extensive experimentation to determine the downstream effects on viral replication. Here, a short hairpin RNA (shRNA) targeting HIV - 1 Rev (Revsh8526) was designed and cloned into an expression plasmid under the control of the RNA Polymerase III H1 promoter. To test the ability of Revsh8526 to silence Rev, a chimeric β - galactosidase reporter plasmid containing Rev exon 2 ( β - galactosidase - RevE2) was generated. The ability of Revsh8526 to target and inhibit reporter gene expression was shown by X - gal staining and ortho - nitrophenyl - β - galactoside (ONPG) assay. The results of these assays indicated Revsh8526 effectively targeted and significantly inhibited β - galactosidase expression as compared to a non - targeted shRNA. These results show the utility of the chimeric β - galactosidase reporter in initial screening of siRNA reagents.
Increased drinking water contaminant concentrations have been frequently reported in communities with higher minority percentages as well as those with lower average incomes, causing numerous adverse effects. This study expands on current knowledge, examining lead concentrations in public school drinking water as it compares to each school ’ s percentage of minority and poverty students, using a linear regression for each factor. Twenty - one schools participated in the study and provided three water fountain samples each, totaling 63 samples. The former regression regarding minority percentages yielded a p - value of 0.003 as well as a r - value of 0.602. The latter regression yielded a p - value of 0.010 and a r - value of 0.540. Both regressions showed significant correlations between socioeconomic factors and lead concentrations (p - value < 0.005 and r - value between 0.5 and 0.7). A linear regression was also conducted between minority and poverty percentages and yielded a p - value of 0.000 and a r - value of 0.964. While these socioeconomic factors are highly significantly correlated, the factors are not identical and yielded different p - values and r - values when compared to lead content. The regression argues that while minority and poverty percentages in student populations significantly correlate with lead concentrations in drinking water, minority percentages are more significantly correlated, and therefore a better predictor of lead, than poverty percentages. This suggests that there is a systemic problem in water access, where lower - income and predominantly minority populations endure lasting health effects that higher - income and minimally minority populations endure less.
The SARS - CoV - 2 virus (COVID - 19) pandemic has exposed the lack of preparedness of many advanced countries and their methodology to bring it under control. Understanding the trajectory and spread pattern of virus carrying airborne respiratory aerosol droplets with quantifiable data can solidify or negate the guidelines for social distancing, and disease control and spread. Carbon nanotubes (CNT) sensors, CSM - eSTEP cough stimulator, optical particle sizer, and a particle image velocimetry (PIV) were used to: a) quantify velocity of exhaled air from cough under normal physiological condition, b) evaluate and quantify transport of aerosol particles from a simulated cough and c) dispersion characteristics of aerosol droplets within the six feet to validate guidelines set by CDC. This experimental trial validated that a cough (teenager and adult) air flow pressure is equivalent to 30 - 50 PSI compressed air flow from an orifice. The cough air flow trajectory was found to be detectable and quantifiable by sensors as far as 1.3 meters away from source. Further experimentation revealed a statistically high number (10 cm away, F(2,87)=4.76, p<0.012, and 1.8 m away, F (2,87) = 4.18, p<0.018) of aerosols particles detected beyond the social distance guideline set by CDC. Lastly, the PIV and velocity vectors reveal the disorderly spread of the aerosol particles thus requiring thorough sanitization in addition to social distancing guidelines. In the future, different indoor criteria of humidity, temperature and HVAC air flow will be set to understand virus laden aerosol velocity vectors.
Partially due to the pandemic, artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbots in telemedicine are a recent advancement in the medical field and are pushing the medical community forward toward automated healthcare. The purpose of this research was to discover whether AI chatbots are effective in giving a patient an idea of what medical condition he/she might have before consulting a medical professional. The hypothesis was that of the four AI chatbots that were used -- Symptomate, Ada, Isabel Symptom Checker, and K Health -- K Health was the one that would be the most accurate. This prediction was made based on the user interface and the accessibility of the app. Chatbots were tested by first developing a set of medical symptoms after consulting with a medical professional. The predetermined medical symptoms were input into the AI chatbots which then gave a diagnosis. Out of thirty trials, the accuracy of the chatbots were as follows. Symptomate averaged 66% correct diagnoses, Isabel Symptom Checker averaged 86% correct diagnosis, K health and ADA scored with a mean of 80% accuracy. Since the F u was less than F the null hypothesis failed to be rejected.
