Tompkins Cortland Community College

The introduction of social media in recent years has prompted increased digital photography and communication through various applications, though the extent to which these social media platforms encourage the preservation of documented media remains obscure. Previous research has established that digital social media archives can store memories that people have captured and allows for convenient reminiscence. Additionally, the ease of communication brought about through social media is believed to further enhance the preservation of memories as it is shared and engrained in people. However, digitization has resulted in less time spent making physical memories due to isolation and anxiety induced by excessive social media use. Furthermore, the aforementioned assumptions fail to account for better methods of preservation, notably physical objects. The physical properties of tangible artifacts such as framed photos, as per empirical evidence, are proven to enhance memory formation and familiarity. However, considering that physical artifacts have fallen out of favor as digitization reduces their usage, incorporating the semi-permanence of tangible objects into digital archives, which are favored by most, would promote the positives of both in preserving memories accurately and indelibly.

Research into varying forms of scientific research and study involve a variety of different ethical and social perspectives in order to comprehensively understand the limits and boundaries the research can be implemented into general public usage. Within the field of biotechnology, there is an abundance of diverse responses due to its ability to alter a being's body both presently and within future generations, most of which emerging from religious denominations. In particular, Christian sects have shown a certain hesitancy towards scientific advancement and ideologies that violate their own beliefs, a pattern which has been illustrated since the 16 and 17th centuries with the introduction of the Scientific Revolution. However, different Christian branches may view the implementation of biotechnology with a more beneficial perspective than others, which is why it is important to understand whether the continued advancement of biotechnology is resilient against the ethical values of Christianity within contemporary society. The need of biotechnological advancement to develop resiliency towards the negative connotations Christian communities hold may see it fit to decrease over time due to an increasing popularity to view science as an ability to aid humans in different illnesses within younger generations. However, opportunities for Christian communities to learn scientific concepts is still important since efforts to successfully introduce the advantages of biotechnology may be obsolete if religious communities wish to adhere to their own beliefs.

Recent advancement of spectral computed tomography (SpCT) technologies by either multi-energy spectral data acquisition with energy-integration detector or single-energy spectral data acquisition with photon counting detector has enabled the reconstruction of virtual monochromatic images (VMIs) at any energy values within and outside the energy spectral ranges of current CTs’ X-ray tubes, resulting in the possibility of not only visualizing the tissue contrast variation characteristics along the X-ray energy dimension, but also quantifying the variation characteristics by machine learning (ML) for prediction of lesion malignancy or computer-aided diagnosis (CADx). This study explored the energy spectral information of SpCT, i.e., the contrast variation characteristics along the X-ray energy dimension, for ML-CADx of lesion type of colorectal polyps. Particularly, the tissue contrast variation patterns, called energy spectral features, along the Xray energy dimension in the VMIs is investigated. A figure of merit (FOM) for the task of ML-CADx is proposed, which ranks the series of VMIs along the X-ray energy dimension by inputting each VMI into a single channel deep learning (DL) pipeline and generating a corresponding a score of AUC (area under the curve of receiver operating characteristics). Then the FOM selects different numbers of the most highly ranked VMIs as the inputs to a multi-channel DL pipeline to generate the corresponding of AUC scores until all VMIs are selected. It is hypothesized that the AUC scores from the multi-channel DL pipeline will increase to reach the highest score and then drop along the ranking order, because all VMIs have the same anatomic structure and, therefore, the strong data redundancy. The FOM reaches the highest AUC score by minimizing the redundancy. We tested the hypothesis by comparing the proposed FOM-rank ML-CADx with the widely used Karhunen-Loève (KL) transform-based ranking method where the principal components are ordered automatically by the KL transform. The lesion data include the CT images of colorectal polyps and the pathological reports after they were resected. The proposed FOM-rank method outperformed the KL-based ranking method with an optimal gain of 4.7%, showing its effectiveness in prediction of lesion malignancy.

Deficits in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) function play a crucial role in promoting compulsive cocaine use. This dysfunction might result from cocaine’s effects on neurons possibly including modification of the expression of the dopamine type 2 receptors (D2r). However, studies on D2r function have been hindered by relatively low receptor expression in mPFC and low detection sensitivity. To tackle this problem, we developed a workflow to optically image D2r through enhancing visualization of GFP fluorescence in a D2r-expressing transgenic mouse model. Two groups of animals were used: group 1 was treated daily by saline (0.1cc/100g, i.p.) and group 2 received cocaine (30mg/kg, i.p.) for 2 weeks. Following 1-day withdrawal, their brains were fixed and processed. The brain sections underwent immunostaining and ex vivo imaging using a confocal fluorescence microscope to capture co-registered fluorescence labeling of both neurons (NeuN) and D2r-expressing neurons (GFP). These images were montaged to cover a large field of view of the mPFC to quantify the changes in the count of neurons and D2r-expressing neurons. Our results show that chronic cocaine exposure results in 34.7%±5.7% decrease in neurons but a 44.7%±13.2% increase of D2r expressing neurons in the mPFC compared to saline treated group. Additionally, in-vivo Ca2+ imaging of D2r-expressing neurons in the mPFC revealed cocaine’s effects on the prefrontal response to the stimulation at the VTA. These changes might underlie the hypofrontality observed in human studies and exacerbate the loss of control associated with chronic cocaine use

Extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins play an essential role during biomineralization in bone and engineered tissues. In a previous study [1], we showed that calcite preferentially nucleated on pure elastin fibers. However, the actual cellular ECM fibers are composed of a combination of proteins, primarily collagen, fibronectin and some elastin. Here we follow the calcium carbonate- and calcium phosphate- mineralization process in vitro when these ECM proteins are combined and determine the differences between these proteins in the biomineralization process. The surface morphology and mechanical properties of the protein fibers during the early stages were probed by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and shear modulation force microscopy (SMFM). The nucleation of the mineral crystals on the protein matrices was investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Preliminary data showed that the moduli of all protein fibers increased at the early stages, with collagen having the largest increase in supersaturated calcium bicarbonate solution. In metastable calcium phosphate solutions the modulus of the mixed elastin-fibronectin fibres increased to a greater extent than the moduli of the fibers composed of the single proteins. Longer exposure in the mineral solutions led to the formation of crystals templated along the self-assembled fiber structures.

Recent research has shown that competitiveness is related to performance. However, gaps remain in the literature on the effects of competitiveness on task performance across different performance settings. A review of relevant literature from sport, social, and personality psychology suggested that performance in several contexts—individual, coactive, and conjunctive task demands—would be affected both by trait interpersonal competitiveness and by competitiveness manipulated through subliminal priming. Both factors (task demands and competitiveness) were manipulated in a 2 × 3 experimental design and individual task effort was assessed. Results from the current investigation showed that such priming influenced effort at a coactive persistence task. Results also partially replicated past research on group motivation gains (Hertel, Kerr, & Messé, 1999; Köhler, 1926, 1927). Implications for group and individual performance in social, athletic, and work domains are discussed.

ABSTRACT A unique example of ‘Dynamic Figures’ style motifs drawn with dry pigment was recently located in south‐western Arnhem Land. One of these figures has been partially over‐painted with wet pigment, suggesting that the drawings were produced as sketches for the painting of Dynamic Figures. The implications for rock art research are discussed.

Recently, Burgess et al. (1) documented the incidence and severity of ipsilateral shoulder pain after thoracotomy, a particularly difficult problem to treat. Although they examined several possible mechanisms for such pain, which included thoracic somatic and visceral as well as phrenic nerve nociception, none of their proposed explanations seemed tenable to them. The following case report demonstrates that such shoulder pain may be mediated by the sympathetic nervous system.