The Multiple Benefits of Urban Agriculture

Urban agriculture has emerged as a solution to food insecurity and other issues faced by underserved communities in urban areas. This study compares four urban food initiatives to highlight differences in implementation and success across different agricultural practices. The study also examines the varying levels of support for these initiatives in the United States and Cuba. The comparison shows that different initiatives within the urban food movement meet a unique intersection of multifaceted societal needs beyond the main goal of hunger alleviation. The main intersecting social needs that urban food initiatives can address are food accessibility, public health, and sustainable development. Moreover, different forms of governmental or non- governmental support for these initiatives influence their success and the scope of their outreach. Broader implications of this study include the importance of utilizing urban food not only as a remedy to hunger and food insecurity problems but also as a way to address public health and sustainable development goals in cities. The main findings imply a necessity for local governments to include urban agriculture initiatives in sustainability and food security plans for cities to encourage sustainable development, health, and increased food access for city residents.

Automation of On-Resin Enrichment of S-Nitrosylated Proteins for Oxidized Cysteine-Selective cPILOT

S-Nitrosylation (SNO) is a cysteine post-translational modification that increases with normal aging and is present in Alzheimer’s disease and other aging-related illnesses. Detection of SNO-modified proteins can be challenging; however, we previously developed a robust quantitative proteomics approach termed “Oxidized Cysteine-Selective combined precursor isobaric labeling and isobaric tagging (OxcyscPILOT)” that allows for detection of endogenous SNO-modified proteins. OxcyscPILOT involves enrichment of SNO-modified proteins using a thiol-based resin. This enrichment is performed manually, and wash stages with the resin require numerous steps and buffer reagents. The goal of this study is to transfer the manual protocol to an automated liquid handler system in order to reduce wash steps, increase sample throughput, and minimize experimental error. In order to accomplish this, we evaluated the Biomek i7 liquid handler automated workstation and a Positive Pressure ALP (PPA) apparatus as a means to conduct automated on resin enrichment. Our findings provide starting pressure conditions for the use of PPA in an automated OxcyscPILOT proteomics workflow that could be transferred to other robotic liquid handling systems.

Weaving a Way to Nostos: Odysseus and Feminine Mêtis in the Odyssey

My paper examines the gendered nature of Odysseus’ mêtis, a Greek word describing characteristics of cleverness and intelligence, in Homer’s Odyssey. While Odysseus’ mêtis has been discussed in terms of his storytelling, disguise, and craftsmanship, I contend that in order to fully understand his cleverness, we must place Odysseus’ mêtis in conversation with the mêtis of the crafty women who populate the epic. I discuss weaving as a stereotypically feminine manifestation of mêtis, arguing that Odysseus’ reintegration into his home serves as a metaphorical form of weaving—one that he adapts from the clever women he encounters on his journey home from Troy. Athena serves as the starting point for my discussion of mêtis, and I then turn to Calypso and Circe—two crafty weavers who attempt to ensnare Odysseus on their islands. I also examine Helen, whom Odysseus himself does not meet, but whose weaving is importantly witnessed by Odysseus’ son Telemachus, who later draws upon the craft of weaving in his efforts to help Odysseus restore order in his home. The last woman I present is Penelope, whose clever and prolonged weaving scheme helps her evade marriage as she awaits Odysseus’ return, and whose lead Odysseus follows in his own prolonged reentry into his home. I finally demonstrate the way that Odysseus reintegrates himself into his household through a calculated and metaphorical act of weaving, arguing that it is Odysseus’ willingness to embrace a more feminine model of mêtis embodied by the women he encounters that sets him apart from his fellow male warriors and enables his successful homecoming.

Old Father, Old Artificer: Female Sexuality and Male Authorship in Les Fleurs du mal and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

This paper examines the troubling relationship between the identity of the male artist and female sexuality during the rise of early modernism by comparing two literary works: Charles Baudelaire’s poetry collection Les Fleurs du mal and James Joyce’s novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Portraying prominent female characters as a means to define the authors’ own modern aesthetics, both Baudelaire and Joyce perceive underlying tensions between biological reproduction and artistic creativity, prompting them to explore in detail the relationships between gender, sexuality, and the production of literature. For Baudelaire, the male poet as flaneur derives voyeuristic pleasure from his imaginary lesbian narratives, and his aesthetic awareness of the self that emerges is contrasted with the “sterile” nature of female homosexuality. Joyce’s Stephen Dedalus in Portrait, on the other hand, adopts a more ambivalent relationship towards women: like Baudelaire’s speaker, Stephen usurps the generativity of women by replacing meaningful relations with imaginary ones, subsequently deriving literary inspiration; at the same time, however, these attempts bespeak deeper anxieties towards his inability to attain artistic autonomy, ultimately reflecting increasing vulnerabilities in the modern male artist’s perceptions of self-contained subjectivity. Published half a century apart, these two works marked critical junctures in the emergence of modernism, and a comparative approach thus allows us to trace shifting ideologies of modern personhood and gendered identity.

