Discimus ut serviamus: We learn so that we may serve.
|
|
QView #116 | November 30, 2021
|
|
Psychology Professor Receives National Attention for Research on Cannabis Use during Pregnancy |
|
Yoko Nomura (Psychology) recently captured national headlines following the publication of her latest research, which stated that cannabis use in pregnancy may lead to a more anxious, aggressive, and hyperactive child.
Effects of Cannabis during Pregnancy
Cannabis is becoming one of the most widely used drugs during pregnancy. Unlike for in utero tobacco and alcohol exposures, there has been little research on the effects of maternal cannabis use on child outcomes. There is currently no data to provide guidance regarding the amount of cannabis that is safe to use during pregnancy. Additionally, the availability of numerous cannabis products has increased the complexity of the question of using cannabis safely.
“Because of legalization of marijuana, some pregnant women are told in order to get more comfortable with morning sickness and to relieve stress and anxiety that cannabis is recommended as a safe substance,” noted Nomura.
She and her colleagues began to look at stress in pregnancy in a long-term study that began in 2009 and started following a cohort of pregnant mothers and their children in her “Stress in Pregnancy (SIP) Study.” The researchers examined placental gene expression and early childhood behavior and physiology in a long-term study of 322 mother-child pairs from New York City. Marijuana is just one of many stressors researched during the course of the study.
By studying hair samples, Nomura found that children exposed to marijuana in utero had higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Children exposed in utero also had lower heartrate variability, which indicates difficulty regulating stress. In addition, researchers conducted extensive interviews of patients to look for trends in behavioral traits.
When a mother uses commercial cannabis products to cope with stress, cannabis passes through the placenta and reaches the fetus during their rapid brain development. As a result, the child’s ability to regulate stress suffers. Nomura likens this phenomenon to muscle atrophy after someone breaks a bone. If you don’t use it, you lose it.
“Cannabis modulates pain, mood, sleep etc., but your body is producing endocannabinoids. When cannabis from outside—something artificial—is introduced to your body, your body gets overwhelmed and stops making endocannabinoids that modulate the stress naturally. The system gets stunted. One consequence is to have poorer emotional regulation,” explained Nomura.
Epigenetics and Helping Pregnant Women
After earning her PhD from Columbia University, Nomura began to take an interest in epigenetics, the study of how behaviors and environment can cause changes that affect the way genes work. She decided she wanted to combine epigenetics with community research at a time when the field was in its infancy.
“People thought I was crazy. They said why are you doing this? You’re ruining your career,” recalled Nomura.
But in 2009, then-President Barack Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which allocated funding toward scientific research. Through this stimulus package, Nomura was awarded a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health. With that funding, she started following pregnant women and collecting placenta and cord blood samples, which eventually became the basis of her latest paper.
“When I did it, no one was thinking of collecting placenta,” said Nomura. “Now we know, placenta has a big role as an interface between mother and child. Not only that, it has its own function. It’s not a proxy. It’s a really important organ. Placenta is usually thrown away, so I use it as my training for advancing my epigenetic expertise.”
|
|
Through the same long-term study, Nomura has examined other stress factors in pregnancy, including Superstorm Sandy and more recently, COVID-19, with the latter being featured on QC’s Big Ideas video series.
Nomura’s motivation for devoting much of her research into stress factors in pregnancy came from her own personal tragedy: She lost a child just two days after giving birth—on her birthday.
“I thought I could have detected that if I had known something was wrong during pregnancy. That really motivated me to just kind of be an advocate for pregnant women,” said Nomura.
In the future, she hopes to shift her focus to research on more positive factors during pregnancy that could improve child outcomes.
“I am really passionate about raising awareness to families,” added Nomura. “Childbirth—it’s a very important period, and we have to be kind to each other. We have to protect those women for our society. That is the drive of my study.”
|
|
Gaining Strength through Korean Folk Art
Minhwa—Painting Resilience, opening at the Queens College Art Center on Wednesday, December 1, highlights a Korean folk art popular from the late 18th to the 20th century. With their bright color and free-spirited expression, minhwa, which means “paintings of the people,” conveyed good wishes, humor, and positive energy at a time when Korea was experiencing colonization and warfare. More than 30 examples of the genre, regenerated by members of the Korea Minhwa Association Ltd. in both South Korea and the United States, comprise the show.
Presented with the support of the Kupferberg Center for the Arts and Korean Folk Art Inc. and curated by Stephanie Lee (Godwin-Ternbach), the exhibition is designed to promote global cultural awareness.
Minhwa—Painting Resilience will run until December 20. To make an appointment to see it, email Koreanfolkart.org@gmail.com. All visitors must comply with CUNY’s COVID-19 protocol.
|
|
SEES Team Has Peak Experience in the Canary Islands
Even as scientists who’ve witnessed volcanoes erupting before, being up close to observe Cumbre Vieja (“Old Peak”)—the volcano that recently began erupting on La Palma in the Canary Islands—was a “once-in-a-lifetime” experience for three members of Queens College’s School of Earth and Environmental Sciences (SEES).
