Falk College strives to achieve excellence in education not only through good teaching but also through participation in active research. Our students benefit by learning from researchers who are working at the cutting-edge of knowledge, within well-equipped laboratories, and in projects that are both domestic and abroad. We encourage both undergraduates and graduate engagement to achieve not only a rewarding educational experience but also enhanced career opportunities upon graduation. Learn more about the different types of research awards.
CUSE Grants:
2022-2023 SU CUSE GrantEMS Worker Navigation Study – Phase 2: Preliminary Test of a Resilience Building Intervention & the Role of Psychosocial Safety Climate on Mental Health – Resubmission
Emergency medical service (EMS) workers (i.e., ambulance service providers) experience triple the risk for anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) compared to the general U.S. population. These mental disorders impact health and well-being across the life course.
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2021-2022 SU CUSE GrantMaternal Fish Oil Supplementation on Skeletal Muscle and Pancreas Function of Offspring
Obesity is a growing epidemic afflicting more than 42% of adults and 20% of the children and adolescents in the United States. Even more critical is that 60% of women are either obese or overweight at the time of conception]. Specifically, maternal programming through dietary intervention plays a key role in the prevention of childhood obesity and associated co-morbidities. Preventing obesity is vital as people suffering from obesity have three times higher risk of developing diabesity (obesity dependent T2D). Bioactives such as fish oil (FO) offer health benefits in terms of lowering risk of T2D and heart diseases.
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2021-2022 SU CUSE GrantA Comprehensive Assessment of Cardiovascular Disease Risk in Resettled Refugees
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is disproportionately higher among low socioeconomic status communities. It is significantly associated with adverse psychosocial factors, rendering it a particularly salient health outcome in refugees who have been exposed to stressful and life-threatening events pre-resettlement and may experience barriers to assimilating to an unfamiliar host country post resettlement. Currently there is limited information about CVD risk among refugees as they settle in the United States. The objectives of the proposed project are therefore to thoroughly assess CVD risk in refugees resettled in Syracuse, New York, who are active patients of the ambulatory adult clinic at SUNY Medical Center.
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2021-2022 SU CUSE GrantA Randomized Controlled Trial of a Sleep Intervention for Obesogenic Eating Patterns
Over two-thirds of adolescents are sleep deprived, and pediatric obesity rates continue to surge. Meta-analytic reviews reveal a connection between poor sleep and obesity, but the mechanisms of this relationship are poorly understood. Eating to regulate emotions may contribute to the relationship between poor sleep and obesity, but there is a need for experimental research using high quality measurement. The primary goal of the proposed project is to collect preliminary data examining the application of a sleep intervention on emotional eating in adolescents, in preparation for external funding proposals to support larger-scale studies in this area.
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2021-2022 SU CUSE GrantVitamin D Supplementation in a Model of Rett Syndrome to Improve Breathing Outcomes
Rett syndrome (RTT) is a developmental disorder caused by mutations to the MECP2 gene. The Mecp2-mutant mouse is an important model to investigate RTT. Improvement of breathing deficits in this model are considered a primary goal in the development and application of new therapies. Since Vitamin D improves cortical neuron morphology through the NF-κB pathway, and previous work identified NF-κB signaling changes in the brainstem, it is highly plausible that brainstem and spinal cord neurons are also improved with Vitamin D supplementation, which would influence the pattern of breathing in Mecp2-mutant mice. This proposal focuses on the first key breathing experiment that is essential to provide proof-of-concept for this novel project by forming the collaboration between a cardiorespiratory physiology laboratory (L. DeRuisseau) and a developmental neurobiology laboratory (J. MacDonald).
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2021-2022 SU CUSE GrantThe Association of the EGLN1 Gene with the High Aerobic Capacity (VO2max) of Nepali Sherpa at High-altitude
There is compelling evidence that highland-native populations in the Himalayas (Sherpa,Tibetans) and the South American Andes (Quechua) are genetically adapted to chronic hypobaric hypoxia. For example, both population groups are tolerant to extreme high-altitude and show impressive physical work capacity in hypoxia. In Peruvian Quechua, we have identified several high frequency genetic markers that are associated with a significantly higher aerobic capacity (VO2max) at high-altitude. These markers were found in a gene known as EGLN1 which is a central component of the Hypoxia Inducible Factor (HIF) pathway. The HIF-pathway regulates the cellular response to hypoxia. In this CUSE grant, we will seek to replicate our Peruvian findings by collecting DNA and measuring VO2max in n=70 Sherpa highlanders at 4,240 m altitude in Nepal.
