Office of Research University of South Carolina 2019 Collected Abstracts: Collected abstracts that showcase research, scholarship, leadership and creative projects by undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral scholars and medical scholars representing the entire USC System. Prepared for DISCOVER USC April 26, 2019. www.sc.edu/DiscoverUSC 1 Table of Contents Undergraduate Student presentations 3 - 289 Graduate Student presentations 290 - 402 Postdoctoral Scholar presentations 404 - 412 Medical Scholar presentations 414 - 475 2 Undergraduate Students presentations 3 Abdun, Sophia Mentor(s): Ms. Katie Hopkins Becoming a global citizen During fall semester of 2017, I studied abroad in Iringa, Tanzania at Ruaha Catholic University. My fa- ther is from Kenya, so I always had dreams of going back to his home, absorbing the culture, learning the language, and, as a public health major, learning about their healthcare systems. At the university, I was able to take classes on poverty analysis of Tanzania, how community development works in the country, and the history of East Africa. I was able to conduct research in a rural village I lived in which was a very unique experience. Naturally with my interest in public health, I wanted to take this chance to research something health related. I did my research on the means and level of accessibility to sex education and services. This experience taught me so much about the people of this village, their culture, and the way delve deeper into that sector. I have a deep interest in my roots and the health problems that plague their population.their health Mysystems language functions. skills improvedThis experience greatly has which allowed has given me to me find a newmy niche skill Iin hope public to usehealth in my and future working with Swahili speaking populations. I hope to continue down the path of being a health educator in these communities and continue to further my global citizenship though these opportunities. The expe- rience was pivotal who who I am today and who I want to become in the future. Abedini, Delara Mentor(s): Mr. Anthony Androulakis, Dr. Alexandra Basilakos, Dr. Julius Fridriksson Analyzing melodic repetition in post-stroke aphasia Background: Aphasia is a language and communication disorder caused by damage to the brain, usually by stroke or other types of brain injuries. Aphasia usually impairs speech repetition; however, whether aphasia affects a broader range of skills, such as melodic repetition, is not yet known. Additionally, brain regions critical for repetition errors in aphasia are not well understood. The long-term goal of this project is to identify the neuroanatomical correlates of melodic repetition impairment in chronic stroke patients. Method: Two MATLAB programs were developed and implemented (by author AA) to encode and assess - ody into a matrix containing the frequency and corresponding duration of each note voiced. The second sung melodies of patients with aphasia. The first program converts the recording of a patient’s sung mel program compares this matrix to the matrix of the target tune to give a quantified, objective assessments toof thelesions melodic and connectionsrepetition deficit. in the Using brains the of abovestroke methods,patients using 1269 voxel-basedaudio files were lesion-symptom analyzed from mapping 47 stroke (VLSM)patients and (27 diffusionaudio files tensor per patient, imaging 9 (DTI)tunes, data. 3 trials per tune). These assessments were then correlated Results: The melodic repetition quality of each patient is represented by the average duration error, average melodic interval error, and average number of notes added/deleted by each patient. The number of notes added or deleted was found to be correlated to the left globus pallidus. The melodic repetition interval error was correlated to a connection between the left inferior frontal gyrus pars orbitalis and the left postcentral gyrus. - tra-rater errors that can occur during subjective scoring, and therefore provides an objective assessment Conclusion: This computerized quantified assessment of melodic repetition reduces inter-rater and in can be useful in assessing and treating aphasia in stroke patients. of sung melodies in stroke patients. The brain regions correlated with repetition deficits from this study 4 Abels, Jacob Mentor(s): Ms. Tricia Kramer Sexual Trauma Services of the Midlands Internship Services of the Midlands. I did this internship as part of the Criminology and Criminal Justice program atDuring USC sothe that Summer I could of expand 2017 I mycompleted studies anpast Internship simply listening at the non-profit to lectures organization about law or The law Sexual enforcement. Trauma working the front desk/client intake, speaking at events and manning the STSM booth at fairs, and being aDuring victim this advocate. internship A majority I completed of my severalinternship trainings was spent that