What is the Effect of the Writing Center as it Relates to Transfer Students and Persistence?

Michael Brisbane, Mary Gallagher1, Rose Jackson2, Ira Degawan3, Kevin Curtin3
1Macklin Center for Academic Success, USG, 2Office of the Executive Director, Universities at Shady Grove, 3Psychology, UMBC
Mentor: Diane Alonso, Psychology

University transfer students may not be as equally likely as non-transfer students to utilize student services such as the writing center due to demographic and academic characteristics. In this sense, transfer students could be seen as having less access to resources and academic support, placing them at a higher risk for attrition. Attrition (or persistence) research examines the factors and mediating roles associated with student completion or graduation rates. Two related factors of paramount importance are self-efficacy and self-regulation, defined as the feelings about one’s ability to achieve a goal, and to plan, organize, and carry out the objectives of that goal, respectively. This study explored the relationship between transfer students’ characteristics, writing center usage, and persistence. Implementing a mixed-methods approach, self-report measures were used to gauge writing self-efficacy and self-regulation levels. Additionally, qualitative methods adopting the phenomenological approach were implemented by conducting interviews with 20 students to yield themes associated with high and low writing center usage. The qualitative research expanded and elaborated on the transfer student experience with the writing center.

A Cultivation Of Rape Culture In D.C., Maryland, And Virginia Universities

Nadia BenAissa
Mentor: Kate Drabinski, Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies

The normalization of sexual violence is known in the literature as rape culture. Four year universities in the United States have historically cultivated rape culture. The public has a vested interest in knowing what is or is not being done to dismantle rape culture and prevent sexual assault on campuses, in order to hold these institutions accountable. The scope of this research was select universities within the D.C., Maryland, and Virginia area. This research recognizes commonalities within the cross populated universities that cultivate rape culture and identify how inconsistent metrics have left universities unaccountable. A social constructionist and mixed methods approach was used to explore how institutional betrayal has exacerbated the problems with campus climate surveys and further distanced people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals from reporting. An archival analysis of university policies, rape culture, and Title IX was conducted, along with a statistical analysis of campus sexual assault surveys. The archival analysis suggests that despite updates to laws/policies, universities have failed to reach their more diverse populations. The data analysis suggests that the differing modes of surveying campus climates has led to statistically insignificant results that cannot affirm that new university sexual violence policies are working.

Rakaia Kenney, Fenge Ni

Mentors: Weihong Lin, Biological Sciences; Tatsuya Ogura, Biological Sciences, UMBC

Abstract:

While e-cigarette usage and associated diseases have been a hot topic for the past year, little research has been done on the adverse health effects caused to the upper respiratory system from vaping. I have been conducting an analysis of how goblet cell proliferation in the mouse nasal respiratory epithelium (RE) is affected by e-cig vapor exposure. Goblet cells are mucus secreting cells, reacting to tissue irritation through increasing their density and producing more mucus, which can block alveoli and indicate inflammation. In my experiment, mice were exposed to nicotine containing e-cig vapors for four weeks, with control mice being exposed under the same conditions but with air. The mice are euthanized, dissected, and the head is preserved, after which coronal sections are placed serially on slides. I proceed with a hematoxylin and eosin stain and take 10- or 20-X images using a light microscope. The goblet cells are manually counted, respiratory epithelia length is measured using ImageJ, and goblet cell density is calculated and compared. I have found a significant difference in goblet cell density in nicotine exposed mouse’ RE of the nose compared to control mice, indicating an inflammatory response in the nose in response to e-cigarettes.

Role Of N-myc Downstream Regulated Genes Family In Low Oxygen Adaptation

Nguyet Le
Mentor: Rachel Brewster, Biological Sciences

Oxygen deprivation decreases ATP production dramatically. In humans, the loss of ATP in organs with high metabolic rate, such as the brain and kidney, can lead to cell death. However, zebrafish embryos enter a hypometabolic state that enables them to conserve ATP and survive for up to 50 hours without oxygen. Currently, the mechanisms that promote this hypometabolic state are unknown. Our previous mass-spectrometry study revealed a significant increase of lactate concentration in zebrafish under anoxia. Lactate was previously shown to stabilize N-myc Downstream Regulated 3 (NDRG3) in hypoxic cancer cells to promote angiogenesis and cell survival. We hypothesize that lactate/NDRG signaling could also be utilized in normal cells of the zebrafish embryo to arrest ATP-demanding processes and enhance survival. To address this, I investigated the mRNA distribution and transcriptional regulation of NDRG family members. In situ hybridization revealed that NDRGs are enriched in the brain and kidney and expanded to other tissues such as the olfacoty placode and vasculature in response to anoxia. RT-qPCR revealed both up- and down-regulation of different NDRG members in response to anoxia. These studies will shed light on how NDRG family members contribute to low oxygen adaptation in normal cells of an intact organism.

This investigation was sponsored by NIH/NIGMS MARC U*STAR T3408663 National Research Service Award to UMBC.

Claudia Rankine’s Citizen: Using Afrofuturist Theory To Examine Themes Of Black Visibility

Kiara Bell
Dr. Maleda Belilgne, Africana Studies

How are black lives today still affected by America’s deep roots in chattel slavery? Christina Sharpe’s book, In the Wake: On Blackness and Being (Duke University Press 2016), studies theories of Blackness as it relates to visibility and aspiration. Sharpe examines cross-cultural representations of Black life to build her theme of “the wake,” which she defines as the climate of anti-Blackness that shapes post-slavery America. I will use the Afrofuturist theory from two chapters of Sharpe’s book, “The Hold” and “The Weather,” to examine elements of Black visibility in Claudia Rankine’s experimental book, Citizen (Graywolf Press 2014). A central tool used by Sharpe is the use of ‘Black annotation’ and ‘Black redaction’ to offer an alternative reading of how information is presented, past “the logics of the administered plantation.” The definitions she presents of ‘Black annotation and reaction’ can be used to analyze scenarios of Black aspiration in Citizen. Both authors use the aforementioned tools in their writings to address Black visibility. Using Sharpe’s theoretical work on ‘anagrammatical Blackness,’ ‘Black annotation,’ and ‘Black redaction,’ I will explore how Citizen promotes themes of Black visibility in “the wake.”

Come see Kiara's research presentation and other undergraduate research and creative work, April 22-29th at URCAD.umbc.edu!

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