The use of a foreign language has been observed to increase deliberative thinking, favoring utilitarian decisions when making decisions involving moral dilemmas. Previous investigations of the foreign language effect have been heavily limited to written stimuli, and very few have observed simultaneous bilinguals. In the current study, the impact of the auditory foreign language effect on moral decision - making in simultaneous English/Mandarin bilinguals is investigated using a participant group with ages ranging from 14 - 19. A survey containing audio recordings of 8 moral dilemmas was presented entirely in Mandarin or in English
As people continue to streamline everyday life with technology, the use of speech recognition has been made available in smartphones, speakers, cars, and more. The process of converting audio to text is known as automatic speech recognition (ASR), and current research is focused on improving robustness to speaker variability and background noises. One way to do so is speaker adaptation, which uses a small dataset of speech from one speaker to boost the program ’ s accuracy on the chosen speaker. Due to the literature gap around an accuracy improvement goal for speaker adaptation, this research project aimed to set this goal by directly training ASR programs on the target speaker. It was hypothesized that training the model on data from a specific speaker would improve the model ’ s accuracy when transcribing different speech from the same speaker. Using the Kaldi Toolkit and TIMIT Speech Corpus, speaker - independent and partially speaker - dependent models were trained. Using phone error rate (PER) as a metric for accuracy, it was found that training the model on the target speaker improved mean target speaker accuracy by an absolute PER of 7.4% and mean overall accuracy by 0.5%. Inferential statistics with t - tests revealed that both the increase in target speaker accuracy t(47.52) = 19.90, p < 0.001 and the increase in overall accuracy t(57.97) = 3.33, p = 0.0015 were significant. As a result, this experiment presents a successful partially speaker - dependent system that can be used as a goal for novel speaker adaptation approaches.
Escherichia coli contamination is a major health concern that can cause adverse health effects like fever and gastrointestinal illness. White - rot fungi produce exoenzymes that degrade pollutants, including E. coli , in a process called mycoremediation. The degradation abilities of Pleurotus ostreatus , Stropharia rugosoannulata , and Trametes versicolor have been examined in previous literature, but no studies have compared their abilities to remediate E. coli - contaminated water. The purpose of this study was to directly compare the abilities of these fungi to degrade E. coli in water. It was hypothesized that white - rot fungi would decrease E. coli concentration in water, and T. versicolor would remove more E. coli than P. ostreatus and S. rugosoannulata . After culturing fungi with wheat straw, E. coli - inoculated water was added to each sample. Initial and final concentrations (CFU/mL) of E. coli were determined following serial dilutions. T. versicolor treatments resulted in a 52.51% decrease in E. coli concentration, while P. ostreatus and S. rugosoannulata treatments resulted in a 12.90% increase and a 114.21% increase in E. coli concentration, respectively. A one - way ANOVA found that results were statistically significant ( F (38103.22, 5147.34) = 7.40, p < 0.001), and a post - hoc Scheffé test was conducted to compare the fungus species. This post - hoc test found significant differences between T. versicolor vs. S. rugosoannulata , T. versicolor vs. control, and P. ostreatus vs. control. The results of this experiment suggest that T. versicolor can remediate E. coli - contaminated water more efficiently than P. ostreatus and S
Infant sleep machines (ISMs) are devices used to help infants fall asleep faster and stay asleep for longer amounts of time, yet they can often be too loud for infantile ears, which could potentially be dangerous. This research aimed to minimize the risks of infant sleep machines without reducing the effectiveness of the infant sleep machines themselves through the use of acoustic panels. Based on previous studies, it was hypothesized that the acoustic panels would reduce the noise levels of the ISM to less than recommended limits of 50 dB-A. A specific corner of a designated room was prepared with a crib with a sound level meter placed inside and a table housing the ISM all to simulate a sleeping infant being exposed to the white noise from the ISM. After 30 trials were conducted without any soundproofing, another 30 trials were conducted after acoustic panels were placed on the walls behind the crib in order to reduce the noise levels of the ISM. Significant differences were found between the two groups, with the t-statistic of 30.9688 being much higher than the critical value of 1.697, and the p-value being less than 0.001, all with an alpha of 0.05. Finally, it was found that acoustic panels did reduce the noise levels to below less than 50 dB-A, which means the hypothesis was supported. This shows that acoustic panels have a significant effect on noise reduction for infants and are a safe, inexpensive option for parents.
Research has been conducted to assess the correlation between five personality factors and the strength of anxiety symptoms in high school students. This is particularly significant because adolescent anxiety can lead to future mental deterioration. The research that has been conducted implements the Big Five Personality Test and the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI). The five personality types, extraversion, neuroticism, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness, as well as the anxiety levels are self reported on a continuum. The answers on the Big 5 Test range from “disagree” to “agree” with the statements while the BAI ranges from “not at all” to “severely” in terms of how intensely the symptoms are experienced. Based on the 146 responses from high school students in a suburban school district in South Carolina, there is a weak correlation between the factors. This does not support the hypothesis that students with high levels of neuroticism and low levels of extraversion will experience higher levels of anxiety symptoms, as well as the hypothesis that there would be no correlation between agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness with anxiety symptoms. The strength of these correlations was determined with the use of a linear regression t-test for statistical analysis. While the correlation coefficients were weak, the direction of the linear pattern for neuroticism and extraversion matched the hypothesis. The p-value between extraversion and anxiety, 0.003, indicates that the relationship is statistically significant, making its correlation less likely due purely to chance.
