Interdisciplinary – Page 6 – UROP Summer Symposium 2021

Interdisciplinary

Ontological Representation and Machine Learning Prediction of Drugs for COVID-19 Treatment

Background: SARS-CoV-2 is a human coronavirus that has caused COVID-19 and is able to rapidly mutate and spread throughout the world. While the usage of COVID-19 vaccines has drastically reduced illness, new variants of the virus continue to show up and reduce vaccination efficiency. Given the continuous spreading of the disease, effective drugs for treating COVID-19 are urgently needed; however, very effective drugs for COVID-19 have not yet been approved for public use. Drug repurposing is a strategy to discover new uses for thousands of approved drugs previously used for other illnesses. It is possible to use the drug repurposing strategy to find drugs for effective COVID-19 treatment. This study aims to analyze drugs and their effects on the human body to further predict effective drugs for COVID-19 using machine learning algorithms.

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Apoptotic Effect of Deoxycholic Acid and Ursodeoxycholic Acid on Human Colon Cancer Cells

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States. Current treatments for colorectal cancer include surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy; however, the five-year survival rate for distant CRC is 16%. Due to the ineffectiveness of standard treatments, especially at distant CRC, new therapeutics are needed to provide more effective treatment options at all stages.

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2021 Powertrain Strategies for the 21st Century

My Research Project pertains to Powertrain Strategies for the 21st Century survey project of the Automotive Futures Group. This survey of automotive industry experts including manufacturers, suppliers, government, NGOs, academia, and consultants looks to forecast the percentage of different powertrains that will be sold in 2025 and 2030 as well as asking experts about their expectations for the Biden Administrations CAFÉ regulations impacts, how will the industry use its credits to meet their goals, will manufacturers be able to meet aggressive state goals for eliminating gas fueled vehicle sales, and how will the auto industry make the transition to EVs, including questions on charging infrastructure. Our analyses will address these questions and report differences, if any, among the three groups of respondents (manufacturers, suppliers, and the group of government, NGOs, academia, and consultants). A unique characteristic of our analyses will be our weighting of responses by the confidence respondents report about their answers. Our results will be a continuation of this survey that dates back to 2007 that has tracked powertrain expert responses to the future of powertrains in the US.

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Protest in the Streets

Since Donald Trump’s election into presidential office in November 2016, the United States has seen a huge increase in protests on the streets of cities nationwide. With protests like the Women’s March (2017, 2018,2019), the March for Our Lives (2018), Families Belong Together (2018), and the Global Climate Strike (2019), millions of people have participated in rallying and using their voices for what they believe in. Protest is used as a communication tool by citizens to communicate views, concerns, or feelings of misrepresentation to their government. In this project, I set out to answer the following question: Why do people attend events and protests and how do individual’s motives differ from city to city?

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Social Justice and the Environmental Movement – Lead Issues in Detroit

Social Justice is an ongoing effort to ensure that people in society are given fair treatment regardless of race, economic status, gender identity, sexual orientation, or ability status amongst other identities. While efforts have been ongoing to achieve justice, the movement for it is just beginning to gain recognition in various areas of society. Environmental racism is a term used to describe when a disproportionate amount of pollution emitting facilities are placed near a population with a large proportion of residents who are people of color. It can also occur when people of color do not receive the appropriate resources to deal with environmental hazards or when less media attention is directed towards people of color when they deal with pollution issues. One area of concern in this category can be seen with a particular issue in Detroit.

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Shared Understanding between Physicians and Nurses

Background
Communication between physicians and nurses is a critical component to the well-being and health of their patients. However, poor communication is still one of the main challenges that affects patient safety, at the cost of the patient’s health. Poor communication can lead to a lack of understanding of the patient’s needs, which can cause adverse effects that could have been avoided with good communication. Previous studies have shown that communication needs to be improved, but have not successfully improved communication. Thus, further action is needed so that physicians and nurses communicate in order to come to a shared understanding.

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Gene Editing for Combating Disease

The APP (amyloid precursor protein) is particularly relevant in the investigation of neurodegenerative diseases, notably Alzheimer’s, as a result of rare mutations in APP protein coding gene. Quantifying cell mRNA levels is crucial to the determination of cell genomic status: mRNA is transcribed from cell DNA, and ultimately translated to cell proteins. In this project, we will administer the CRISPR/Cas9 complex in neuroblastoma cells, and confirm the alteration of APP gene expression.

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The Effect of Prosthetic Leg Length on Low Back Muscle Activity and Pain during Walking and Sit-to-Stand

People with lower limb amputation have a greater incidence of low back pain than the general population, with some estimates as high as 65%. One potential cause of pain in this population is leg length asymmetry as it can lead to altered trunk-pelvis movement, and subsequently altered low-back loading. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of changes in prosthetic leg length on low back muscle activity and self-reported low-back pain.

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Wicked Solutions Domain

Data visualizations such as the John Hopkins COVID-19 Map, has become an impactful way of presenting updated health information to stakeholders such as policy makers and the general public. This pandemic dashboard has become a precedent for developing platforms that help provide useful information for issues with which our society is struggling. Using design thinking and participatory mapping, the WISDOM research team led by University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor Audrey Bennett aims to create an equitably accessible Wicked Solutions Domain for networked collaboration and knowledge exchange of existing data and research resources in relation to wicked problems such as food, poverty, and sustainability.

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