2005 Conference of Ford Fellows
Poster Session Abstracts

Robert Carrillo, Yale University
”Constructing a Genetically-Encoded, Synapse-Specific Calcium Indicator”
My area of study concentrates on the role of electrical activity in synapse formation and plasticity, including possible downstream effects of calcium influx. Axonal sprouting and synaptic rewiring are key regulators of neuronal plasticity in the developing and adult brain and electrical activity plays a prominent role. Genetically encoded indicators of neuronal activity offer great advantages over standard recording techniques or synthetic dyes. The ability to selectively and non-invasively express these indicators in a defined subset of neurons or to confine them to a specific subcellular compartment allows for great spatial resolution. One of these, G-CaMP, is constructed from a circularly permutated EGFP connected on its N-terminus to the M13 fragment of the myosin light chain kinase and on its C-terminus to calmodulin (CaM) (Nakai et al., 2001). Upon binding of calcium to CaM, a conformational change occurs in EGFP due to the interaction between the calcium-bound CaM and M13 and results in a fluorescence change. In Drosophila, G-CaMP has been expressed in olfactory neurons and in the mushroom body to study odor-responses (Wang, J. et al., 2003 and Wang, Y. et al, 2004). Recently, we acquired a line expressing G-CaMP pan-neuronally and have investigated the ability to monitor calcium fluxes at the Drosophila neuromuscular junction (NMJ) (Wu lab, unpublished). Upon stimulation (20-80 Hz), fluorescent changes are reproducibly seen throughout the neuron. While this is an achievement in itself, of great interest is to tether G-CaMP to a synaptic partner and localize it specifically to the sites of synaptic contact in order to allow for an increase in spatial resolution and signal-to-noise ratio. One such ideal tag that is expressed pre and postsynaptically at the NMJ is discs large (dlg). Dlg is a type of membrane-associated guanylate kinase that functions in synaptic assembly and is composed of various domains, including: three PDZ domains, an SH3 domain, and a guanylate-kinase-like domain. I have acquired the necessary cDNAs from different labs to create the tagged-G-CaMP and currently in the process of constructing it. This tool can then be utilized to study the dynamic process of synaptic formation, retraction, and remodeling all of which require calcium.

Socorro Castañeda-Liles, University of California, Santa Barbara
”A Mi Virgensita la Llevo en la Sangre: A sociological account of Our Lady of Guadalupe in the lives of working class Chicanas & Mexicanas”
For centuries many people of Mexican descent regardless of class, gender, generation, and in some cases religious tradition, have recognized Our Lady of Guadalupe as the most influential Catholic and cultural female symbol of Mexico. Although her narrative emerged over 470 years ago, for Mexican origin Catholics she is one of the most enduring cultural symbols of Mexican life both in the U.S. and in Mexico. With such a large and disparate following, it is not surprising that there are as many competing interpretations and ways of experiencing Guadalupe as there are people.
Theologians, historians, Chicana artists, and other intellectuals have played active roles in (re) defining Guadalupe, many times competing with each other over the right to interpret this spiritual symbol, but what about grassroots women? In the Latina/o context women are the main transmitters of faith and religious traditions in their families and communities. Who when is Guadalupe for the grassroots Mexican-origin women who while they do not participate in the “intellectual” knowledge making on Guadalupe she is very real in their lives, and not a dusty image on an altar?
This presentation draws on two years of ethnographic research in Silicon Valley among one hundred working class self-identified Chicanas and Mexican immigrant women: single women, mothers, and grandmothers. Paying particular attention to generational difference, I examine what Robert Orsi refers to as the "network of relationships between heaven and earth" that these women have with Our Lady of Guadalupe (2005:2). I focus on issues of domestic violence, sexuality, and their faith relationship with Guadalupe. My findings reveal that these women re-craft Our Lady of Guadalupe in ways that do not necessarily nor entirely adhere to Catholic teachings.
Note: "A Mi Virgensita la Llevo en la Sangre" – I have Our Lady of Guadalupe in my blood.

