Alyssa Beaulieu

Rumination as a Transdiagnostic Construct: a Preliminary Meta-Analysis on Depression and Anxiety

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Live Poster Session: Zoom LinkThursday, July 30th 1:15-2:30pm EDT Abstract: Rumination involves the repeated retrieval of self-referential thoughts that may occur in response to a negative mood or episode. There are two components of rumination, reflective pondering (adaptive) and brooding (maladaptive). Brooding rumination has been associated with many clinical problems, including anxiety and depression, and … Read more

One Drug for All RNA Viruses

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Live Poster Session: Zoom LinkThursday, July 30th 1:15-2:30pm EDT Abstract: With cases and deaths constantly rising, and a vaccine that has yet to been developed, scientists everywhere are focusing their efforts on repurposed drugs, preexisting FDA approved drugs used to treat other viruses/illnesses, to see which ones are safely effective at treating Covid-19 patients with … Read more

Do Natural Enemies Impose Selection on Herbivore Diet Breadth?

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Live Poster Session: Zoom LinkThursday, July 30th 1:15-2:30pm EDT Abstract: Bernays and Graham proposed the “Enemy-Free Space” hypothesis in the paper “On the Evolution of Host Specificity in Phytophagous Arthropods” in 1988. They hypothesized that traits associated with dietary specialization would allow herbivores to better escape generalist enemies, and thus generalist enemies would select for … Read more

An Analysis of the Impact of Identity on Women of Color Housing Activists

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Live Poster Session: Zoom LinkThursday, July 30th 1:15-2:30pm EDT Abstract: Throughout history, Black Indigenous Women of Color(BIWoC) have been at the forefront of a variety of social movements and have served as integral catalysts of social change and development. Advocacy and activism has proven to be instrumental in fostering healthy change. Group identity, such as … Read more

Plagued by Our Success: Contributions to a Book Project

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Live Poster Session: Zoom LinkThursday, July 30th 1:15-2:30pm EDT Abstract: Human impact. We are currently living in what scientists have deemed The Age of Humans. Never before has any other organism influenced the course of nature as much as humans have. From superstorms and droughts to emerging pathogens, our appetite for domination is a double-edged … Read more

Mapping and Visualizing the Free Energy Landscape of p53 using Vectors

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Live Poster Session: Zoom LinkThursday, July 30th 1:15-2:30pm EDT Abstract: Under the notion that molecular motions such as protein folding and conformational substate selection are energetically biased, the free energy landscape becomes an integral informational tool in the design of allosteric effectors to control the biological processes of proteins. In order to capture the free … Read more

Inverse Design Schemes for Light Propagation in Synthetic Media with Self-Induced Response

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Live Poster Session: Zoom LinkThursday, July 30th 1:15-2:30pm EDT Abstract: The traditional approach to realizing a device typically relies on familiar materials and geometries, guided by some derivative notions about the underlying physical mechanisms. Recently, the confluence of additive manufacturing, computer numerical control (CNC) machining and advanced computational paradigms such as inverse design is poised … Read more

Numbers for Nature: An International Perspective on Conservation Economics through Conservation Strategy Fund

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Live Poster Session: Zoom LinkThursday, July 30th 1:15-2:30pm EDT Abstract: Conservation Strategy Fund (CSF) is an environmental non-profit that uses conservation economics to preserve natural ecosystems, promote sustainable development, and protect human well-being. Although my summer with CSF did not entail research in the traditional sense, I executed four projects that gave me invaluable experience … Read more

An Exploration of the Geometry of Road Networks Through Embeddings in the Euclidian Plane

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Live Poster Session: Zoom LinkThursday, July 30th 1:15-2:30pm EDT Abstract: Half of the global population already lives in cities, and by 2050 two-thirds of the world’s people are expected to live in urban areas. The speed and scale of urbanization brings tremendous challenges in developing sustainable cities. In this project, we seek to understand the … Read more

Electronic Feedback Loop Sustaining Magnetic Resonance

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Live Poster Session: Zoom LinkThursday, July 30th 1:15-2:30pm EDT Abstract: Resonance is a phenomenon where amplitude increases when the frequency of a periodic external applied force is close to the natural frequency of a system. The driving force adds energy into the system increasing the amplitude indefinitely unless there is damming, like friction, removing energy … Read more

