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- Creators: Arizona State University. School of Life Sciences. Center for Biology and Society. Embryo Project Encyclopedia.
- Creators: Department of Psychology
Description
Purinergic receptors play an important role in the response to infectious diseases by sensing damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs). The P2X family of purinergic receptors is known to recognize extracellular ATP (eATP) at different affinities. One of these receptors, P2X3, shows high affinity for eATP, but its role in modulating responses to infectious diseases has not been studied. Using the pulmonary infection model with influenza virus PR8 strain on wild type (WT) and P2RX3-deficient (P2RX3-KO) mice, we aimed to discover the role of P2RX3 in influenza infection in the lungs. We found that there was not a significant difference in the severity of disease in WT and P2RX3-KO mice during the acute phase, but there was more fibrotic tissue visible in P2RX3-KO mice lungs on day 40 post infection (p.i.) using Masson’s trichrome staining. To further investigate these differences, we analyzed myeloid cell populations and flu-specific lymphocytes in the infected lungs. We found that there was a significant decrease in the number of antigen-specific CD4+ T cells in the lungs of P2RX3-KO mice after 7 days p.i. After performing t-SNE (t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding) analysis on CD4+ T cells of P2RX3-KO and WT mice, we discovered that P2RX3-KO mice had a population of cells which was not present in the WT mice. This population showed high expression of most proteins such as T-bet and BCL6, which is not characteristic of the typical Th1 population induced by influenza virus. Using in vitro activation and differentiation of Th1 CD4+ T cells from WT and P2RX3-KO mice, we found that P2RX3-KO CD4+ T cells had greater expression of markers related to Tfh (T follicular helper cells), such as ICOS and CXCR5, and overall hyperactivation, demonstrating irregular Th1 differentiation. Taken together, these results suggest that P2RX3 may be linked to the maintenance of “healthy” CD4+ T cells and may be important in preventing fibrosis in influenza infection.
ContributorsWhite, Emily (Author) / Florsheim, Esther (Thesis director) / Borges da Silva, Henrique (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2024-05
Description
Education is highly valued in our society, and teaching is regarded as a necessary and impactful job. Students are influenced not only by the knowledge they retain, but also by the connections they build with their instructors and peers, as well as the classroom environment. Reciprocally, teachers are impacted by the classroom environment which is determined by the students within it. While all teachers have a heavy workload and may be prone to moments of exhaustion, teachers dealing with difficult students are increasingly at risk of burnout (Aloe et. al., 2014). Despite the available research on teacher burnout, there is little exploration on the factors that protect against teacher stress. While interventions have been conducted to help mitigate burnout, they have been time consuming and difficult to implement in everyday practice. In this study, elementary school teachers from a variety of schools participated in a survey that assessed their stress levels, rewarding and challenging aspects of their job, relationships with students, and their stress-management strategies. This data was used to establish the connection between stress-management/mindfulness practice, quality of student-teacher relationships, stress levels and attitudes towards teaching. Results revealed significant correlations between the practice of stress management strategies, student-teacher closeness and stress levels (both overall and relating specifically to student misbehavior). As the practice of stress management strategies increased, stress levels decreased. Similarly, the closer teachers felt to their students, the less that student misbehavior stressed them out. Teachers felt most rewarded by seeing student growth, and most stressed out by their overall workload and lack of time.
ContributorsTrefny, Erin (Author) / Kappes, Janelle (Thesis director) / Pickett, Janna (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor)
Created2024-05
Description
The purpose of my study was to see if there were any significant relationships between performance in cognitive assessments and compensation in the altered auditory feedback paradigm in people with aphasia. Aphasia is a language disorder typically caused by a stroke in the left hemisphere. The cognitive assessments evaluated working memory, processing speed, repetition, speech production, and speech comprehension. We hypothesized that those who did performed worse on cognitive assessments would have a lower magnitude compensation in the AAF paradigm. We found a significant relationship between the Digit Span Task performance and the AAF Sudden adaptation paradigm. Those who performed worse on the Digit Span Task had a lower magnitude compensation or compensated in the positive direction.
ContributorsUgarte, Isabelle (Author) / Rogalsky, Corianne (Thesis director) / Daliri, Ayoub (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2024-05
Description
StayWell is an app concept that revolutionizes how young adults manage their health information by “Putting the Self-Care in Healthcare.” Allowing users to track both their medical and wellness information in one place, StayWell will act as both a healthcare and self-care app. The main page is a customizable calendar with a pill tracker, habit tracker and appointment tracker. At the bottom of the page, there is a storage feature to hold all of the user’s medical information such as insurance cards, provider contact, lab results, and other documentation. This allows users to track all medical or self-care related information in one convenient app that is fully customizable to match their specific needs, whether it’s tracking a chronic condition or just striving to reach new fitness goals. Our product is currently available for pre-sale via our website which showcases mockups of the user interface. With proper funding we can begin the development of the app and release a beta version to our existing audience who have already signed up for the app pre-sale.
ContributorsWatson, Sara (Author) / Markenson, Rachel (Co-author) / Grant, Zoey (Co-author) / Ghosh, Samrat (Co-author) / Lau, Caleb (Co-author) / Byrne, Jared (Thesis director) / McCreless, Tam (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2024-05
Description
In the Spanish-language horror short story collections “Los peligros de fumar en la cama” and “La cosas que perdimos en el fuego,” Argentine author Mariana Enríquez explores issues such as trauma and anxiety, weaving the supernatural and realistic together to craft haunting tales. Through her portrayal of tormented and dysfunctional characters, Enríquez draws upon features of psychological disorders found in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). This essay demonstrates how Enríquez highlights the horror inherent in an unreliable, unstable reality by reproducing features of psychological disorders that compromise one's perception of, and interactions with, the outside world.
