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Analyzing The Short-Term And Long-Term Learning Outcomes On State And National Assessments Of Traditional Public High Schools And Charter High Schools In The State Of Florida, Marissa Hoffman Apr 2014

Analyzing The Short-Term And Long-Term Learning Outcomes On State And National Assessments Of Traditional Public High Schools And Charter High Schools In The State Of Florida, Marissa Hoffman

Undergraduate Student Symposium

The purpose of this research was to determine the short-term and long-term learning outcomes of students who attended traditional public high schools versus charter public high schools. Only traditional and charter high schools in the state of Florida were used in this project. For each charter high school selected, a cluster of four traditional high schools closest to that charter high school was created as a comparison group. The mean FCAT and SAT scores of the charter and traditional schools were selected for the years 2008, 2009, and 2010. A t-test: paired two sample for means was used to evaluate …

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Attractiveness Perception: Contemporary And Classic, Scott Earley, Shannon Ali-Samhoul Apr 2014

Attractiveness Perception: Contemporary And Classic, Scott Earley, Shannon Ali-Samhoul

Undergraduate Student Symposium

People have noticed that less attractive mates seem more attractive near the end of the night. Most blame alcohol consumption, but studies have shown (Johnco,C; Wheeler,L, 2010), (Sprecher, S; DeLamater, J; Neuman, N, 1984) that it is actually the reduction of the dating pool that creates the illusion of attractiveness. The focus of this study is to examine the perception of attractiveness people have when there is a reduced population of viable mates. One interpretation suggests that the perceived increase of attractiveness acts as a means to lower the standards of the yet unaware perceiver. There are certain set points …

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Body Position And Attention, Jana Mrkaja, Marianela Pena-Martinez Apr 2014

Body Position And Attention, Jana Mrkaja, Marianela Pena-Martinez

Undergraduate Student Symposium

The present study explores the effects of power posing on cognitive performance. Prior studies have shown that power poses, which involve expansiveness and openness of the limbs, prepare the individual to react faster and more accurately to stimuli. However, weak poses that involve contractive postures and closed limbs prime individuals to be more inhibited and vigilant, so they perform slower at tasks that require short reaction times, but more accurately on tasks that demand response inhibition. Our study evaluates the effects of strong and weak power poses within individuals. Participants were randomly assigned a strong pose and a weak pose …

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Cloning Of Functional And Regulatory Hypothetical Genes In Marine Microbe Roseobacter Denitrificans Och 114, Emily Lazowick, Shira Anteby-Maleh Apr 2014

Cloning Of Functional And Regulatory Hypothetical Genes In Marine Microbe Roseobacter Denitrificans Och 114, Emily Lazowick, Shira Anteby-Maleh

Undergraduate Student Symposium

The goal of this project is to clone four selected genes from the marine microbe, Roseobacter denitrificans, which plays a significant role in the dynamic and biogeochemical interactions of oceaninc ecosystems. Two of these genes, rodA and cheY, which have known functions involved in structure, development, motility, and chemotaxis, will be used as controls to elucidate the functions of two hypothetical genes, "N-AcGlu" and rhaI, which are believed to be involved in sugar metabolism. R. denitrificans genomic DNA was isolated via the QIAgen DNA Purification Kit, and Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism of 16S ribosomal DNA with the …

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Complete Synthesis Of Carbonyl-Containing Compounds: A Guided Inquiry Approach, Amelia Hartzell Apr 2014

Complete Synthesis Of Carbonyl-Containing Compounds: A Guided Inquiry Approach, Amelia Hartzell

Undergraduate Student Symposium

This project focuses on the design of an upper level synthetic organic chemistry course, which is intended as a bridge between undergraduate organic chemistry courses and graduate school. It will allow students to gain useful experience in the laboratory before entering graduate or professional school. The course will allow students to advance their abilities to evaluate novel work. Students will judge classmates’ proposed synthetic routes, utilizing a peer-review approach. Novel synthetic routes focused on carbonyl chemistry will be designed, and the target compounds obtained will be purified and characterized throughout the course of the class. Research thus far has focused …

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Creepy Is Quickest But Sexy Is Next: Evolved Psychological Mechanisms Impact Stimuli Processing Speed, Katherine H. Cadwalader Apr 2014

Creepy Is Quickest But Sexy Is Next: Evolved Psychological Mechanisms Impact Stimuli Processing Speed, Katherine H. Cadwalader

