17 minute read
Faculty Oral Presentations
ARTS & HUMANITIES
Challenging Constraints, Crossing Confines: A Study of Eliza Draper
Dr. Susmita Roye
Nothing signals the “challenging-constraints, crossing-confines” trajectory more than the uncharacteristically checkered life of Eliza Draper (1744-1778). Born in India, she was sent to England for education. Returning to India, the fourteen-year-old was married to Daniel Draper, an official twenty years her senior, with whom she shared neither tastes nor temperament. During her next visit to England to place her children in school, she aroused violent romantic passions in the literary giant, Laurence Sterne. The brief liaison came to an abrupt end when Draper commanded his wife to return to Bombay without delay, and from thereon, their conjugal relations deteriorated until Eliza eloped, causing a huge scandal.
Even such a concise overview of the course of Eliza’s life, as given above, makes one wonder at the daring crossing-overs she performed. A memsahib, a traveler, an emigrant, a “Belle-Indian,” a girl-bride, a teenaged mother, the love-interest of a celebrated literary figure, the centerpiece of a scandalous elopement: what (real or figurative) boundary has she not leapt over? Besides stepping beyond geographical borders in her transnational journeys, she also violated gender strictures in crossing the private-public divide by overseeing the publication of the private love-letters sent to her by Sterne. She stands for diverse crossovers: gender, genre and geography. This paper aims at focusing on this unusual memsahib figure, who both impersonates as well as contradicts the 'types’ of her class. How does her standing at the crossroads of cultures and the milestones of history in the Indian subcontinent both empower and disempower her? Why, as a memsahib in the eighteenth century, is it both important for her to set norms and easy to break them? How does the male empire fare under her female gaze? How does the fluidity of British status in the eighteenth-century India make it possible for her to elope and yet, emerge practically unscathed from that scandal? In searching for answers, this paper will attempt to chart the path to the solidification of the 'mem’ stereotype and of the Anglo-Indian identity, of how eighteenth-century crossovers preempted the free-flow and easy crossings in the latter stage of the Raj.
AGRO-SCIENCES
Dr. Krishnanand Kulkarni, K. P. Kulkarni*, Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Delaware State University N. Vorsa, Philip E. Marucci Center for Blueberry and Cranberry Research and Extension, Rutgers University U. K. Reddy, Department of Biology and Gus R. Douglass Institute, West Virginia State University K. Melmaiee; Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Delaware State University
Blueberry (Vaccinium Section Cyanococcus) is an economically important small fruit crop native to North America but widely cultivated in several countries. The commercial relevance has been steadily growing for the past 2 decades due to increased awareness of the health benefits of blueberry consumption. The US is the largest blueberry producer with a market value of $904 million in the year 2020. Blueberry plants have stringent growth conditions, and slight increases in the temperature can have adverse impacts on growth and yield. Hence, understanding the genetic and molecular basis of high-temperature stress (HTS) tolerance in blueberry is essential. In this study, 260 F2 plants from V. darrowii x V. corymbosum cross were subjected to HTS at 40?C for 4 days in the growth chamber and evaluated for HTS tolerance traits. Significant phenotype variation was observed for all the measured traits in the F2 population. Genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) sequencing with a single restriction enzyme ApeK1 was used to genotype the F2 plants. The sequence reads were mapped to the first 12 scaffolds of the tetraploid variety Draper. The SNPs were filtered using (1) read depth, DP > 3, (2) minor allele frequency, MAF < 0.05, and call rate < 0.9. After quality filtering and trimming, 126,816 SNPs were obtained from the sequencing data. These SNPs were used for the genome-wide association study, which identified 1323 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) significantly (p<0.01) associated with HTS tolerance traits. Further, an NCBI-BLAST search was made to identify the candidate genes information for the 245 SNPs. A number of these genes encoded molecular chaperone proteins and transcription factors reported to be involved in thermal stress or oxidative stress. The results from this study will help decipher the genetic basis of HTS tolerance in blueberry and future breeding plans.