“ Parkinson ’ s Disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease characterized by the loss of dopaminergic (DA) neurons in the substantia nigra, ” negatively affecting motor control and causing symptoms such as dyskinesia, or uncontrollable, involuntary muscle movement 1 . The purpose of this study was to explore a safe, affordable, and accessible method of treatment for such symptoms. It was hypothesized that when Mucuna pruriens ( Mpe ) and Brassica oleracea (B. oleracea) extracts are administered to PINK1 Drosophila , Brassica oleracea would delay the loss of motor ability in the PINK1 flies the longest because it contains sulforaphane which activates the Nrf2 pathway, promoting antioxidant activity and countering oxidative stress. To quantify the climbing ability of the PINK1 Drosophila , which display PD - like symptoms, a climbing assay was conducted on the treatment groups, where the flies were administered either 32mg/100g Mpe or B. oleracea, and the control group, which was administered nothing. After running an ANOVA and t - test on the results of this experiment, it was determined that only Mpe had a significant effect on the climbing ability of PINK1 Drosophila. The t - test displayed that the difference between the Mpe treatment group and the control group was significant, but the difference between the B. oleracea treatment group and the control was not statistically significant. Therefore, only Mpe effectively delayed the loss of climbing ability in PINK1 Drosophila , meaning it can potentially be used to treat the motor symptoms of PD in the future.
Political socialization, the process by which individuals become acquainted with politics and form their own political values and beliefs, is primarily based on the information provided by socializing agents (e.g., friends, family members, public figures). This study seeks to explore the extent to which these influences may be associated with or shape the beliefs of adolescents, considering the rapidly evolving state of political affairs and means of socialization over time. It was hypothesized that there would be a strong association between the political dispositions of the individual and those of their primary sociopolitical influences; in other words, an individual would be more likely to share similar political beliefs with close familiars. A survey was distributed to high schools within a southeastern United States school district via a random cluster sample, in which students (n = 151) self - reported their own political beliefs as well as those of their sociopolitical influences. After conducting several chi - square tests for independence ( α = 0.05), there seems to be a strong association between the beliefs of influencers and an individual. Contrary to what was hypothesized, the parental unit seems to be the most prominent influence on adolescents ’ political dispositions, although the associations found regarding agents of socialization were found to be very strong. Further and improved research in this field may be conducted to more thoroughly explore political socialization and the development of political ideologies in adolescents.
Bacteriophages are naturally occurring, nonpathogenic viruses, which infect bacterial cells. Recently, bacteriophage research has increased with hopes of using them against antibiotic resistant bacterial infections in the future. This study aimed to determine a possible correlation between perceived stress and the Staphylococcus aureus bacteriophage population at Coastal Carolina University (CCU), Conway, South Carolina, using isolation and characterization techniques to further understand humans as a potential bacteriophage source. From October 2020 to March 2021, nasal and postauricular swab samples were collected from 12 participants on a monthly basis along with a perceived stress survey. Samples were subjected to filtration, amplification, plaque assays, and PCR techniques to identify and characterize bacteriophage. The purpose of this study was to understand humans as a repository for bacteriophage and to understand factors, namely perceived stress, which affect bacteriophage presence on humans. Results suggested that possible changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic, such as increased stress levels, mask wearing, and constant hand washing/ sanitizing, caused a drastic decrease in the Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus phage population at Coastal Carolina University.
Throughout the United States of America, stone fruits like nectarine, peach, apricot, are an important component of the fruit economy, particularly in South Carolina and Georgia. Unfortunately, during pre-harvest, harvest, and post-harvest seasons, these fruits frequently contract Monilinia fructicola (brown rot producing fungus). A potential method of eradicating Monilinia fructicola was proposed using whey, powdered whole milk, Azadirachta indica oil, and a combination of all three substances. It was hypothesized, if the 2% concentration of the combined mixture of solutes is added to the Monilinia fructicola, then the number of fungal spores will decrease the most due to the mixture having the beneficial characteristics of all 3 substances, thus eliminating the fungi most effectively. The fungus was cultured on petri dishes for 5-9 days. After, the cultures were sub-cultured into the remaining petri dishes. 9 days later, the fungal spores were counted using a microscope, hemocytometer, and fungi counter. Data were recorded, and 2% concentrations (v/v, w/ v) of the treatments were created. After 9 days, the treatments were applied, and data were collected again. Statistically significant results (t(29)=17.6244, p < 0.001; t(29)=18.9747, p <0.001); t(29)=22.9349, p < 0.001; t(29)=28.9039, p < 0.001) were found between the following groups (before and after): control, whey, powdered whole milk, Azadirachta indica oil, and combination. The combination inhibited the growth of the fungi most significantly (t(29)=28.9039, p < 0.001) (Before: M=430600000, SD=80565501.3; After: M=6600000, SD=5035049.57) supporting the hypothesis.