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2021-2022 SU CUSE GrantCultivating Self-regulation and Healthy Food Intake: A Novel Mindful Eating Intervention for Children and Their Caregivers
Early self-regulatory skills, including self-regulation around food and appetite, serve as the foundation for children’s behavioral competence, and thus represent an important target of intervention for behavioral health. One intervention strategy that is particularly promising for promoting self-regulation among young children is mindfulness. The primary aim of this study is to develop a family- and caregiver-based mindfulness and mindful eating curriculum that can be used in a future intervention targeted toward preschool age children and their caregivers that focuses on enhancing general self-regulation and appetite self-regulation.
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2021-2022 SU CUSE GrantObjectively Determined Sleep Estimates of the US Population
This project will utilize the wrist-worn accelerometer data from 2 cycles (2011-12, 2013-14) of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) that was recently released (Feb 2021). We have 3 main objects: (1) Refine an automated algorithm to process NHANES data to obtain sleep estimates as well as more granular information like sleep efficiency, wake after sleep, and other sleep variables to determine sleep architecture; (2)Complete exploratory analysis investigating the relationship between sleep measures to several behaviors and health outcomes, and; (3) Use results from exploratory analysis to apply for NIH funding.
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2021-2022 SU CUSE GrantExploring Music Interventions and Mechanisms for Addressing Alcohol Use Disorder
College drinking remains a serious public health concern, with college students more likely to drink frequently, drink heavily, and meet criteria for an alcohol use disorder than their non-college peers. Around 9% of full-time, US college students ages 18 to 22 suffer from alcohol use disorder (AUD), which is defined as an impaired ability to stop or limit alcohol use despite adverse consequences. Risky college drinking is associated with substantial negative consequences, including academic and cognitive impairment, assault, injury, and death. Thus, interventions are needed to address risky college drinking.
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2020-2021 SU CUSE GrantRace/Ethnic Variation in Vascular Aging Trajectories and Mortality Risk: Insight from the Health and Retirement Study
Disparities in overall life expectancy in the U.S. prevail with non-Hispanic Black individuals living four to five years less than non-Hispanic White and Hispanic individuals. Racial differences in life expectancy may be driven by cardiovascular disease (CVD). Arterial stiffness is an independent predictor of and antecedent to CVD.
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2020-2021 SU CUSE GrantAssessing Pyrethroid Exposure and Risk of Cardiovascular and Neurocognitive Disease in a Sample of Syracuse Children
Pyrethroids are the most commonly used insecticides in the world today. Exposure above the level of detection is common, and the potential health impacts of pyrethroid exposure are severe. We will utilize funding from the CUSE Grant to test 300 urine samples from the Environmental Exposures and Child Health Outcomes (EECHO) for pyrethroid metabolites.
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2020-2021 SU CUSE GrantIntergenerational Transmission of Cognitive Impairment in Later Life
Alzheimer’s Disease and related forms of dementia are considered one of the nation’s greatest social, medical and fiscal challenges because of the toll it takes on families, the individuals afflicted, and the health care system. Since dementia has a strong basis in biological (including genetic), socio-economic, behavioral, and psychological traits that are shared by family members, it is important to understand the familial etiology of dementia-related impairments, not only to determine the strength of transmission, but also to establish whether family risk factors are remediable through behavioral change and other interventions.
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2019-2020 SU CUSE GrantA Consent Toolkit for Genomics Research Inclusive of Adults with Intellectual Disability: Establishing Feasibility
Adults with intellectual disability experience significant health disparities, and can benefit dramatically from genomics research. Yet ethical, legal, and social challenges in the process of informed consent present barriers to the generation of new knowledge to promote health equity. We can identify solutions to these persistent barriers by capitalizing on human rights advances so that adults with intellectual disability can meaningfully control research participation decisions.
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2019-2020 SU CUSE GrantAgricultural Guestworkers and the New Immigrant Economy
Due to strenuous working conditions and low average wages, labor shortages are a consistent challenge in U.S. production agriculture. For decades, farmers have been turning to foreign-born workers to fill labor-intensive positions. This study focuses on the H-2A agricultural guestworker program, which has been promoted as a solution to the contradicting labor needs of farmers and the increasingly precarious environment for undocumented immigrants in the U.S.
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2019-2020 SU CUSE GrantDeveloping Machine Learning Classifiers on Uncovering Patterns of Intimate Partner Violence Risk
We seek support from the CUSE’s Innovative and Interdisciplinary Research Grant committee to conduct a two-year study that will utilize text-mining algorithms to uncover patterns or typologies of intimate partner violence (IPV) from women’s narratives. For the purpose of this grant, IPV is conceptualized as the motivational need of aggressors to exert coercive control in close relationships and aggressors need to use physical, sexual, and psychological violence to reinforce coercive control in relationships.
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2019-2020 SU CUSE GrantE-sport, psychological well-being, and sport participation: Data collection and natural field experimental analysis
E-sport participation can be conceptualized as competitive video game played at grassroot levels, where the video game of interest is played in professional competitions. In terms of the time use and prevalence, competitive online gaming is an important activity among American youth. According to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, more than 92% of 1,641 sampled Americans age 17-27 had at least one experience with competitive online gaming.