Funder Acknowledgment: Authors thank the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA-NIFA) for funding (nos. 2018-38821-27744 and 2018-67014-27622)
AGRO-SCIENCES
Impact of Fashion Consciousness on Retail Consumerism
Dr. Jihye Lim, Tiffany Oliver, Aijane Deshields, Taylor Simmons and Raeshawn Joffrion
There are a number of factors that play a role in the decisions of consumerism among different types of people. Our research specifically focuses on investigating the buying patterns of fashion conscious consumers, and that was compared to those whose wardrobe revolves around simplicity and practicality. The purpose of our research is to better understand how each cohort thinks in regard to buying clothing and apparel. This will increase our knowledge of marketing tactics and better equip us to track buying patterns among consumers in our own fashion and retail-related fields. To identify the buying behavior between consumers motivated by fashion and trends and those whose priority is lifestyle and practicality, we created a survey with 30 questionnaires to highlight the contrasting purchasing decisions, motivations, and patterns of those who align within each group. This survey questionnaire offered insight about how often the participants shopped online and in-store, whether or not their primary motivations for dress were influenced by external factors of validation, image, or status, and whether or not their style of dress correlated with their personal self-expression. In our findings, fashion conscious consumers tend to follow trends and buy more designer brands. In comparison to practical consumers, they are more likely to overdress during daily activities and they utilize fashion to present their personality and interest. Future study will focus on consumer behavior and buying pattern of athletes comparing to non-athletes.
Identifying New Genetic Resources for Blueberry and Strawberry Improvement
Dr. Kalpalatha Melmaiee, Krishnanand Kulkarni and Amaranatha Vennapusa
Dr. Melmaiee’s plant molecular breeding lab focuses on improving blueberry and strawberry crops. The current research projects focus on identifying and understanding molecular resources utilizing cutting edge tools such as Next generation sequencing and genotyping by sequencing. We are also identifying new genetic sources for various traits. She will be updating their research progress in these two crops.
Funder Acknowledgment: USDA-NIFA 2020-38821-31083, 2018-38821-27744 and 2018-67014-27622
BEHAVIORAL & SOCIAL SCIENCES
Forced Migration, Displaced Lives: The Promise of Spirituality As a Coping Strategy for Making Meaning
Dr. Padmini Banerjee, Dr. Myna German Professor, Department of Mass Communications, Visual and Performing Arts
Through a focused review of literature on displaced lives, now increasingly ubiquitous across many swathes of the world, we explored displaced persons’ experiences and the implications of coping strategies especially spirituality as a way of finding and making meaning visa-vis effects of trauma and displacement — physical dislocation, loss of home and familiar surroundings, disruption of relationships, social capital, community, education, and livelihood. While many eventually do resettle and move on, often geographically greatly distant from their original homes, many in other countries, experiencing fresh challenges of adaptation to unfamiliar locations and circumstances often with severely reduced resources and lack of continuity, while facing varying levels of acceptance or hostility within their “host” environments, and dealing simultaneously with internal states of grieving, mourning, anger, regret, depression, anxiety, helplessness, and acute and chronic posttraumatic stress. In the long-term, younger displaced survivors tend to fare better than older displaced survivors; some become “stuck” while others re-invent themselves, surprisingly displaying post-traumatic growth and resilience.
BEHAVIORAL & SOCIAL SCIENCES
Are Wellness Outcomes Influenced by Prescriptive Instruction Among a Tactical Population?
Ms. Julia Olsen
Those serving their communities, country, and preparing to do so, must protect and serve during challenging situations, both mentally and physically. Due to their rigorous environment, tactical operators, defined in this paper as police, military, fire, and ROTC students, have a high risk for mental and physical health issues as well as social isolation (Gold & Friedman, 2000; Orr, et al., 2019; Ritland, et al., 2019; Stonger, et al., 2020). Mental health, moving well, and the need for resilience can be engineered through evidence-based programs to meet the demand for enhanced wellness among the tactical population. Previous research has provided the groundwork to justify the need for further investigation that target tactical operators’ wellness.