The Role of the Coronavirus Pandemic in State-Level Abortion Restrictions

In response to COVID-19, many state governments chose to halt elective or nonessential procedures to free up personal protective equipment (PPE) for frontline medical workers. To help guide and inform state health policies, an emerging body of literature developed which contextualized the role of abortions as time-sensitive, essential medical procedures. Despite this, Texas, Indiana, and Iowa issued executive orders restricting elective or nonessential procedures, and included abortions among the medical services being banned. This content analysis analyzed executive orders and subsequent communications from officials in all three states to identify rhetorical patterns and the language that was used to connect the coronavirus pandemic to abortion care. The major themes that emerged were the expansion of gubernatorial powers due to the declaration of an emergency, connecting abortion services to PPE shortages, classifying abortions as “elective” procedures, differentiating medical and surgical abortions, and purposeful avoidance of the actual term “abortion.” The findings indicate that governors in each of these three states used COVID-19 to further restrict abortion access, and they were able to use rhetoric to create a distinct narrative and justify their policies.

As the Caterpillar Chooses

William Blake’s (1757-1827) work did not see the resounding success in his time as it does today. A vocal critic of the Church, he expressed his ideas in engravings, poems, and prose, creating his own complex Christian-esque history that he felt encapsulated the good of the religion while excluding the unsavory parts of the institutional organization. Over time, his writings have gained more widespread support, with fears of dissent from those in charge dissipating. Through his works “The Tyger,” “The Garden of Love,” and “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell,” as well as the writings of Blakeian scholars, Blake’s critiques of the Church are demonstrated to be rooted in his belief that the Church is incapable of trusting its followers, instead prescribing a narrow lens in which worship cannot stray far from.

Green Eyes: Corporate Surveillance of Environmental Activists

This analysis examines contemporary examples of corporate surveillance and offers new questions to guide future research on the role of privacy, social media, and grey intelligence on surveillance of environmental activist groups. In particular, this study explores different cases of activist monitoring, both online and in person, to demonstrate that the increase of activism on social media, while seemingly beneficial, has also made activists more vulnerable to surveillance by corporations because of the public nature of their personal information. The paper also proposes that grey intelligence, which is the phenomena of corporations colluding with former and current government actors to carry out their activist surveillance, is a rising phenomenon that should be the subject of future research. To provide background of these topics, this analysis investigates the various conceptions of privacy and surveillance and discusses how they have been defined previously in both philosophical and legal terms. This section covers how the definition of privacy and the requisites of the US legal system may pose a barrier to activists seeking recourse in the court system for corporate monitoring. This investigation also discusses the drivers of corporate surveillance and connects this phenomenon to reputational capital and corporate strategy literature.

Domestic Workers and the Employer-Employee Relationship in Delhi

There are currently approximately four to five million domestic workers in India today. Most of these workers are women and migrants of lower castes or socioeconomic status and lack formal education. Domestic workers are not guaranteed social security, welfare, or basic rights in the workplace in India because domestic labor is part of the unorganized and therefore unregulated sector of industry. Workers make little money and are often overworked, abused, malnourished, and suffer psychologically in the workplace. The employer-employee relationship is critical to understanding the workplace environment, and control of the relationship can make it more or less professional, either benefiting or hurting workers. Two interviews with advocates for domestic workers from Nirmana, an NGO in Delhi, and five interviews with female employers of domestic workers in Delhi were conducted over Whatsapp. Employers often referred to their employees as family members, did favors for them, and understood some of their daily struggles while receiving emotional support. Blame for poor conditions was placed externally of the workplace, especially when applied to salary rates; employers claimed feeling helpless to improve conditions. Although the employers do speak about and in some ways care about domestic workers as family, they likely function at a level of dissonance, both being partially aware of and benefiting from the same system that oppresses their workers.

Viable Prediction for Atrial Fibrillation Recurrence After Catheter Ablation

Introduction: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common heart rhythm abnormality and the leading cause of stroke. Radiofrequency catheter ablation is used to treat AF but recurrence can occur after the ablation procedure, requiring repeat procedure. A new model to predict AF recurrence after ablation was developed through multivariate analysis. Methods: The variables include demographic, electrocardiographic, echocardiographic, and clinical parameters. In a retrospective review (n=82), 41 patients who underwent repeat ablation for recurrent AF were compared to 41 controls that underwent ablation only once. Results: Of the analyzed parameters, age, female gender and left atrial enlargement were not predictive, but P wave duration (PWD) and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) were significant predictors of repeat ablation (p-value = 0.0003 and 0.0023, respectively). Based on the analyses, a simple decision tree model was developed, achieving a prediction accuracy of 87% (sensitivity=83%, specificity=90%). Conclusion: The developed PWD and OSA 2-predictor model has good accuracy and sensitivity, both of which make it a viable prediction model for AF recurrence after catheter ablation. The developed model will help doctors: 1) Avoid repeat procedure in patients at high risk of recurrence by exploring alternative treatments (2) Reduce costs by avoiding repeat procedure (3) Correct underlying issues prior to procedure in those at high risk (4) Objectively inform patients about recurrence so they can make an informed decision about whether to undergo the procedure. Adopting predictive models such as ours may therefore improve quality care and reduce costs for AF patients undergoing ablation.

Front Matter: Cover Page, Table of Contents, and a Letter from the Editors

After a 5 year hiatus since 2016, we are proud to present Volume 11 of the Vanderbilt Undergraduate Research Journal. Our mission was to showcase the brilliant work of Vanderbilt students from any discipline and we are thrilled to publish this volume after over a year and a half of work. Despite our infancy as an organization, we were grateful to receive 32 submitted manuscripts this year due to the tireless work from our Publicity committee. In this volume, we are pleased to present papers from the Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, Humanities, Political Sciences, and Education, with many papers combining methods of study from different fields.