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Evolutionary psychological theory posits that humans have evolved psychological mechanisms (EPMs) that function to aid in survival and reproduction by processing stimuli perceived to be associated with specific problems of survival and reproduction. One such problem is that of identifying and securing a high quality mate. Consequently, people have EPMs devoted to processing information relevant to identifying high quality individuals who may be either potential mates or potential competitors against whom they may have to fight for access to mates. During mate value evaluation, however, it is possible that one mechanism may have to simultaneously process conflicting information. For example, …

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Devaluing The Drachma, Tiffany Smith, Cory Levine Apr 2014

Devaluing The Drachma, Tiffany Smith, Cory Levine

Undergraduate Student Symposium

This research focuses on the downfall of the Greek economy and the economic crisis it produced years after joining the European Union. By abandoning the drachma and adopting the euro, Greece lost the ability to devalue its currency during times of large national debt. If Greece had chosen to remain with the drachma, it may have increased its likelihood of escaping a national economic crisis, which has caused the unemployment rate to escalate and fueled public unrest. This paper will also address the cause of Greece’s debt, the assistance it received from Goldman Sachs and similar banks, as well as …

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Development Of A Model Medical Device Using Highly Active Derivatized Proteinase Enzyme, Nicholas Ledra Apr 2014

Development Of A Model Medical Device Using Highly Active Derivatized Proteinase Enzyme, Nicholas Ledra

Undergraduate Student Symposium

This project is a continuation from a previous investigation from 2012. The objective is an at home, Point of Care testing device to monitor average glucose status of diabetic patients which has been proven more reliable. The technology involves a complex assembly of enzymes, hemolyzing agents, and electrodes, such that one drop of whole blood can be rapidly assayed for Hemoglobin A1c – a long term indicator of average day to day blood glucose levels.

Specific to the aspect of this work, two alternative proteinase enzymes, were compared. Our results clearly demonstrated that Proteinase K (Roche) is superior in its …

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Differentiation Of Solutions Of 2Nd Order Boundary Value Problems With Integral Boundary Conditions, Alfredo Janson, Bibi Juman Apr 2014

Differentiation Of Solutions Of 2Nd Order Boundary Value Problems With Integral Boundary Conditions, Alfredo Janson, Bibi Juman

Undergraduate Student Symposium

In this talk, we make certain continuity and disconjugacy assumptions on second order boundary value problems with nonlocal integral boundary conditions. Given a solution of the boundary value problem, we differentiate the solution with respect to various boundary parameters. We show the resulting function solves the associated variational equation.

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Don't Have Sight, Have Vision, Alessandra Sironi Apr 2014

Don't Have Sight, Have Vision, Alessandra Sironi

Undergraduate Student Symposium

“Don’t Have Sight, Have Vision” is a documentary film about the largest private agency in Florida to serve people of all ages who are blind or visually impaired. This agency is the “Miami Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired.” The documentary focuses on the music production program the agency offers to people with disabilities. Staff members teach people to develop their sense of touch through musical instruments and sounds in general. All people being interviewed in the documentary have signed a release by the agency. The documentary is directed by Alessandra Sironi.

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Enculturation Through Ambiguity: Morality And Meaning In Children's Tv Shows, Khadija Chowdhury Apr 2014

Enculturation Through Ambiguity: Morality And Meaning In Children's Tv Shows, Khadija Chowdhury

Undergraduate Student Symposium

It is easy to blame excessive “screen time” for the educational and behavioral difficulties that children face. And with children under the age of 6 watching an average of 2 hours of screen media a day, and older children averaging 4 hours a day, such practices deserve our attention. Children’s television shows in particular often get criticized for their thin content, gross humor, and “passive” viewing. But television shows do teach values and social conventions. And such enculturation need not be looked at as passive. As Haas and Flower write, “‘meaning’ does not exist in a text but in readers …

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Evaluating Common Ion Concentrations In Bottled Drinking Water And Local Marine Water, Karem Molinares, Roshni Patel Apr 2014

Evaluating Common Ion Concentrations In Bottled Drinking Water And Local Marine Water, Karem Molinares, Roshni Patel

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Various ion concentrations in bottled drinking water, campus drinking water, and local marine water have been measured by chromatography and other techniques to evaluate their environmental and health impacts. Different bottled drinking water has been tested for ion (including chloride and sulfate) concentrations. The results are compared to the values reported by the distributing companies as well as the EPA national standards. Non-concurrence was rare but existed in certain samples. The samples are also tested for chemical and biological signatures after exposure to sunlight over various lengths of time. In the field, a series of marine water samples collected in …