An evidence-based program would meet the need for wellness techniques for this population. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of wellness instruction on perceived wellness, self-efficacy for wellness behaviors, general anxiety, and positive behavior change among tactical operators. The study has two aims: (1) to determine whether a six-week wellness intervention alters individual wellness, anxiety, and-or confidence in behavior change among tactical operators; (2) to determine whether a researcher-led wellness intervention which includes goal prioritization, affects behavior change in tactical operators.
A mixed-method, pretest-posttest experimental design is utilized. This study’s quantitative arm will measure the study variables of perceived wellness, self-efficacy for wellness behaviors, general anxiety, and positive behavior changes among participants in the two groups, the intervention group receiving instruction compared to the control group receiving no education, both over six weeks. This investigation’s qualitative arm will use narratives from the intervention to analyze for emerging themes of facilitators, barriers, and perceptions of wellness in tactical operators. Preliminary data will be presented.
BRIDGE Opportunities Collaborative: Feasibility Assessment and Implementation
Dr. Tanya Whittle, Dr. Kevin Ralston, Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice Mr. Josue Jean-Baptiste, Admissions Office, Delaware State University
During the 2021-2022 academic year, the Department of Sociology & Criminal Justice began offering Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program courses at James T. Vaughn Correctional Center (JTVCC). With the success of the Inside-Out classes at JTVCC, the proposed research will examine the feasibility of adapting existing Inside-Out pedagogical principles and collaborate with community partners to develop and sustain Delaware State University (DSU) college courses in Delaware correctional facilities as a means to expanding access to vocation and college-level education for incarcerated students, building a bridge from incarceration to college matriculation and graduation, and expanding experiential learning opportunities for traditional DSU students. This will include integrating long-standing pedagogical approaches (I.e., Freire & Inside-Out Prison Exchange) with modern pedagogical techniques provided by evolving technological opportunities and innovations. The presentation will begin with a focus of how the expansion of educational opportunities to incarcerated students benefits the students and other stakeholders in the community and the Criminal Justice System, especially regarding job opportunities and successful reentry for formerly incarcerated individuals. We will then shift to an overview of how the proposed research will examine the feasibility of expanding the higher education opportunities for incarcerated individuals. This plan includes collaborative participatory action research that will collect data from a variety of populations, including individuals who are currently incarcerated and stakeholders in both the correctional field and higher education. The goal of the proposed feasibility study is to provide realistic policy and implementation recommendations to help improve the likelihood of successful reentry for formerly incarcerated individuals.
BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
DNA Repair and Neurodegenerative Diseases in Humans: C. elegans as a Useful Disease Model
Dr. Miki Ii, Tatsuya Ii Delaware Center for Neuroscience Research/DIST
DNA repair is essential for maintaining brain health in humans. Accumulation of DNA damage is associated with the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. The nematode C. elegans is a model organism and has been widely used to understand the mechanisms of human health problems in biomedical research. In this study, we investigated how DNA repair factors affect the development and maintenance of healthy neurons using C. elegans. We are particularly interested in the role of endoribonucleases in the maintenance of genome integrity. During the two years at DSU, we found that various neurons in C. elegans are impaired in the mutant worms in which one of the DNA repair factors is mutated. Importantly, our mutant strains display dementia-like traits as well as ALS-like symptoms. By combining our preliminary data and the big data of humans, we identified that the DNA repair factors we are studying are potentially involved in the onset of these neurodegenerative diseases. This implies that our C. elegans neuroscience research applies to understanding the mechanisms of neurodegeneration that lead to dementia and ALS. C. elegans is an excellent model to study neurodegenerative diseases since a C. elegans hermaphrodite contains only 302 neurons and the neuronal network has been identified and mapped. The benefit of using C. elegans in biomedical research and an overview of our future research plan will be further discussed.
