Background: Much of the research associated with eating patterns of adolescents or young adults has been related to genetics, weight gain associated with parental influence of food selection, and children’s food choices relative to their parent’s desires. There is little research conducted on children’s perceptions of their parent’s food choices and how those beliefs correlate to their own dietary choices later in life.
Objective: The objective of this study was to determine whether parents’ perceptions of food had an effect on their children’s eating behaviors later in life. The hypothesis was that the food-related behaviors and beliefs of the parents strongly influence the child’s future dietary choices and lifelong relationship with food.
Methods: An online survey was developed that consisted of questions regarding student’s perceptions of their parents’ dietary choices and their own current dietary choices and beliefs. Researchers recruited participants via email and social media. Data was analyzed using SPSS.
Results: Among survey participants (N=158) there was a significant correlation (p<0.01) between the parent’s past eating behaviors and child’s current eating behaviors for several dietary patterns, including vegan, low carbohydrate, calorie counting and gluten free. Approximately 42% (n=66) of respondents reported that they were made aware of their weight at a young age. There was a strong correlation (p<0.01) between parents discussing weight and discouraging attempts to try new foods.
Conclusions: There was a significant correlation between the way that children view diet and nutrition and how their parents view diet and nutrition, as perceived by the children. Parents’ specific eating behaviors and discussions about weight also correlate with their children’s current eating behaviors and awareness of weight, although they may not currently live together. For more conclusive results, future research on the subject should also include data regarding parents’ perspective of their own food choices and beliefs.

Rat Parvovirus is found in rat liver and can infect and cause changes in tumor cells. When tumor cells are infected, the cells can revert back to benign or uncancerous cells. We describe and analyze a mathematical model of infected and noninfected tumor cells when introduced to the parvovirus. Using nonlinear analysis, we find the conditions for cure of the tumor.

Respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, is a virus that commonly causes lower respiratory tract infections throughout childhood and infancy. Most people who contract the virus recover within a short period of time, but it can cause respiratory illness, hospitalization, and even death within infants and the elderly. Agents that can effectively combat RSV are still not available for widespread clinical use, but one of the targets being investigated is PC786, a novel inhaled L-protein polymerase inhibitor. Using data from previous publications, we created models of the relationship between volume of PC786 and viral load in patients with RSV to try to determine how to best model the action of this drug.

We are modeling the effect of the Hill coefficient on the volume of a tumor. This is to test drugs that may bind to multiple receptors and compare them to each other. We are using Python and used 4 main parameters and one equation. We modeled the Volume and the Dose Response Curves as well as the Emax and Ic50. We used the different positive Hill Coefficients and studied the effect on dose and carrying capacity.

Non-invasive temperature sensing is necessary for the analysis of biological processes occurring in the human body including cellular enzyme activity, protein expression, and ion regulation. Considering that a variety of such biological processes occur at the microscopic scale, a novel mechanism allowing for the detection of the temperature changes in microscopic environments is desired. One-dimensional graphene quantum dots can serve as agents for such detection: they are promising non-invasive probes that because of their 2-5 nm size and optical sensitivity to temperature change enable sub-cellular resolution imaging. Both biocompatible bottom-up synthesized nitrogen-doped graphene quantum dots and quantum dots produced from reduced graphene oxide via top-down approach exhibit temperature-induced fluorescence variations. This response observed for the first time is utilized for deterministic temperature sensing in bulk suspension as well as inside mammalian cells. Distinctive quenching of quantum dot fluorescence by up to 19.8 % is observed, in a temperature range from 25℃ to 49℃, in aqueous solution, while the intensity is restored to the original values as the temperature decreases back to 25℃. A similar trend is observed in vitro in HeLa cells as the cellular temperature is increased from 25℃ to 41℃. Our findings suggest that the temperature-dependent fluorescence quenching of bottom-up and top-down-synthesized graphene quantum dots can serve as non-invasive reversible deterministic mechanism for temperature sensing in microscopic sub-cellular biological environments.