Microorganisms have been utilized to study the human nervous system for decades. However, the computational capabilities of the neural networks of microorganisms are often not well understood. The goal of this experiment was to determine the level of neural complexity in the microorganism, Caenorhabditis elegans, by examining whether its neural networks are capable of learning categories that are not linearly separable. C. elegans were once thought to possess only a fixed neural network, but then their ability to learn associations and simple linear classifications was discovered. No microorganism is known to have the next level of computational capability, that of performing nonlinear classification. Here, it was hypothesized that C. elegans would be able to learn nonlinearly separable classes. This was tested by setting up three levels of an HCl gradient and associating them with food, in a one-dimensional nonlinear classification problem. Positive and negative associations between HCl levels and the presence/absence of food could only be learned through a nonlinear decision boundary. C. elegans were put into petri dishes with three distinct HCl concentrations of 100μM, 200μM, and 300μM. During training, 100μM and 300μM values were associated with E. coli (positive category), while 200μM was associated with the absence of E. coli (negative category). The learning was then tested in separate dishes by examining the movement of C. elegans towards positively or negatively trained concentrations. In a second experiment, the reverse association (100μM and 300μM negative; 200μM positive) was also established through training and tested. The results showed that C. elegans were able to learn these positive and negative associations, thus acquiring a nonlinear decision boundary (100/300 positive test: x-squared = 24.06, p < 0.001; 100/300 negative test: x-squared = 7.5958, p < 0.023). This demonstrates, for the first time, that the neural networks of C. elegans possess sufficient computational complexity, requiring at least three layers of neurons, to learn nonlinear classification. This advances our understanding of the computational sophistication of the neural networks of even the simplest microorganisms.
The low efficiency of photovoltaic panels has limited its commercial use and its ability to convert clean energy into electricity. To increase photovoltaic panel efficiency by decreasing surface temperature and improving voltage production, non-recirculating front surface air-cooling was proposed. It was hypothesized that if an air curtain is installed over a photovoltaic solar panel, then the number of volts produced would be greater than a plain solar panel configuration. The final curtain design was built of two propellers, controlled by 3-volt motors, held by balsa wood, and powered by a DC supply. The photovoltaic panel was built in a circuit using a 1,000-ohm resistor, LED light, breadboard, wire, and a halogen light as the power source. The controlled test, completed without the air -cooling, had 20 trials, each four hours long. Another 20 trials of 4 hours were completed with the cooling system. The experiment was conducted in a closed setting, with no other source of light or air. Temperature (°C) and voltage (V) data were collected through a LabQuest 2. The data were statistically analyzed using a paired t test with a 95% confidence interval. The results show that, on average, the air-cooled setup generated 2.720% more voltage than the controlled test. The air-cooled setup was 35.801% cooler than the controlled setup. The changes in voltage and temperature are statistically significant, as the p-values were less than 0.010. Therefore, the solar panels with air curtains were demonstrated to be more efficient in producing electricity, meaning the hypothesis was supported.
Chitin is a naturally abundant polymer that also happens to be biodegradable. Chitin can be used in a variety of different products such as biodegradable plastics, papers, medical products, foods, and medical treatments. To extract chitin, shells must be demineralized and deproteinized. The goal of this experiment was to examine the effect of the protease Alcalase in the deproteinization of Litopenaeus setiferus shells. The hypothesis was that if the concentration of Alcalase increased, then the absorbance of proteins in the spectrophotometer reading would increase. The null hypothesis was that if the concentration increased there would be no change in absorption. Shrimp shells were first cooked in boiling water for 20 minutes then grinded up with liquid nitrogen. Then, some were demineralized using hydrochloric acid while others were untouched by this step. Demineralized shrimp shells and untouched were put into several different solutions of 0%, 0.5%, 1.5%, and 2.5% concentration. Afterwards, they were put in a water bath to kill the Alcalase. All samples were read through a UV Visible Spectrophotometer to find that the data was too red-shifted and inaccurate above 2 Au to give any factual conclusion. These problems were conjectured to be attributed by polarity, the machine itself, and the HCl bath. The data could be interpreted to disprove the null hypothesis, as 0.5% looked to be the optimal concentration, if the red-shift and absorption above 2 Au was caused by the reasons above.
