Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Does Obesity Affect Outcomes In Children Admitted From Trauma Centers?, Prashanth Shanmugham

Undergraduate Research at FIU (URFIU) Conference

Introduction and Research Objectives: Pediatric obesity has reached epidemic proportions in the United States. In the critical care setting, obesity has yet to be fully studied. We sought to evaluate the effects of obesity in children who are admitted to a hospital from trauma centers using Kid's Inpatient Database (KID) during 2009.

Methods: The study examined inpatient admissions from pediatric trauma patients in 2009 using the Kids´ Inpatient Database (KID). Patients (n=27599) were selected from the KID based on Age (AGE>1) and Admission Type (ATYPE=5) and assessed on Race, Sex, Length of Stay (LOS), Number of Diagnoses and Procedures, …

Hiearchies Of Eating Disorders: Fat-Phobia And Internalized Beauty Ideals In Online Communities, Aida Cardenas

Undergraduate Research at FIU (URFIU) Conference

Research and discourse on Eating Disorders (ED) have a tendency to perpetuate certain

stereotypes regarding women of color, however unintentional or innocuous it may appear. The research conducted, does show that the prominent ED within communities of minorities or of lower social status is Binge Eating Disorder (BED). A Foucauldian discourse analysis of

online forums by young women with ED, such as myproana.com, would be the primary method of documenting how these women form a hierarchy of the community's ED, and analyze if it correlates with the social status primarily associated with the Eating Disorder. Within these forums, and ED …

The Immunomodulatory Role Of Alcohol On Hiv-Infected Monocyte-Derived Dendritic Cells, Gianna Casteleiro

Undergraduate Research at FIU (URFIU) Conference

Alcohol is known to induce inflammation in the presence of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). In our previous studies, we revealed that alcohol induces cannabinoid receptors which play a role in the regulation of inflammatory cytokine production in monocyte-derived dendritic cells (MDDC). However, the ability of alcohol to alter MDDC function during HIV infection has not been clearly elucidated yet. To study the potential impact of alcohol on HIV-infected MDDC (confirmed by p24 ELISA), monocytes were isolated from commercially available buffy coats and cultured for 7 days with GM-CSF and IL-4. MDDC were infected with HIV- 1Ba-L and treated with …

A Meta-Analysis Of Neuroimaging Studies Of Mental Rotation”, Tatiana Barriga

Undergraduate Research at FIU (URFIU) Conference

Mental rotation is a mental process of rotating an object around some axis in three-dimensional space (Zacks, 2008). While behavioral studies have been fairly consistent in their results associated with sex differences, age of the participant, angle of rotation and object complexity, neuroimaging results have not consistently replicated the regions of the brain implicated in mental rotation. In the present project, we conducted an activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis to investigate the regions of activation during mental rotation, irrespective of task complexity and experimental paradigm. Studies investigating the neural correlates of a mental rotation paradigm were isolated by a Medline …

Comet Assay Automation For Dna Testing, Patrick Vega, Joseph Dray, Chris Sanchez, Michael Jantz, Nicholas Noda

Undergraduate Research at FIU (URFIU) Conference

Single cell gel electrophoresis, also known as comet assay, is a process used to study the formation and repair of DNA damage. Comet assay is gaining popularity as industry and academic institutions begin to use the process more for single cell analysis. Some of the limiting factors to Comet Assay’s increased implementation is its’ low sample throughput, inherent inaccuracy, inconsistency due to human error, inaccurate temperature control, and laboratories’ long sample workup procedure. In order to increase the effectiveness of comet assay, it is necessary to achieve accurate temperature control and remove human intrusion in the process while maintaining consistent …

A Neurovascular Decoupling During Ictal Activity In Rats With Focal Epilepsy, Rafael Torres

Undergraduate Research at FIU (URFIU) Conference

The spatiotemporal profiles of neuronal activity, hemodynamics and metabolic rate in epileptic cortices during focal ictal activity were recently evaluated using modern imaging techniques in acute situations (4-aminopyridine). However, no studies have verified these profiles in chronic models of focal epilepsy. In this study, we combined electrophysiology and optical techniques to untangle the relationships between neuronal activities and hemodynamic responses during ictal periods in the cortices of rats with chronic focal epilepsy.

13 Wistar rats with focal epilepsy were used in this study. Candidate regions for a craniotomy were obtained from EEG source imaging and BOLD effect associated with interictal …