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Evaluating The Effectiveness Of A Campus-Wide Exercise Program On Faculty And Staff Health, Katharine Fleming Apr 2014

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of A Campus-Wide Exercise Program On Faculty And Staff Health, Katharine Fleming

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Purpose: Obesity affects nearly 33% of the adult population and is estimated to increase to 50% by the year 2020. In anticipation of this trend, we evaluated NSU's campus-wide fitness program "Slimming with the Sharks" on improving indicators of faculty and staff health. Methods: 22 obese faculty and staff (35±10.7 yrs.; 36.8±3.6 BMI) completed the program. The campus-wide fitness program consisted of 72 personal and group exercise session training caridovascular endurance, muscular strength, and mobility. In addition to the exercise, participants were offered optional educational presentations on health and wellness. As an evaluation of the program, we measured pre- and …

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Faunal Associations With Native And Nonnative Landscapes, Shannon Aldridge, Tylia Hernandez Apr 2014

Faunal Associations With Native And Nonnative Landscapes, Shannon Aldridge, Tylia Hernandez

Undergraduate Student Symposium

The relatively new native landscape on the East side of Nova Southeastern University’s Parker building provided an opportunity to compare its associated faunal communities with those from an exotic landscape on the West side of the Parker building. Weekly visual surveys using a belt transect were conducted on both sides of the building on the same days over the study period. Four surveys have been completed thus far and 99 individuals were recorded in the native landscape while 87 were recorded in the exotic landscape; of those in the exotic landscape 35.6% were exotic animal species. The most abundant species …

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For The Need Of Change, Antonella Sanchez Apr 2014

For The Need Of Change, Antonella Sanchez

Undergraduate Student Symposium

“For the Need of Change” is a short documentary film about an organization by the name of DREAMers’ Moms. This new group is composed of novice leaders who have stepped out of the shadows, feeling empowered by their fellow members, and have actively joined the movement toward equality and justice in the immigrant community. These women from across the United States are sacrificing their personal time in an attempt to make positive changes in the lives of the more than eleven million undocumented immigrants living in this country. DREAMers’ Moms co-founder and president Alejandra Saucedo was interviewed about the …

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Full Time Moms, Full Time Heroes, Paola Zaidi Apr 2014

Full Time Moms, Full Time Heroes, Paola Zaidi

Undergraduate Student Symposium

“Full Time Moms, Full Time Heroes” is a documentary film about women who by their own volition decided to quit their jobs and become full-time moms. Did they make a mistake? Are they as happy as they thought they would be? How fulfilled do they feel in their lives? Do they feel appreciated and compensated in any way? Many women who work full-time dream of the day they don’t have to go to work and can just stay at home enjoying themselves. Many of our impressions of stay-at-home moms come from reality television shows; are such impressions similar in any …

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George Eliot's The Mill On The Floss As ÉCriture Feminine, Shiri Moshe Apr 2014

George Eliot's The Mill On The Floss As ÉCriture Feminine, Shiri Moshe

Undergraduate Student Symposium

In her influential treatise “The Laugh of the Medusa,” poststructuralist French theorist Helene Cixous explores the notion of text marked by gender, and notes its importance in subverting the patriarchal structures that perpetuate female oppression within the dominant, phallo-centric social and political order. By analyzing the criterions set by Cixous, and applying them to George Eliot’s The Mill on the Floss’, my research demonstrates that Eliot’s novel firmly adheres to several key poststructuralist, feminist principles, and contends that it can thus be viewed as an example of écriture feminine, or a fluid, subversive feminist work, which highlights socially constructed …

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Google Analytics For Online Education, Priscila Reyes Apr 2014

Google Analytics For Online Education, Priscila Reyes

Undergraduate Student Symposium

This work explores the idea of improving e-learning objects through the use of analytics modeled after Google Analytics. Prior work on the use of metrics in e-learning has focused on user satisfaction, and the ranking and selection of learning objects from a set of available choices. The work is unique in its focus on the kinds of metrics needed to improve an existing e-learning object, and more specifically to make improvements to specific pages within an e-learning object. The approach is based on the now well-established track record of using Google Analytics for website optimization in e-commerce. The work presented …

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Guided Inquiry: Synthetic Investigation Of Aromatic Systems, Christopher Lynch Apr 2014

Guided Inquiry: Synthetic Investigation Of Aromatic Systems, Christopher Lynch

Undergraduate Student Symposium

The focus of this investigation is to aid the development of a new advanced synthetic organic chemistry course, aiming for the development of possible synthetic routes of aromatic systems. Through a guided inquiry approach, students will be in charge of designing an entire synthetic route to develop a target compound. Proposed projects will be presented in-class, and feedback will be provided using a peerreview system to allow for improvements. Refined routes will then be carried out in the laboratory. Target compounds will then be purified, using common organic purification methods, such as column chromatography and HPLC, and then subjected to …