Funder Acknowledgment: This study was supported by the Delaware COBRE Neuroscience Research Program at Delaware State University.
Cloning and Transfection of CD44-Intracytoplasmic Domain (ICD) Deletion Mutant Expression Vectors into MCF-7/CD44 Cells for Interfering with the CD44-ICD-Mediated Signaling Pathway
Dr. Karl Miletti-Gonzalez, Celine Jeun, Jessica Francois and Zymir A. Robinson Department of Biological Sciences, CAST
The CD44 gene encodes a cell membrane receptor which normally undergoes a proteolytic cleavage within the cell membrane. This cleavage generates a 74 residues peptide known as the CD44 intracytoplasmic domain (CD44-ICD). This peptide can be translocated into the nucleus where it can regulate transcription. This transcriptional regulatory mechanism is not completely understood but Proximity Ligation Assays (PLAs) have shown that the CD44-ICD wild type peptide is in a protein-protein interaction (PPI) complex with Runx2 in the MMP-9 gene promoter region promoting its expression in MCF-7/CD44 cells. The main objective of this project is to determine whether the CD44-ICD-mediated signaling pathway can be interfered with. We hypothesize that transfecting CD44-ICD deletion mutant expression vectors in MCF-7/CD44 cells we will be able to inhibit the CD44-ICD-Runx2 PPI. Seven deletion mutants were designed to lack a predicted alpha helix and two beta strands, individually or in combination. PLAs will be used to identify such potential inhibition since the number of fluorescent red dots, which represent CD44-ICD-Runx2 PPI, should diminish. The associated signaling pathway that promotes the expression of the MMP-9 gene will be assessed by RTPCR of the MMP-9 transcript. We expect to identify one or more deletion mutants with the capacity to interfere with this signaling pathway. This approach might provide a molecular tool to modulate the aggressive phenotype that many cancer cells expressing CD44 display.
Funder Acknowledgment: DE INBRE Pilot Award (K.M.), NSF HBCU-UP RIA Award (K.M.), HHMI Inclusive Experiential Grant
Genetic Variations among the Eastern Oysters within Delaware Inland Bays
Dr. Ali Parsaeimehr, Scott Borsum, Ming Liu, Gulnihal Ozbay
Commercial oyster fisheries have a long history on the east cost of the United States, nevertheless limited information is available on the current genetic diversity and larval sources of local Delaware Inland Bays (DIBs). By this study, the Allele frequencies at eleven microsatellite markers were studied between two groups of spat collected from DIB, and we determined the genetic origin of oyster population at DIBs. The obtained genomic data were compared with the hatchery bred oysters used in local wild and restoration of Delaware Bay oysters. The analysis of pairwise FST value among the oyster populations indicated that, the Northeast High Survival (NEH) oyster had the highest genetic variation between the hatcheries and wild strains, while a higher ratio of similarity was obtained from DIBs groups. Further analysis of the genomic data using Discriminant Analysis of Principal Components (DAPC) revealed less genetic variations among the oysters’ population from the Delaware Bay (DB) and the two groups of
samples collected from DIB indicating their genomes have more similarities, whereas a higher genetic variation was observed from NEH samples. These results are explainable considering the unique NEH genetic signature due to its artificial genome, moreover it is likely that DIBs oysters have an origin from the DB oysters, however no sign of NEH genomic integration with DIBs or DB oysters was detected by this study.
