This proposal seeks to minimize cell death while extrusion bioprinting with a gelatin-alginate bioink. Extrusion bioprinting was chosen over other types of bioprinting due to its accessibility and cost to researchers. Two different nozzles, cylindrical and conical, are examined to determine a mechanical aspect of extrusion bioprinting that can be modified to greatly minimize the cell death of bioprinted scaffolds. Gelatin-algiate bioinks can vary in concentration, and this concentration was also varied as a candidate solution to obtain the optimal concentration while maintaining a high cell survivability. The conical nozzle was chosen as the optimal printing nozzle with low shear stress, low cell damage, and highest cell viability. The 4% gelatin 5% alginate bioink was chosen as the optimal bioink concentration with optimal viscosity and high cell viability. Together, the use of this nozzle and this concentration bioink will greatly minimize the cell damage that occurs during extrusion bioprinting, boosting the quality of extrusion printing, and making it all-around more viable. Extrusion bioprinting, due to its improved cell death percentage, will be utilized more often by researchers – this will potentially accelerate the innovation of bioprinting as an overall technology towards the final goal of bioprinting a fully functioning organ.

The number of young women who participate in instrumental high school jazz education programs peaks in middle school, then drops precipitously throughout the high school years. Most high school jazz bands are populated by only a small percentage of female instrumentalists by the later years of high school. These percentages drop still further when examining female instrumental participation in jazz performance at the college level. While this disparity is well documented, efforts to understand and address the issue have lacked the perspective of the young women instrumentalists taking part in these programs.This qualitative research study, based on in-depth interviews with 16 young female instrumentalists, taking part in high school jazz education programs in different regions of the US and Canada, examines ‘band culture’ from the perspective of young women participants. The result is a portrait of their experience and an analysis of key issues relevant to the challenge of creating jazz education environments that sustain and support everyone.

The Business of Beauty is a community site discussing female-geared companies and their portrayals of beauty. The site argues that, in order to empower women, female-geared companies should promote a healthy perspective of beauty by relaying that beauty is not the biggest achievement for women and advocating that everyone is beautiful. The site explores how companies and brands do this in their campaigns, examining photoshoots, websites, campaigns, and commercials of Aerie, Always, and Dove. Our purpose in examining these marketing strategies is so that we can deconstruct beauty standards, disconnect looks from worth, emphasize the other powerful parts of what makes women their best selves, and create a healthier perspective of beauty. Because this site is geared towards its viewers’ mental health and body image, The Business of Beauty offers a submission box for questions, suggestions, and art/writing on the topic.

Just over a decade ago, the seminal anthology “Balancing on the Mechitza” marked the start of an era of tremendous growth in Jewish transgender life and activism. This paper explores how this movement has experienced its own form of “kol isha,” the restriction placed on Jewish women’s voices within traditional Jewish law. By applying parallels that the author finds in the work and experiences of Jewish lesbian-feminists, and in particular reading the Jewish lesbian anthology “Nice Jewish Girls” against “Balancing on the Mechitza,” the author attempts to forward insights about the ways in which Jewish trans activism has brought limited liberation for Jewish trans women. It explores what Jewish trans spaces might be able to learn from this history to further liberation not only for trans women, but for Jewish women more broadly. Utilizing the feminist concept that an author’s own position is not only inevitably represented within the work, but also of critical importance, it bridges this theoretical analysis with the authors experiences in Jewish trans spaces and advocates material changes to how these spaces are organized—including the democratization of power and authority, a renewed focus on the gendered division of labor, and a prioritization and exploration of women’s practices, both traditional and innovative. Drawing upon the work of Black feminists, it emphasizes the challenging nature of coalition work, and advocates a shared empathy and compassionate accountability between marginalized groups which inevitably replicate systems of oppression which they do not create. Rephrasing a question by Jewish lesbian-feminist Irena Klepfisz asked about Jewish lesbian oppression in the lesbian movement, it both proposes and explores: do I feel that by asking other trans people to deal with misogyny or transphobia I am draining the movement of precious energy that would be better used elsewhere? In doing so, it attempts to claim space for a woman’s voice.

In this project, my intent is to show as much of the foundtation for this game as possible both in effort to share my research, and share my story with other interested parties. As such, while the contents to follow are complete from my self imposed standard in August of 2018, the true nature of this project is for it to grow, change, and evolve as I work and research more. As it stands now, I have been quietly working on A Very Catty Game for the better part of six years, beginning on a whim in my freshman year of high school. It has come a long way since then, and I expect that it will go a long way from now. This piece will serve as an important resource and a mark on the calendar to see just how far I will go in the future.

This project is in the form of an “unessay” project about the Philadelphia chapter of the Black Panther Party during its most active years. Composed of five diary entries, the reader dives into life from the perspective of a fictional character named Sandra Washington. She is a 14–15-year-old girl from North Philadelphia during the years 1969-1971. Sandra, an aspiring writer, is fascinated with the Party because of their uncompromising commitment to social justice and fighting for equality. There were initial concerns about finding sufficient articles specifically about the Philadelphia chapter to write the diary entries, due to COINTELPRO and lack of documentation of BPP activities from its members. Fortunately, the secondary sources used for these diary entries described Panther activities were well supported with sources and respected the legacy of the organization. This project hopes to shed light on an important part of Philadelphia’s history and celebrate important community programs developed by its Panthers.

Researchers, teachers and policy makers continue to wrestle with understanding why children of immigrants perform more poorly in school than their counterparts with native born parents. While parental involvement through checking of homework and participation in school events have been identified as relevant factors, the findings of research are not conclusive. This study re-examines the relationships of these two factors with school performance among the children of Spanish-speaking immigrants by introducing a third variable: parental English proficiency. The results reveal that after controlling for parental English proficiency, homework checking no longer has a significant impact and the effect of parental school involvement is reduced; English language abilities of parents, on the other hand, have a significant effect on student performance. This finding suggests that improving parental English proficiency and cultural awareness can produce a positive impact on the school performance of the children of non-native English speaking parents.