Molecular Simulation of DNA Packaging into the Phi29 Bacteriophage

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Live Poster Session: Zoom LinkThursday, July 30th 1:15-2:30pm EDT Abstract: Viruses exist as a protein shell called a capsid. It encloses single or double stranded DNA which codes for the virus elements. In order to reproduce and survive, a virus tightly packages its genetic material then ejects it into a host cell. The infected cell, … Read more

Complex influences on plant development: the interaction of genotype, environment, and parent environment

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Live Poster Session: Zoom LinkThursday, July 30th 1:15-2:30pm EDT Abstract: Until recently, biologists considered the traits of an individual organism to be determined entirely by its genotype and its environment. However, new findings have shown that the parents’ environment can also influence an organism’s development via inherited regulatory factors. In an ongoing, large-scale greenhouse growth … Read more

USING AN ORGANOTYPIC MODEL OF TEMPORAL LOBE EPILEPSY (TLE) TO INVESTIGATE THE ROLE OF GABAERGIC RECEPTORS ON SEIZURE SUPPRESSION AND STRUCTURAL REMODELING IN THE MOUSE HIPPOCAMPUS

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Live Poster Session: Zoom LinkThursday, July 30th 1:15-2:30pm EDT Abstract: Seizures are described as sudden, uncontrollable electrical disturbances in the brain brought on by high-frequency synchronous neural activity. In temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), many patients experience focal seizures in the temporal lobes of the brain. Research in the Naegele lab investigates stem cell therapies for … Read more

Techniques of uCT Manipulation to Visualize and Score Vertebrae

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Live Poster Session: Zoom LinkThursday, July 30th 1:15-2:30pm EDT Abstract: Our current method of analyzing vertebrae under the microscope uses calcein and alzarine staining to visualize calcified mass. Despite the success of this method, it has limitations like the scales, which block the view of the vertebrae in older fish. Human vertebrae is commonly visualized … Read more

Increased temperatures alter the postlarval American lobster transcriptome: the challenge of balancing cellular stress response and homeostasis

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Live Poster Session: Zoom LinkThursday, July 30th 1:15-2:30pm EDT Abstract: Transcriptomics reveals how abiotic and biotic factors influence the portion of the genome being transcribed from DNA into RNA, and is a useful tool to understand the impacts of climate change on marine organisms at a molecular level. We utilize transcriptomics to uncover the molecular … Read more

Mechanisms of Allocation and Impacts of Abolishment: Evidence from Chinese Stock Quota System

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Live Poster Session: Zoom LinkThursday, July 30th 1:15-2:30pm EDT Abstract: The stock market in China was established in 1990. Then, a “quota system” was implemented from 1992-2002, which allowed the government to centrally allocate shares of IPO to provinces. The allocation of quota was not evenly distributed. We find that before 1996, the allocation of … Read more

Effects of Politicization and Media Coverage of COVID-19 on Confusion about Health Policies and Scientific Findings

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Live Poster Session: Zoom LinkThursday, July 30th 1:15-2:30pm EDT Abstract: Health politicization is when political cues become integrated into the public presentation of a health issue. COVID-19 is a political-communication and health-communication crisis. The pandemic has been communicated in diverse ways – through conflicting science, downplayed threats, emotional arousal, and fragmented media. Republican politicians publicly … Read more

Wesleyan Word Experience Project Preliminary Analysis

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Abstract: The purpose of this poster is to analyze the correlation between the Wesleyan Word Experience Project’s age of acquisition and familiarity results from undergraduate students and the lexical decision data from the English Lexicon Project. This poster delves into multivariate analysis testing for the significance of these two predictor variables along with the baseline … Read more

Monetary Policy and Shadow-Bank Lending: This is not your grandparent’s bank lending channel

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Live Poster Session: Zoom LinkThursday, July 30th 1:15-2:30pm EDT Abstract: In this paper, we use the relative moments in depository and non-depository single-family mortgage loans to provide evidence on the existence of a loan-flow-supply channel of monetary policy transmission. We find evidence that can be described as a slowdown in the pace of mortgage loan … Read more

Descriptive Analysis of State Senate Elections

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Live Poster Session: Zoom LinkThursday, July 30th 1:15-2:30pm EDT Abstract: W State legislators have the power to shape the policies, economies, and trajectories of their state for years to come. Following the 2020 election, many state legislatures will also be drawing the district lines for congressional and state legislative seats for the next decade. With … Read more