Funder Acknowledgment: USDA NIFA Capacity Building Grant Program and NSF DE EPSCOR Program
BUSINESS MANAGEMENT & HUMAN SERVICES
Unemployment and Employment-to-Population During the Depths of the 2020 Pandemic-Induced Recession
Dr. Jan Christopher, College of Business National Economic Association
This study seeks to investigate whether Minorities, particularly Blacks and African Americans, experience employment shocks prior, parallel, or later than the U.S. as a whole. The COVID-19 pandemic has created severe negative effects on the U.S. economy. Two such effects are seen clearly in important employment-related measures, which are captured by the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics as the: (1) the employment-to-population ratio (EPOP) and the unemployment rate (UNRATE). This paper discusses employment-related pandemic effects by reporting and discussing EPOP and UNRATE from their peak, which was observed during the first quarter of 2020, to their trough during the second quarter of 2020. The unemployment rate (UNRATE) and the employment-to-population (EPOP) ratio are utilized on a monthly basis for the window of January 2020-January 2022 to derive at a “Recovery Gap” for EPOP and UNRATE. The initial results focus on intersectional variables of race and ethnicity with gender and persons 20 years and over. The results indicate that between March and April of 2020, the first phase of the pandemic-induced recession began, characterized by double-digit increases in the unemployment rate and decreases in the employment-to-population ratio. Economic conditions deteriorated within one month, followed by a less-than-full return of economic conditions to their pre-pandemic levels. The hypothesis considers whether long-term unemployment and employment-topopulation affect labor market regulations and population migration. Labor supply and demand statistics, between January 1, 2011, and January 1, 2022, particularly as they relate to the EPOP and UNRATE will also be discussed.
EDUCATION
Student Preference for Online Course Content Delivery: A Cross-Sectional Study
Dr. Cara Gomez, Department of Public and Allied Health Sciences, Delaware State University
Introduction: As higher education moves from a traditional face-to-face teaching platform to online learning, professors must adjust how they teach, present content, and engage learners. Simply transferring the same teaching styles from in-person to online may not be effective. Additionally, faculty teaching in an online setting compete for attention against with other modes of technology or social media, and they may need to use innovative teaching and learning strategies to engage online learners. Purpose: This study aimed to identify student preferences for online course content delivery and engagement. Methodology: This is a cross-sectional study with convenience sampling. Students in the DSU fall 2020 Psychology of Physical Activity online (hybrid) course completed a researcher-written survey. Major Results: There were 24 total respondents, with a majority being sophomores (67%) and an average self-reported GPA of 3.1-3.5 (67%). Students responded that they retain delivered course content when there are quizzes embedded in the video lectures (79%) or if they have to write a summary of a video lecture (83%). Students are slightly more likely to skip through videos to get a few key points for a summary (24%) than to answer embedded quiz questions (20%). When asked for preferred delivery of online class content delivery, students preferred a video with embedded quiz questions (46%) compared to a video with a separate quiz (16%) or a video with no quiz (8%). If a professor had to deliver an hour of content, students preferred 15-minute (50%) or 10-minute (29%) videos compared to hour, half hour or five-minute videos. Conclusion: Faculty teaching in an online setting must continuously identify student preferences. This small pilot study indicated that students prefer having embedded quizzes or summaries to help retain information rather than separate quizzes and prefer information being delivered in 10-15-minute windows. This study looked at student preference only, and not overall learning effectiveness. As technology changes rapidly, faculty should continuously assess both learner preferences and effectiveness to meet students’ needs.
EDUCATION
Longhand or Digital? Integrating the Note-taking by Hand Practice into a STEM Classroom: What Did I Find?
Dr. Weiping Song
Students in a general chemistry class were asked to take handwriting notes in Fall 2021. The purpose was to determine if longhand was indeed a more effective way to retain knowledge as reported. The investigation includes an initial survey and an exit survey. Three student learning outcomes (SLOs) at Remember, Understand, and Apply cognitive levels were compared to those in previous semesters. No significant difference on grades was found but students reported experiencing more mindfulness while taking notes by hand. Providing a skeletal note and combining both types of note-taking are found to be beneficial to improve knowledge retention in students.
Funder Acknowledgment: The author wishes to thank Center for Teaching and Learning at Delaware State University.