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Hawaiian Monk Seals - Record Of Environmental Influence In An Endangered Species, Joseph Deek, Jaime Gonzalez, Mikaela Edwards, Courtney Cenkner Apr 2014

Hawaiian Monk Seals - Record Of Environmental Influence In An Endangered Species, Joseph Deek, Jaime Gonzalez, Mikaela Edwards, Courtney Cenkner

Undergraduate Student Symposium

The Hawaiian monk seal (Monachus schaundslandi), along with their genetic cousin the Mediterranean monk seal, is one of the most endangered species on the planet, largely due to a combination of environmental and anthropogenic influences. The analysis of both organic and inorganic components of the animals' tooth and bone complexes, in coordination with age assessment, will allow us to ascertain critical information regarding changes to their habitats and the effects of such changes on the animals. Tooth and bone samples from 225 naturally deceased Hawaiian monk seals, enocompassing the past four decades, have been collected from the Northwest …

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Histological Analysis Investigating The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill's Impact On Gut Tissue Of Crassostrea Virginica, Ji Hae Hwang, Timothy Chung Apr 2014

Histological Analysis Investigating The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill's Impact On Gut Tissue Of Crassostrea Virginica, Ji Hae Hwang, Timothy Chung

Undergraduate Student Symposium

The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion in 2010 led to the leakage of approximately 4.9 million barrels of oil from the Macondo well. The well was located about a mile under the water surface and its discharge covered a vast area of the northern Gulf of Mexico. Studies have shown that the presence of the oil, or the dispersants used after the incident, may have toxic effects on marine life. The eastern oyster, Crassostrea virginica, is an ideal species to analyze because it is a filter feeder; utilizing the gills for filtration and directing the food to the rest …

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Infection Rates Of Asian Fish Tapeworm (Bothriocephalus Acheilognathi) In Three Commercially Available Poeciliid Fishes (Molly, Platy, And Swordtail), Amrita Choithani Apr 2014

Infection Rates Of Asian Fish Tapeworm (Bothriocephalus Acheilognathi) In Three Commercially Available Poeciliid Fishes (Molly, Platy, And Swordtail), Amrita Choithani

Undergraduate Student Symposium

The Asian fish tapework (Bothriocephalus acheilognathi) has been widely introduced beyond its native range into several localities across the USA, largely via the aquaculture of imported Cyprinids. This tapeworm can infect a wide range of fishes, and is considered pathogenic, particularly in small-bodied or juvenile fishes. Consequently there is significant concern over the potential of this parasite to escape from aquaculture sites and subsequently infect native fishes. Fish acquire B. acheilognathi when they consume infected copepods, which acquire the parasite when they consume larvae recently hatched from the feces of infected fishes. Thus, fish cultured in ponds and …

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Infinite, Juan Rivera Apr 2014

Infinite, Juan Rivera

Undergraduate Student Symposium

“Infinite” is a short film about a young woman going about her “normal” day. She seems to be interacting with someone off-screen through most of the film. Towards the end of the film the audience discovers the truth about this mysterious off-screen person. The film is directed by Juan Rivera. Jessica Rivera is a crew member and actor in the film.

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Inhibition Of Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme-2 (Ace-2) Activity And Radioligand Binding Of A Putative Ace-2 Inhibitor, Andrea Linares Apr 2014

Inhibition Of Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme-2 (Ace-2) Activity And Radioligand Binding Of A Putative Ace-2 Inhibitor, Andrea Linares

Undergraduate Student Symposium

The objective this study was to test the efficacy of a novel angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 (ACE-2) inhibitor JFS101. A potent inhibitor of ACE-2 (MLN-4760) was developed, but then abandoned when it became clear that ACE-2 metabolizes angiotensin II (Ang II) to form Ang 1-7. We developed a radioiodinizable analog of MLN-4760 (JFS101) that would more closely mimic Ang II. Both the uniodinated and monoradioiodinated as well as the S,S versus the S,R analogs were tested for their ability to inhibit ACE-2 metabolism of an artificial ACE-2 substrate (MCA-APK[Dnp]) using recombinant human ACE-2 (rhACE-2) and for their ability to bind to ACE-2 …

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Life After College Athletics, Kristen Ghandour Apr 2014

Life After College Athletics, Kristen Ghandour

Undergraduate Student Symposium

“Life after College Athletics” is a short documentary film about former collegiate athletes who are struggling, or who have previously struggled, after their collegiate careers end. The film explores issues such as anorexia, bulimia, drug use, and depression, among other issues, that have been found to occur in some ex-collegiate athletes after ending their sporting careers. The documentary’s goal is to bring awareness to these issues that are often ignored. The film is directed by Kristen Ghandour.