Christena Cleveland, University of California, Santa Barbara
”The Relationship Between Perceived Ability to Succeed, Teammate Performance, and Cardiovascular Responses”
Christena Cleveland, Jim Blascovich, Jayne Hurst and Cynthia Gangi
University of California, Santa Barbara
Competing hypotheses drawn from social comparison theory and social identity theory were tested in a competitive team situation by examining the ways in which teammate performance affected an individual team member’s self-evaluations. Social comparison theory predicts that performing on teams with superior teammates results in lower perceptions of ability whereas performing on teams with inferior teammates results in higher perceptions of ability. However, social identity theory predicts that performing on a team with inferior performers should result in lower perceptions of ability. Whereas, playing on a team with superior performers should result in higher perceptions of ability. Depending on the condition, participants were paired with two confederates who were either inferior or superior performers on an anagram task. The threesome formed a team and competed against other teams in an anagram contest. Additionally, some participants completed a team-building task with their teammates (confederates) prior to completing the anagram contest, whereas other participants did not. The results of the study revealed that participants who completed a team-building task prior to working on a team with others who were superior performers compared to the participant were threatened (a physiological pattern that indicates low perceived ability to succeed) relative to participants who completed a team-building task prior to working on a team with inferior performers and to participants who did not complete a team-building task prior to working on a team with superior performers. The results of the study appear to support social comparison theory.

Victoria Coleman, American University
”Racial and Gender Differences in Obstetrics and Gynecology: Residents' Perceptions of Mentoring”

Having a mentor during one’s residency is often linked to greater success in professional development. The present study examines changes in ob-gyn residents’ relationships with and perceptions of their mentors between 1999 and 2004, while considering what role race and gender might play in resident-mentor interactions.
A survey was administered to 4,721 residents who took the 2004 Council on Resident Education in Obstetrics and Gynecology in-training examination. Data are reported for respondents from four racial categories: White, African-American, Hispanic, and Asian/Pacific Islander. Selected results were compared to the results of a similar survey administered in 1999. Responses were analyzed by chi-square analysis and univariate analyses of variance.
The response rate for this study was 97%. Most residents (64.9%) reported having a mentor. White female residents were least likely to report having a mentor. Compared to results from the 1999 survey, the percentage of residents who report having a mentor, and the percentage of residents with female mentors, has increased. For all residents, personal rapport, knowledge of the field, and similarity in professional interests were the three most important factors in choosing a mentor. The proportion of residents that report having explicit discussions about career options has declined since 1999.
Ethnic minorities are more likely than White residents to have a mentor, and to report that their mentors provide helpful advice. Although a higher proportion of residents have a mentor in 2004, it is unclear whether residents are receiving more or better advice than in 1999.

Lindzy D. Friend, Washington University of St. Louis
”Mice carrying the P187,190A Mutation in CD28 Exhibit Deficient Proliferation, Antibody Production, Germinal Center Formation, and Cytokine Production. Disruption of the Proline Rich C-terminal Motif of CD28 Results in Deficient Proliferation, Antibody Production, Germinal Center Formation, and Cytokine Production.”
Signaling through CD28 is necessary for optimal proliferation, cytokine production, and survival of activated T-cells. Discrete motifs within the cytoplasmic tail of CD28 have been studied extensively by mutational analysis and linked to distinct CD28 dependent effects. In spite of this effort, remains controversy in the field due to conflicting results in various model systems studied. We have aimed to resolve some of this controversy by generating a mouse with knocked-in mutations in C-terminal proline rich domain of CD28. This knock-in strategy allows for the study of P187,190A CD28 expressed under endogenous regulatory elements. In addition, this model system presents an opportunity to study the effects of the P187,190A mutation not only in vitro, but also with in vivo models of inflammation.

Amina Humphrey, University of California, Los Angeles
”Reading Race, Reading Gender: An Analysis of Picture Books about Skin Color and Hair Texture for African American Females”
Since the late 90s, there has been a surge in children's picture books revolving around the issue of hair texture and/or skin color for African American girls between the ages of 1-10. The purpose of these picture books is to discuss hair and/or skin as a means of promoting self-esteem in African American children. And typically within each story, issues of skin color or hair are addressed within a Black cultural framework. In developing the plot, the author will normally use skin color and/or hair texture as a way to address coming of age, beauty, or self-esteem.
In this qualitative research, I examine picture books about skin color and hair for African American females, and I also examine the readings of these texts between mothers and daughters. I argue that these books because of the sensitive subject matter and the history of racism could be used in ways that help daughters, as well as their mothers feel better or possibly worse about their hair or skin. In using this argument, I will rely on the following theoretical frameworks: Black Feminist Theory, Black Feminist Thought, Womanist Theory, Critical Race Feminism, and Reader Response Theory.
Additionally, the questions that I ask in this research relate to the social and cultural aspects of race, gender, femininity, and beauty as they apply to African American females. More specifically, I want to understand how mothers interpret these texts and the ways in which they use these texts with their daughters.
By interviewing African American mothers, they can validate or refute my interpretations of these texts. The following questions will guide me in this research.
1. What are the various interpretations of skin color and hair texture that appear in the picture books?
2. What are the various mothers’ interpretations of these picture books?
3. What happens when African American mothers read the books with their little girls during the mother/child reading sessions?
4. What is the range and the frequency of variation during the mother/child reading sessions in how the mother and child engage the texts in relation to their own lives?
5. What is the range and the frequency of variation in what mothers say in individual interviews and in focus groups about the books and about the reading sessions with their own child? In order to answer the aforementioned questions, I will perform the following tasks:

