Author: D. Khosla

Music is an integral part of our everyday lives, and is seen to have a profound impact on humankind. The human brain has an unique ability to process components of music, such as rhythm, despite the fact that many animal species are capable of sound production and perception. The discovery of ancient musical instruments, more than tens of thousands of years old, underscores the long and impactful relationship humans share with music. This review discusses the impact of music on the human brain, by looking at the evolution of sound production and recognition among different species and the ways their brains process diverse auditory cues. This investigation suggests a mechanism for the striking ability of music, dance, song and more to have a positive effect on humans worldwide.

Author: R. Jacobson

The project will take the form of a historical literature review paper, covering the period 1948 to 1994. We will move through the major academic texts and journal articles on education in South Africa during the Apartheid era. We will have a strong focus on the negative effects on the Black population due to Apartheid policy, as well as its connections to labor and economic issues. We will gather our research to the sum of 10 to 15 pages, which will guide the formation of our hypothesis and eventual conclusion. Our analysis will be based on a summarized, yet detailed, overview of the available secondary academic sources.

Author: A. Bei

Cancer is currently a leading cause of death, killing millions of people worldwide, but has yet to have a definitive cure. Although therapies such as chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and radiation therapy are commonly used, such therapies incur numerous downsides, especially for the health of the patients themselves. Because of this, theranostics were invented to combine the most precise imaging with the most targeted treatment methods. However, theranostics still fail to treat many cancers, its use being limited by the rapid evolution of cancer cells. This paper proposes a novel theranostic that involves conjugating nanoparticles with immune-enhancing agents. The therapy consists of iron-oxide nanoparticles conjugated to natural killer (NK) cell engagers and STING agonists. This allows for the ability to target a variety of distinct cancer cells through the adaptive and innate immune systems. If successful, this treatment could impact the lives of countless patients, potentially saving the lives of those with advanced and aggressive cancer.

Author: Kwan Ding Wai

Millions of people suffer from skin cancer every year. Many of these people develop this disease due to self-inflicted damage through tanning, sunburn, or exposure to carcinogens. There is a clear need for products that provide an additional layer of protection or repair lesions after damage occurs. This review proposes a novel solution by examining the capabilities of organisms that are highly resistant to sun damage. Carotenoids are antioxidants which protect cells from UV damage and photolyase is a protein which directly reverses DNA damage. Overexpression of both can be induced in yeast, a simple organism that is easy to grow at home. Distribution of at-home sun kits containing this modified microorganism would strengthen currently available skincare products such as sunscreen or aloe vera. If effective, it could greatly benefit society by decreasing the rates of skin cancer in an affordable and accessible manner.

Author: A. Kapoor

In this paper, we address a continuous variant of the Secretary Problem, where one must extract a fraction, 1/p, of a flowing liquid to optimize a characteristic of the extracted portion, such as purity. The characteristic of the immediately extractable liquid is assumed to be known, the extraction decision is irrevocable, and only a single extraction can be made. Initially, some amount must be rejected to gauge the random distribution of the characteristic, then an interval with the most desired trait is selected. The problem involves determining the optimal rejection strategy to maximize the likelihood of selecting the interval with the optimal characteristic. Excessive initial rejection risks bypassing the optimal interval, while insufficient rejection may result in settling for a sub-optimal interval. We derive the optimal rejection strategy, expressed as a function of p, that maximizes the probability of selecting the interval with the optimal characteristic. Specifically, we provide a precise formula for the rejection threshold and the associated maximum success probability. Our results generalize the classical discrete theory to a continuous domain, offering new insights into optimal stopping rules for real-time decision-making in various continuous contexts.

Author: C. Park

Description goes hereParkinson's Disease is an incurable disease that affects millions of people’s everyday lives. This disease prevents them from performing critical tasks like eating and sleeping due to the associated motor impairment disorder, significantly impacting their quality of life. Unfortunately, development of management solutions for tremors has been limited. This is a critical issue because resting tremors can cause patients to be deprived of proper rest. Developing an effective assistive wearable device that could help PD patients manage their tremors while at rest would improve their quality of life significantly. As an extension, the sensor-equipped device and its artificial intelligence model can provide insights on the disease’s progression, which can help doctors make more informed decisions when administering conventional therapies.