qualifiedat the front me desk for several of the Forrest positions Acres to include, location letting clients in, adjusting appointments, and completing a variety of projects to assist the full time staff. This internship helped me discover my passion for this type of work and it allowed me to give my time to bettering my community here in Columbia. This work took a large emotional toll from me and made me Adamkowski,respect the women Rachel and men that work in this field every day. Mentor(s): Dr. Brie Turner-McGrievy Effect of weight loss on blood pressure in low-fat vegan and low-fat omnivorous diets Background African Americans (AA) have the highest prevalence of hypertension in the United States and are under- represented in nutrition intervention studies. The Nutritious Eating with Soul (NEW Soul) study aims to such as hypertension, related to cardiovascular disease. The study uses a healthier soul food diet, either low-fathelp AA vegan adults or with low-fat a body omnivorous mass index (omni), (BMI) and between encourages 25 and participation 49.9 lose weight in physical and decrease activity. risk factors, Purpose To determine the correlation between weight loss and blood pressure (BP) after participants had been in Methodsthe intervention for 6 months. - There were 67 AA participants (mean age 47.7+11.2 years; mean BMI 36.6+8.0 kg/m2) enrolled in the attendedNEW Soul weekly study andmeetings 58 (87%) which completed included thecooking 6-month demonstrations, assessments recipes,and were educational included in presentations, analyses. Par andticipants social were support. randomly At baseline assigned and either six months, a low-fat weight vegan (digital diet or scale) low-fat and omnivorous blood pressure diet, and(digital for 6monitor) months were assessed. Pearson correlation was conducted to examine the relationship between weight loss and change in BP. Results Participants in both the vegan and omni groups lost significant weight at 6 months (-3.2+3.9 kg, p<0.001 vegan; -2.6+4.9 kg, p<0.01 omni). Significant reductions in systolic BP were achieved in the omni group (-6.2+13.2 mmHg, p=0.01), and not in the vegan group (-3.2+14.3 mmHg, p=0.25). Significant reductions in diastolic BP were achieved in the vegan group (-3.5+8.5 mmHg, p=0.04), and not in the omni group (-1.9+6.5 mmHg, p=0.10). There was no significant correlation between weight loss with systolic BP Conclusions(r=0.07, p=0.62) or diastolic BP (r=0.18, p=0.17). The findings suggest success in achieving weight loss on both the low-fat vegan and low-fat omni diet. 5 As the vegan group significantly reduced diastolic BP and the omni group significantly reduced systolic BP, factors outside of weight loss could be responsible for these reductions in BP. Future studies should examine other factors that could cause reductions in BP, such as physical activity, reduced sodium intake, or increases in potassium intake. Addahoumi, Isra Mentor(s): Dr. Sarah Keeling Getting Involved in Research While Studying Abroad In my study abroad, I tried to learn as much as possible. One of the ways that made me involved in my major, the university, and community is research. I started working in a research study called New Soul Study. This study is all about vegan food and cardiovascular health for African American. Before this study, I thought that American food is just burgers and fries, however, after I start working in the study, I learn about different American food and how to change it to be a healthy vegan dish. I was able to interact more with students and work as one team. My English has improved and I learned also how research work in - over,Public I wasHealth, able I learnedto exchange more cultures about graduate through food.school I sharedfrom grad some students healthy who vegan are Libyan with me dishes in the with study. the I participantsbecame more like interested Tajen and in Redpersuing Lients mph Soup. and In Ph.D. my poster, in Health I will Promotion write about and what education the study behavior. is, what More we do, how it helped me in my studying abroad. Agho, Victory Mentor(s): Dr. Cheryl Armstead Hope’s Law: What Do African American Women In South Carolina Know About Breast Density and Their Breast Density Notification Rights? Background: Limitations of screening mammography in patients with dense breasts combined with increased risk for breast cancer have made the issue of dense breasts a matter of great concern in re- resultscent years, indicating leading the to advocacypresence offor dense policy breast change tissue. and legislation We know littlein South about Carolina the impact (Hope’s of DBN Law, on SECTION African 44-115-160, 2016). Dense breast notification (DBN) legislation requires notification of mammographic African American women (AAW) represent a disproportionate prevalence of dense breast tissue mam- American women’s breast density knowledge and awareness after the enactment of Hopes Law in 2016.