In trying to understand the ways in which the mothers will address the issues within the text, I have envisioned various scenarios, such as textually-driven delivery and/or supplemental-delivery. For example, will the mother rely heavily upon the text without activating background knowledge or without engaging her daughter in a discussion of the terms, characters, setting, or the plot? If this scenario occurs, how will the child react? Will she ask questions of her mother about the story, and if she does, how will the mother address these questions, if her delivery is driven by the text?
A second possible scenario could be a mother that makes connections between her life, the child’s life, and what is presented in the text. If this scenario should occur, I will look for ways in which the mother supplements the text. Does the mother talk about the story and relate it to the child or to her own experiences? Does the mother discuss the pictures in the story and how they relate to events in either the mother’s or the daughter’s life? Is there a discussion of the terms, ideas about beauty, or self-esteem? Does the mother use these books as a segue to discuss ideas and representations of beauty and self-esteem? If the mother makes connections, will the child begin to make connections on her own?
By beginning to envision these various scenarios and by asking analytical questions, I will be able to look for various patterns, as well as frequency and variation in the delivery styles. This will allow me to understand the way in which individual Black women interpret these texts. Also, it will allow me to see how children begin to understand these particular issues within the cultural confines of these mother/child reading interactions.

Scott Izu, New Mexico State University
”An Interpretation of Laplacian Eigenmaps in the LLE Framework”
In 2002, Belkin and Niyogi introduced their Laplacian Eigenmaps algorithm as a new method of dimensionality reduction. They stated an obscure relation to the method of Local Linear Embedding (LLE) introduced a few years earlier by Roweis and Saul. This poster goes one step further and describes natural modifications to the LLE algorithm which give a new interpretation of Laplacian Eigenmaps in the LLE framework.
This poster describes the two algorithms and discusses a modified LLE algorithm which produces the same results as the Laplacian Eigenmaps algorithm. The main theorems which provide this insight are included and commented on. Lastly, the interpretation of the Laplacian Eigenmaps algorithm in the LLE Framework suggests the results are somewhat invariant under small perturbations of the corresponding weight matrix. This idea is explored using yet another modification of the LLE algorithm.
Finally, the three algorithms are applied to “unroll” the famous Swiss Roll. That is, the three algorithms reduce the dimensionality of the Swiss Roll data set from three to two dimensions. The original data points and their embedding are shown for comparison.

Kayenda T. Johnson, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
”Process, Preference, and Performance: The Role of Ethnicity and Socio-Economic Status in Computer Interface Metaphor Design”
Considering the rapid movement of the USA towards an information society, it is critical that Americans have access to computer technology. In many cases, “access” means having the actual computer hardware; other times “access” involves having an interface design that users can effectively learn to operate. This research addresses a problem that centers on the apparent disparities that persist in computer use/access among ethnic minorities and persons of lower economic status here in the USA. All Americans need to have access to computer technology and its ever-growing benefits. Individuals without access will be continue to be marginalized.
There are many interventions that could be employed to dismantle the technology divide between the “haves” and “have-nots.” One intervention, from a Human Factors perspective, is in recognizing and accounting for culture’s influence on one’s cognition. Consequently, this research is designed to address this matter as a “process” problem. The primary goal of this research endeavor is to develop a culturally valid interface design methodology that can be later used to identify and develop appropriate computer interface metaphors for several ethnic minority groups (groups which are typically marginalized in the interface design process) of low socio-economic status. Development of this design methodology includes the synthesis of a current interface design process, various elicitation methods for determining user needs, and noted design considerations for marginalized groups.

Stephanie A. Morris, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
”The Effects of Threat and Ingroup Identification on Social Dominance Orientation”
Three studies demonstrated that Social Dominance Orientation (SDO), or endorsement of group-based hierarchy, can increase as a result of threats to the ingroup’s power, material resources, and/or general welfare. However, this effect is only present in highly-identified group members, who are particularly likely to perceive these threats and be concerned with protecting their ingroup. In Study 1, SDO and perceptions of realistic threat from Asian Americans were positively correlated among highly racially-identified European Americans and uncorrelated among less racially-identified European Americans. Study 2 replicated Study 1 using an experimental manipulation of realistic threat. Non Asian American participants exhibited higher SDO after responding to threatening statements about Asian Americans than after responding to non-threatening statements about Asian Americans, but only if they were highly identified with their race. Study 3 extended the generalizability of these findings to non-racial groups. Undergraduate students in the humanities and social sciences were made to feel either threatened or non-threatened by science majors. Among participants who identified strongly with their field of study, those in the threatening condition had higher subsequent levels of SDO than those in the control (non-threatening) condition. The results of these studies shed light on the process by which attitudes toward group-based inequality arise. Specifically, they show that SDO is a function not only of the objective position of one’s ingroup in the social hierarchy, but also of the perceived stability of this position.