“Before La Palma, I saw three volcanoes erupting,” says Italian geologist Franco Cortese, an adjunct lecturer at SEES. “I saw Stromboli, Etna, and Piton de la Fournaise . . . This one by a gigantic margin is the most volcanically-intense interaction I’ve had with an active volcano, by far.”
“I was lucky, and at the beginning of my PhD we had a field campaign in Nicaragua and there was this erupting lava lake,” says Samantha Tramontano, also an adjunct lecturer for SEES. “But as far as the range of eruptive things, [at La Palma] we saw ash jetting into the sky and falling from the air; we were able to feel and see the heat from lava flows. It was very exciting to be around. I was able to stay on La Palma a little longer, and once the adrenaline wears off there’s this serene and powerful calmness.”
|
|
|
|
Samantha Tramontano, Franco Cortese |
|
”For me, there was a lot of adrenaline being close to an erupting volcano,” says SEES Associate Professor Marc-Antoine Longpré. “A lot of excitement.”
“But,” Cortese adds, “there’s kind of a doom feeling sometimes: It goes from adrenaline to . . . We were able to access the exclusion zone, and that’s where all the people lost their property. You go there and get close to the lava which is still warm: It radiates heat towards you together with gases. So, you breathe sulfur-smelling air. And you still see incandescence in the lava where you’re collecting it sometimes. And everything was destroyed and covered in ash, too.”
Cortese and Tramontano are both PhD students of Longpré in the Earth and Environmental Sciences program at the CUNY Graduate Center, and the trio were already monitoring the Cumbre Vieja volcano when it began erupting on September 19. “Even before it started, we were monitoring the unrest, because it’s one of the volcanoes we study in our group,” says Longpré. “Sam has been doing much work on this volcano for her PhD. The unrest did not last very long, and when it erupted, we started thinking about going there. We flew there less than a week after it had started.”
Wakening Volcanoes
Cumbre Vieja, explains Tramontano—whose research focuses, in part, on why volcanoes erupt after long quiet periods—takes up the whole southern half of La Palma and within the historical record has erupted six times since 1585. “It’s erupting in a similar manner from what we know of the past eruptions, but the volume is something that’s separating it, and the eruptive column height is a bit larger scale.”
“This one will be the largest eruption within the historical record [at La Palma],” adds Cortese.
|
|
While Longpré is on sabbatical this year, Tramontano and Cortese are both still teaching classes. The balcony of their hotel with Cumbre Vieja in plain sight presented a novel classroom setting from which to instruct their students.
“I was teaching for the three weeks at La Palma. We even had a whole day where we discussed data around the volcano,” says Tramontano, explaining that the time difference between La Palma and New York was not an issue because the late evening hours when she would have completed work in the field coincided with the hours of her classes back in the states. “We were working with Zoom anyway, so it worked out just fine.”
Cortese recalls one student excitedly asking him, “Professor, what’s that behind you? It looks like a volcano!”
Both used their Twitter accounts to share with their students and the world stunning pictures and video of what they were experiencing.
“For us it was very exciting to be there; it was a once in a lifetime opportunity,” says Longpré. But putting that aspect aside, he continues, “I guess I’d like to emphasize a little darker aspect of this is that there is a lot of tragedy for the people who are affected. The flank of the volcano is fairly densely populated, and this is the type of volcano where you don’t really know where the next eruption will take place. . . There isn’t a main crater where the eruptions always take place. That makes planning difficult. Thousands of people lost their homes, so that’s pretty sad. Schools also were lost and other public buildings.”
“Towns,” adds Cortese emphatically, “Entire towns.”
“As devastating as it was and complex emotionally,” observes Tramontano, “there’s so much to be learned. The three of us working together and with other institutions, there are many presentations and publications to come out just in relation to our group, let alone other groups who are working on more seismic or more gas-related questions, marine-related questions. Lots.”
Over three weeks, the trio collected samples of ash and cooled lava which when analyzed may yield information about changes taking place in the volcano over the eruption period. While nothing is scheduled yet, Longpré expects there will be several opportunities to present their findings—certainly by the spring.
Tramontano applauds the great intercommunication among everyone who was there: civilians, firefighters, civil guard, and internal and external scientists, as well as media groups. “They were all very interconnected, respectful, and communicative with each other. That was something that really impressed me about this trip.”