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2019-2020 SU CUSE GrantEffects of Maternal Stress, Dietary Intake, and Physical Activity Behaviors on Adverse Birth Outcomes
Maternal exposure to acute or chronic stress during fetal development leads to adjustments that have both short- and long-term consequences. Our proposed study is a multi-disciplinary investigation of maternal stress exposure, maternal stress response, and adverse birth outcomes (including pre-term birth and low birth weight). We plan to conduct a prospective cohort study of pregnant women to assess whether dietary intake and/or physical activity (PA) mediate or moderate the relationship between maternal stress exposure and adverse birth outcomes.
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2019-2020 SU CUSE GrantEnvironmental Exposures and Child Health Outcomes 2 (EECHO2)
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains the leading cause of death in the United States and disables 10 million Americans each year, and literature demonstrates an association between metals (e.g., lead) and CVD risk. Supported by our most recent R01, we finished recruitment of 297 children in a study being named the “Environmental Exposures and Child Health Outcomes” (EECHO) study. EECHO considered the cross-sectional association between Pb exposure and cardiovascular outcomes in 9-11-year-old children.
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2019-2020 SU CUSE GrantManagement Team Diversity and Misconduct by Male Professional Athletes
Organizations and managers have a strong interest in preventing and redressing employee misconduct, which is voluntary behavior that deviates from prevailing norms. When employees are admired public figures, as is often the case with professional athletes, the negative consequences of misconduct to organizations may be more likely and more severe, than in other contexts. This research project represents the first examination of the organizational determinants of misconduct by high-profile employees of professional sports teams.
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2019-2020 SU CUSE GrantUrban Food Forests: Ecological-Human Connectivity and Rights to Access
The Urban Food Forests: Ecological-Human Connectivity and Rights to Access proposal weaves together ecological sciences, landscape design, and urban food policy to develop an innovative approach to assessing the potential for edible urban food forests that serve as connective ecological and human infrastructure. As “green infrastructure,” urban forests provide critical ecological services such as sequestering carbon, ameliorating urban heat island effect, reducing storm water runoff, and mitigating climate change.
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2018-2019 SU CUSE GrantCause of Death, Longevity, and Career Statistical Characteristics among Former NFL Players: An Empirical Analysis using Categorical and Survival Models
The present research seeks to determine the relationships between on-field attributes/events, longevity, and cause of death among former NFL players. As the present NFL player concussion reporting protocol was not enacted until 2011, present data cannot determine the mortality risk factor presented by the elevated rate of concussion experienced by players during their career. That is, the complete pathway from concussion(s) to chronic traumatic encephalopathy and other neurodegenerative diseases (e.g., Parkinson’s Disease) to mortality risk among former NFL players is empirically indeterminable given present data.
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2018-2019 SU CUSE GrantChina’s Aging Population: Implications for Families and Public Policy
This proposal requests support to convene a workshop devoted to the topic of demographic change in China and its implications for family care and support for older adults. The goal of this workshop is to bring together prominent scholars working at the intersection of China studies, family science, gerontology, public policy, and demography to present research papers about the consequences of social and demographic change in China for meeting the needs of older individuals and their families, as well as the policy responses to those changes.
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2018-2019 SU CUSE GrantDried attractive bait stations (DABS) for the Control of Aedes Aegypti
The Aedes aegypti mosquito is responsible for dengue, zika, chikungunya, and yellow fever, which affect more than 100 million people each year and cause economic damages of more than $50 million per annum. There are limited interventions available to control adult Ae. aegypti– prevention is typically managed through larviciding. Larviciding however is often ineffective because Ae. aegypti utilize hidden breeding sites that are missed during larviciding campaigns.
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2018-2019 SU CUSE GrantEvaluating the Role of Sustainable Farming Practices in Promoting Food Security While Protecting Endangered Species in the Galapagos Archipelago
The Galapagos ecosystem is a strong draw for international ecotourism. Human activity, however, often leads to profound changes in the relationships and structures of biophysical systems that are detrimental to both human and non-human species. The confluence of changing land use patterns and the introduction of a devastating avian parasite into the Galapagos Islands has set the stage for the decline of several species of Darwin’s finch, a centerpiece of Galapagos tourism.
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2018-2019 SU CUSE GrantFurther Evidence for the Negative Consequences of Mosquito Net Fishing
Hundreds of millions of insecticide-treated mosquito nets have been distributed throughout sub-Saharan Africa for the control of malaria. While successful in controlling malaria, these nets also make excellent fishing nets. Our previous research suggests that the practice of mosquito net fishing is ubiquitous and devastating to the fisheries of the floodplain of the upper Zambezi in Western Province, Zambia. We hypothesize that the current paradigm of mass distribution of insecticide-treated mosquito nets threatens economic and food security as well as malaria control.
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