Modifying a Mini Protein with Two Conformational States to Instead Adopt Only One Conformation

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Live Poster Session: Zoom LinkThursday, July 30th 1:15-2:30pm EDT Abstract: Our project is focused on the computationally-designed mini protein EHEE_rd2_0005. While the structure of this protein was previously determined in molecular dynamics simulations, structural knowledge derived from simulations are not as precise as real-world analysis. Members of our lab have previously attempted to obtain more … Read more

Effects of Chain Length on the Structure and Dynamics of Polymer Composites

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Live Poster Session: Zoom LinkThursday, July 30th 1:15-2:30pm EDT Abstract: We use molecular dynamics simulations to study the effect of chain length on the properties of polymer-nanoparticle (NP) composites. We show that polymers slightly elongate near the NP interface and chains tend to align their longest axis with the NP interface. The effect of NP … Read more

Calculating the Global Budget of Impact-Derived Sediment on Venus

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Live Poster Session: Zoom LinkThursday, July 30th 1:15-2:30pm EDT Abstract: Much of the sediment on Venus’ surface is derived from impact cratering. Such sediment is ejected into the planet’s atmosphere during impact events and eventually settles on the surface in a parabola-shaped deposit. Although these ejecta deposits have been mapped, the total amount of sediment … Read more

Estimating the Intrinsic Luminosities of Heavily Obscured AGN

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Live Poster Session: Zoom LinkThursday, July 30th 1:15-2:30pm EDT Abstract: X-rays are produced by accreting supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies; such objects are known as Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). Through interactions with the accretion disk and surrounding torus of dense material, features are imprinted on the X-ray spectra of AGNs that provide … Read more

Geographical Locations of News Deserts and Factors that Influence Exit of Local Newspapers

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Live Poster Session: Zoom LinkThursday, July 30th 1:15-2:30pm EDT Abstract: The problem of “news deserts” — places where there is no traditional news outlet like a newspaper or local radio or TV — is a challenge in the current media environment. One little-studied aspect of this problem is that news consumers can use alternative Internet … Read more

Bright Meals for Light Eaters: Analysis and Characterization of Ultraluminous Accreting X-Ray Binaries in the Local Universe

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Live Poster Session: Zoom Link (Live Chat Only)Thursday, July 30th 1:15-2:30pm EDT Abstract: Observations of X-ray radiation from nearby galaxies provide the best opportunities to study the some of the universe’s most extreme environments, neutron stars (NSs) and black holes (BHs) interacting with stars in binary systems in particular. Emission from these X-ray binaries (XRBs) … Read more

Doppler Flips in Protoplanetary & Debris Disks: A Possible Indicator of Hidden Planets

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Live Poster Session: Zoom LinkThursday, July 30th 1:15-2:30pm EDT Abstract: Protoplanetary disks are flattened structures of gas and optically thick dust around young stars (<10 Myr old). Debris disks are older, more evolved disks with optically thin dust levels. Recent work has shown that deviations from Keplerian rotation in the spectral line analysis of protoplanetary … Read more

A Computational Investigation of Energetics in Diels-Alder Reactions Using Vinyl Sulfone Derivatives

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Live Poster Session: Zoom LinkThursday, July 30th 1:15-2:30pm EDT Abstract: Dendrimers, a type of highly branched macromolecule, play a key role in drug delivery, tissue engineering and the design of specialty polymers. Diels-Alder and thiol-maleimide click chemistry reactions using furan maleimide have been previously studied as a means of synthesizing multilayered dendrimers, however, the maleimide … Read more

Effects of Star-Polymer Confirmations on Polymer Dynamics

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Live Poster Session: Zoom LinkThursday, July 30th 1:15-2:30pm EDT Abstract: Polymers and polymer-nanocomposites are ubiquitous in the world of material science. Polymeric materials often exhibit properties that make them ideal for a broad range of applications, from cosmetics, to transportation and healthcare. One of the most important properties for processing polymer materials is the glass … Read more

Automated tracking of locomotor sensitization to alcohol in mice

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Live Poster Session: Zoom LinkThursday, July 30th 1:15-2:30pm EDT Abstract: Alcohol use disorders are a leading health problem globally, and understanding the neuroadaptations caused by this drug is critical to providing treatment, honing prevention strategies, and increasing public education. Sensitization to chronic alcohol reflects changes in mesocorticolimbic dopamine signaling that is integral to both reward … Read more