ContributorsCox, Rachel (Author) / Tompkins, Cynthia (Thesis director) / Hernandez Ramirez, Azucena (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor)
Created2024-05
Description
This study aimed to assess the impact of local insecticide fogging procedures (carried out by Maricopa County Vector Control) on the development of insecticide resistance mechanisms in field populations of Cx. quinquefasciatus mosquitoes. To address this aim, Cx. quinquefasciatus eggs were collected from six field sites ranging from levels of high, medium, and no exposure to insecticides. The collected eggs were then reared, and adult mosquitoes underwent topical application bioassays to determine if deltamethrin resistance levels were associated with the fogging frequency of the field site from which the eggs were collected. The results suggest the presence of pyrethroid resistance amongst all field populations in comparison to an insecticide susceptible strain of Culex mosquito. However, the deltamethrin resistance levels of mosquitoes from each site were not significantly different. These results suggest that, outside of government insecticide fogging, there are other sources acting as selective pressures for resistance mechanisms in local Cx. quinquefasciatus mosquito populations.
ContributorsUtnehmer, Mikayla (Author) / Huijben, Silvie (Thesis director) / Ward, Donald (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2024-05
Description
This study determines if principles of embodied cognition can be used to enhance the teaching of self-regulation skills in a sample of preschoolers. The current research replicates Conway and McKinney (2022). In the replication study, 15 participants were recruited at ASU’s Child Study Lab (CSL) for a total of 39 participants (when combined with Conway and McKinney) ages three to six, across the entire experiment. The combined results of both the original study and the replicated study are reported. The participants were matched on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) scores and one from each pair was randomly placed in the embodied group and the other was placed in the traditional group. The structure of the experiment had two phases, with four lesson plans each; the first focuses on sequential thought, and the second focuses on impulse control and how that could relate to emotions (i.e., self-regulation). Because the sequential thought pattern (First, Next, Last) resembles self-monitoring via impulse control (Stop and Think), we expected the sequential thought pattern to transfer across the phases. In Phase 1 of the experiment, the embodied group received four embodied lesson plans (i.e., with physical manipulable items) and the traditional group received four traditional, two-dimensional style lesson plans (i.e., flipbook with pictures). In Phase 2 of the experiment, each participant received four traditional-style impulse control lesson plans. The hypothesis for this study is that the embodied condition would see an increase in overall net scores in Phase 1 and 2 of the experiment compared to the traditional condition. The researchers conducted a two-way factorial ANOVA to analyze both group pre- and post-test scores. While there was no evidence that the effect of condition, either embodied or traditional, influenced pre- and post-test scores, there was evidence that the participants learned in the experiment. This experiment may need to be modified to have more lesson plans and be replicated with a larger sample size to determine any statistically significant effect.
ContributorsOskowis, Athena (Author) / Glenberg, Arthur (Thesis director) / Kupfer, Anne (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor)
Created2024-05
Description
Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is a common mental disorder that can affect individuals at nearly every stage of life. Women are especially vulnerable to MDD in part, from ovarian hormone level fluctuations. In this thesis, I focused on MDD using a rat model in middle-age to explore potential sex differences in response to a corticosterone (CORT) – induced depressive-like state. Estradiol (E2), a naturally occurring steroid sex hormone in humans and rats, is implicated in mood changes, which is especially prominent during the menopause transition. CORT, a stress hormone, was used to create a depressive-like state in middle-aged female (F) and male (M) rats with their gonads surgically removed. This produced the following independent treatment groups: Sex (F, M), CORT (vehicle = V ml/kg, C 40mg/kg), E2 (V 0.1 ml, E 0.3µg/0.1ml). CORT and E2 injections were injected daily, s.c) for 7 days before behavioral testing began and continued throughout the study when behavior was assessed. For my honor’s thesis, I focused on the social interaction test and elevated plus maze to investigate whether CORT enhanced social avoidance and anxiety, and whether E2 mitigated the CORT effects. In the social interaction test, three new behaviors were assessed (interacting, grooming, and immobility) to better understand exploratory and anxiety profiles of the rats, and these behaviors were quantified over two 5-minute periods in the 10-minute trial. These new quantifications showed that for the female rats, C+E and V+V enhanced the interaction with the novel rat significantly more than an inanimate object, which was not observed in the females given CORT only or E2 only. The males in all conditions showed a significant preference for side with the novel rat compared to the object, however no treatment differences were observed. In both sexes, the overall time spent interacting decreased in the second five minutes of quantification compared to the first five minutes. No effects were observed with grooming or immobility, in part from the high variability across rats. For EPM, female rats treated with CORT and E2 exhibited a lower anxiety index than compared to female rats given CORT only, indicating that E2 mitigated the depressive-like effects of CORT. Males showed no CORT or E2 effects. The result in part supported my hypothesis, as the CORT-treated females exhibited reduced socialization and E2 improved socialization in CORT-treated females, as this was seen in the F-C-E group. Interestingly, CORT failed to produce a depressive-like effect in males in both behavioral tests, which was an unexpected outcome. These results suggest that administration of E2 with CORT mitigated the depressive-like state created by CORT in female rats, however failed to produce these outcomes in males. The outcome of this work will give us insight into the potential mechanisms that may contribute to sex differences with MDD.
ContributorsSladkova, Sara (Author) / Conrad, Cheryl (Thesis director) / Amdam, Gro (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2024-05