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Literature And Medicine Courses: Examining Descriptions, Making Connections, Kamila Albert Apr 2014

Literature And Medicine Courses: Examining Descriptions, Making Connections, Kamila Albert

Undergraduate Student Symposium

The interdisciplinary field of “Literature and Medicine” aims to reintroduce the reflective study of literature into the scientific, data-driven world of healthcare. This broad subject allows for a range of teaching methodologies, often constructed in accordance with an instructor’s research or literary interests, which serve to make classes distinct. Notably, however, the language of “Literature and Medicine” course descriptions, which represent the most concise summaries of courses, often feature similar terms, concepts, and, at times, authors. This is not surprising when one considers that these carefully constructed descriptions must effectively bridge two very different subjects. Therefore, this research project evaluates …

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Manager View - An Interface For Generating Actionable Data From Repository Metrics, Stephan Vanwoezik Apr 2014

Manager View - An Interface For Generating Actionable Data From Repository Metrics, Stephan Vanwoezik

Undergraduate Student Symposium

This computer science project creates an online tool for software development managers. The tool makes quick analysis of a software development company’s project repository. Manager View does something that no existing software does, by allowing the user to view repository metrics in a new and meaningful way. This analysis of repository data can offer insight into the quality and quantity of developers, their actions and the software artifacts they generate. In this project we demonstrate how such data can be used to reveal actionable information. The views show daily employee and task activity in a way that gives a sense …

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Mechanism Of Apoptosis Induced By Phycocyanin In Lncap And A549 Cancer Cells, Haley Nation, Omar Garcia, Omar Viqar Apr 2014

Mechanism Of Apoptosis Induced By Phycocyanin In Lncap And A549 Cancer Cells, Haley Nation, Omar Garcia, Omar Viqar

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Phycocyanin is a pigmented protein found in cyanobacteria produced by aphanizomenon flos-aquae (a freshwater species of blue-green algae) and spirulina. Phycocyanin (PC) has been researched extensively in the last twenty years because of its anti-cancer properties. Despite numerous critical findings, the anti-cancer mechanism for how PC induces apoptosis in cancer cells is still unknown.

The purpose of our experiment was to determine the uptake of PC by cancer cells and then study different mechanisms of apoptosis. PC naturally emits red florescence, which was utilized to verify the uptake by LNCaP prostate cancer cells. We were able to determine that …

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Neural Stem Cells Proliferate In Vascular Niches In The Adult Mayan Cichlid Brain, Zara Khan, Jonathan P. Romanes, Sameed Ashfaq Apr 2014

Neural Stem Cells Proliferate In Vascular Niches In The Adult Mayan Cichlid Brain, Zara Khan, Jonathan P. Romanes, Sameed Ashfaq

Undergraduate Student Symposium

The birth of new neurons (neurogenesis) has been observed in all adult mammalian brains examined to date. Adult neural stem cells are located close to blood vessels in each of the two neurogenic regions observed in all mammals. A regulatory role for blood vessels has recently been suggested as a mechanism to regulate neurogenesis. Postnatal neurogenesis has been reported in several regions of the fish brain including the olfactory bulb, dorsal zones of the telencephalon, hypothalamus, and divisions of the cerebellum; however, little else is known about neurogenesis in the adult fish brain. Using thymidine analog incorporation assays, cell death …

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Neurogenesis In Octopus Vulgaris, Jelileh Whitmore Apr 2014

Neurogenesis In Octopus Vulgaris, Jelileh Whitmore

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Cephalopods, particularly the octopus, have the largest and most complex invertebrate brains and show markers of behavioral complexity. Several mammalian studies have demonstrated a correlation between learning and neurogenesis (the birth of new neurons) in the hippocampus of the adult brain. The vertical lobe of Octopus vulgaris is thought to be analogous to the hippocampus of mammalian brain; however, neurogenesis has never been reported in the octopus. We used thymidine incorporation assays and immunostaining to demonstrate neurogenesis in the developed octopus brain. We are currently examining the proliferation, differentiation, integration, and cell death of newly born neurons in the octopus …

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