The Journal of Young Investigators:
Innovation in scientific writing, publishing, and peer-review for undergraduates.
The endocannabinoid system (ECS) plays a very important role in the human body for our survival. This is due to its ability to play a critical role in maintaining the homeostasis of the human body, which encompasses the brain, endocrine, and immune system, to name a few. ECS is a unique system in multiple dimensions. To begin with, it is a retrograde system functioning post- to pre-synapse, allowing it to be a “master regulator” in the body. Secondly, it has a very wide scope of influence due to an abundance of cannabinoid receptors located anywhere from immune cells to neurons. Finally, cannabinoids are rapidly synthesized and degraded, so they do not stay in the body for very long in high amounts, possibly enabling cannabinoid therapy to be a safer alternative to opioids or benzodiazepines.
The confocal laser fluorescence microscope (CLFM) enables viewing fluorescing objects and creating 3D images by optical sectioning. The CLFM can potentially be used to view, count, and analyze oil droplets, which have naturally fluorescing properties, by image processing techniques. However, many factors, including sample oil concentration, number of optical sections per stack, quantity and location of stacks, and threshold value for grayscale to binary image processing affect the intensity of fluorescence in the images produced and the oil concentration that is calculated. This study aims to establish patterns between these variables and a methodology to accurately calculate oil concentrations.
The main aim of the World Hope Index (WHI) is to help readers understand that hope can be perceived as a social product. This has been done through creating an index and quantifying Hope levels for 131 countries around the world for 2017. The paper also attempts to move the discourse of measuring human welfare and prosperity forward, from GDP growth rate and the Human Development Index to a new form of measure, being the World Hope Index.
ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis), otherwise known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a fatal neurodegenerative disease that involves the loss of motor neurons in the spinal cord, brainstem, and motor cortex. This disease, estimated to be afflicting around 20,000 Americans, leads to progressive muscle weakness throughout the body. Recently, researchers at the University of California in Berkeley used the gene-editing technology, CRISPR-Cas9, to disrupt the mutant SOD1 gene expression in the spinal cord of mice with ALS, effectively extending their lifespan by 25%
Parents in modern Western societies are increasing their demands professional
childcare. According to Statistics Canada, about half of Canadian parents rely on childcare, with over 70% of households with two working parents using childcare on a regular basis. Despite the demand for daycare and after-school program specialists, Early Childhood Educators (ECE) are not widely recognized as holding a professional designation. Dr. Tricia Van Rhijn, professor of Family Relations and Human Development at the University of Guelph in Canada, shared some insights towards gaining a better understanding of professionals working in the childcare sector.
Proteins are often intuitively named after their function, and condensin is no exception. It condenses DNA inside the nucleus of a cell into X-shaped chromosomes for cell division. The name, however, provides no insight into how this feat is achieved. In fact, the molecular mechanism of how condensin organizes DNA inside the nucleus has previously only been hypothesized to involve extruding DNA into large loops.
Our mission is to improve undergraduate science training by providing innovative, high-quality educational experiences in science writing, publication and the peer-review process.