While they had limited interaction with local citizens, Longpré, did have an opportunity to speak with some who had been evacuated from their homes. “They were very happy to talk with me about the volcano, and they had lots of interesting questions. They were worried about how they could rebuild: Is it possible to rebuild on lava?”
|
|
Ruthie Wilson Gilmore (The Graduate Center, CUNY), Andrew Sekou Johnson (York College), and Jermaine McCalpin (New Jersey City University) examined recent events yesterday—Monday, November 29—during Are We Safe Yet? Policing in America as Seen in the Rittenhouse Verdict & the McMichael Trial, presented by Africana Studies Community Conversations in collaboration with SEEK and Chief Diversity Officer/Dean of Diversity Jerima DeWese. Natanya Duncan (Africana Studies) moderated the discussion, conducted over Zoom. |
|
Envisioning Success Despite Obstacles
CUNY students are resilient and adaptable, but for one Queens College student, the end of high school presented two extraordinary challenges: a global pandemic, and the loss of his sight. Nonetheless, when Arturo Soto ’25 graduated from Benjamin Cardozo High School, he pursued his ambitions—applying successfully to Queens College, holding a job at Commonpoint Queens that helps people cope with the pandemic, and founding an organization to support other students adjusting to the loss of their vision.
In January 2020, Arturo Soto began experiencing mysterious problems with the sight in his left eye, which soon progressed to both eyes. Tests revealed that, despite having no known family history of blindness, he had a genetic mitochondrial disorder known as Leber Hereditary Optic Neuropathy (LHON). Loss of his central vision was complete by graduation in June 2021.
|
|
Arturo Soto and Vangie. (Photo courtesy of Guiding Eyes for the Blind) |
|
“It came as a surprise,” recalls Soto. A history buff who had hoped to attend college out of state, he felt discouraged about his future. “When I lost my vision, this new phase of my life began. I didn’t know if I was going to go to college. I didn’t know if that was a possibility anymore.”
He threw himself into learning how to manage life in the sighted world, with the support of Jill Fraticelli, his teacher for the visually impaired (TVI), and programs offered through the NYC Department of Education’s Educational Vision Services (EVS). He quickly became proficient with a white cane and was recommended for a guide dog; the Guiding Eyes for the Blind program provided him with a Labrador retriever named Vangie and trained him on working with and caring for her.
“I was going to take a break and not start college right away, but I pushed myself. I knew I was ready,” he says. “People started asking, ‘What do you want to do?’ I would say, ‘That hasn’t changed. If I end up going to college, I still want to do something history-related.’” With his TVI’s encouragement he applied to all the CUNY campuses, but his teachers were especially enthusiastic about Queens College, which many of them had attended. Although he was accepted at three other schools, he chose admission to Queens.
Convenient Choice
Soto believes he made the right choice. As a Flushing resident, he finds the college’s proximity convenient and also reassuring to his family. As a student, he found the Office of Special Services welcoming and helpful in getting his accommodations in place. “That’s all I wanted,” he says. “I’ve always been big on academics and I’ve always wanted to go to college.” Much of what he needs is available to him through computers, including programs and apps that scan printed pages, read texts and webpages aloud, and even give him easy access to social media. “No one wants to be blind, but if there’s a time to be visually impaired, it’s now—because of all the technology that’s available that makes being independent so much easier.”
Already Soto has grown in his studies. He took two history courses his first semester, and has decided to get his BA in history secondary education. “I ended up figuring out exactly what I wanted to major in,” he says. “If someone had told me a year ago I would end up majoring in this and it’s what I want to end up doing with my life, I would have been very surprised. I like teaching and helping others understand things.”
In June, Soto also launched a new group under Department of Education auspices: the EVS Blind and Low Vision Empowerment Group. It helps college, high school, and younger students going through what Soto experienced (and now includes a support group for parents as well). “In order for society to change their perceptions of us as being disabled individuals who are dependent on others, we have to first change the perceptions that we have of ourselves,” he explains. “Most of these kids stop having plans for college, stop having goals, stop dreaming for their future, just for the simple reason that they lost their vision. We really need them to understand that this is not an obstacle to building the lives that they had once dreamed of. Or if they never did, then start dreaming; it’s never too late to start.”
As president of the group, he says, “I have big plans for it.” Their events bring together TVIs from around the city and visually impaired students from the different boroughs. Speakers and activities include visually impaired professionals as well as students sharing their experiences. Soto reports that the group is receiving corporate donations, and he is working on a website and greater outreach, with the third citywide event scheduled for December 11.
For now, he’s enjoying life as a college student, even remotely. “It’s been amazing. I haven’t been to campus yet, but I just love the atmosphere. The professors are wonderful. They’ve made learning so accessible to me. The other students have been great. Even though it’s all online, I’ve made some really good friendships and connections. I can’t wait to go in person.”
|
|
Heard Around the Virtual Campus |
|
Ricky Riccardi (LAHM) has been nominated for a Grammy Award in the category of Album Notes for his work on the Complete Louis Armstrong Columbia and RCA Victor Studio Sessions 1946-1966.
|
|
The Q View is produced by the
Office of Communications and Marketing.
Comments and suggestions for future news items are welcome.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