Anna Osland, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
”Increasing Disaster Resilience for the Latino Population of Durham County, North Carolina”
This project evaluates Durham County’s preparedness to assist its non-English speaking Latino population in a disaster, and provides recommendations for policy alternatives that facilitate hazard mitigation practices to assist the Latino population of Durham County, North Carolina in times of natural or human-caused disasters. The U.S. Census of Population estimates that between the 1990 and 2000, Durham County’s self-identified Latino population grew from about 2,000 to over 17,000, increasing the identified Latino population from 1.1 percent of the total Durham County population in 1990 to over 7.6 percent in 2000 (American FactFinder, 2003). Although many Latinos speak English, there is a growing number that is unable to fluently speak or read English. Additionally, many Latinos, both English literate and illiterate, are undocumented workers that encounter barriers to accessing resources and information due to their citizenship status. In a natural or technological disaster, these hurdles could prove deadly. Immediate improvement in the disaster resilience of the Latinos population can be achieved through creation of hazard-network groups, support for bilingual pre-disaster services, and use of a GIS to increase hazard mitigation and emergency response planning.. Additional disaster resilience can be achieved through long-term programs and alternatives such as pre and post-disaster hazard mitigation educational programs in Spanish, bilingual service during disaster recovery for non-English speakers, and cross-cultural activities that promote understanding of Latino cultures. These programs and policies are necessary additions to current policy and will increase disaster resilience for the Latino population of Durham County.

Keshari Thakali, Michigan State University
”K⁺ Channels Differentially Modulate Contraction to Hydrogen Peroxide (H₂O₂) in Arteries and Veins; Effects in Deoxycorticosterone Acetate (DOCA) -salt Hypertension”
Keshari Thakali, Gregory D. Fink, Stephanie W. Watts
Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI
Hydrogen peroxide modulates vascular tone to cause both contraction and relaxation and may contribute to the pathology of hypertension as plasma H₂O₂ levels are elevated in human models of hypertension and arterial contraction to H₂O₂ is enhanced in animal models of hypertension. We hypothesized that the contractile state of a blood vessel would govern whether H₂O₂ causes contraction or relaxation. Exogenously applied H₂O₂ (10 mM – 10 mM) caused concentration-dependent increases in basal tone of thoracic aorta and vena cava from sham normotensive and DOCA-salt hypertensive rats. Maximal contraction to H₂O₂ (reported as a percentage of maximal adrenergic contraction) was significantly greater in DOCA aorta compared to sham aorta but not DOCA vena cava compared to sham vena cava. In PGF_2a (20 mM) contracted aorta and vena cava from normotensive rats, H₂O₂ (10 mM – 10 mM) induced a concentration-dependent relaxation [maximal relaxation sham aorta: 90.1±7.7 % PGF_2a (20 mM) contraction; sham vena cava: 77.8±8.0)]. In contrast, in KCl (30 mM) contracted vessels, maximal H₂O₂–induced contraction was enhanced 15-fold in sham aorta, 5-fold in DOCA aorta, but only 2-fold in sham vena cava (table). Tetraethylammonium (TEA, 10 mM), a K⁺ channel blocker, significantly enhanced maximal H₂O₂–induced sham and DOCA aortic contraction, but had no effect on H₂O₂-induced venous contraction. TEA (10 mM – 30 mM) caused a concentration-dependent contraction of DOCA aorta, but not sham aorta. Our data suggest that K⁺ channel activity is important in determining the vascular response – contraction or relaxation – to H₂O₂ and that K⁺ channel activity is higher in arteries than veins. However, in DOCA-salt hypertension where ROS production is elevated, arterial but not venous contraction to H₂O₂ is enhanced even in the face of increased K⁺ channel activity.

Maximal contraction to H2O2 under these conditions:	Basal response	KCl (30 mM) contraction	TEA (10 mM) incubation
Sham aorta	3.7±0.7	53.8±6.5#	61.2±21.0#
DOCA aorta	11.3±2.5*	51.0±8.2#	46.5±9.6#
Sham vena cava	84.9±13.4	175.4±67.7#	93.0±4.1
* significant difference between Sham and DOCA (p<0.05) # significant difference from basal response (p<0.05)