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2CI Fellows, News and Announcements

Aging, Incarceration and Employment: How a 2CI Graduate Fellow Seeks to Improve Outcomes for Older Formerly Incarcerated Individuals

Aging, Incarceration and Employment: How a 2CI Graduate Fellow Seeks to Improve Outcomes for Older Formerly Incarcerated Individuals

Currently working under Dr. William Sabol, a professor in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology, Second Century Initiative Graduate Fellow Victoria Helmly is working on a project in conjunction with the DeKalb County Jail to evaluate a welding program for a group of inmates, taught by Georgia Piedmont Technical College, a unit of the Technical College System of Georgia. Ultimately, she and Dr. Sabol are looking to see whether this program will reduce the chances of reconviction and reincarceration.

News and Announcements, Press Releases, Research Stories, Second Century Initiative

2CI Professor Finds That More Than Half of Metro Atlanta Homeless Youth Suffer Human Trafficking

2CI Professor Finds That More Than Half of Metro Atlanta Homeless Youth Suffer Human Trafficking

More than half of the homeless youth in metro Atlanta have experienced human trafficking, with minority and LGBTQ youth being more likely to be forced into working against their will, according to a study by Georgia State University sociology professor Eric Wright, a Second Century Initiative faculty member.

“Our data suggest that, at least among the homeless, they’re more likely to be trafficked for their labor and less frequently for commercial sexual exploitation,” said Wright, the principal investigator of the project. “Only one out of four youth were engaging in sex work of some sort, trafficked or otherwise. The vast majority of youth trafficking experiences involved a wide range of different kinds of labor trafficking.”

“They tend to be black or African American, more often are LGBTQ youth, and tend to be youth who have been in the juvenile justice or foster care system previously,” Wright said.

News and Announcements, Research Stories

Researchers Isolate Gut Bacteria That Can Prevent And Cure Rotavirus Infection

Researchers Isolate Gut Bacteria That Can Prevent And Cure Rotavirus Infection

The presence of specific microbiota, or microorganisms that live in the digestive tract, can prevent and cure rotavirus infection, which is the leading cause of severe, life-threatening diarrhea in children worldwide, according to a new study by the Institute for Biomedical Sciences at Georgia State University.

The findings, published in the journal Cell, may explain why rotavirus causes severe, life-threatening disease in some people and only mild disease in others. It could lead to possible treatments and preventive measures for rotavirus infection. There are no existing treatments for rotavirus besides administering fluids to avoid dehydration.

Faculty Profiles, News and Announcements

A Deliberate Structure: How a Next-Gen Professor Uses Data to Help Make Interdisciplinary Advancements

A Deliberate Structure: How a Next-Gen Professor Uses Data to Help Make Interdisciplinary Advancements

Dr. Yu-Kai Lin’s research at Georgia State University focuses on data analytics, specifically both structured and unstructured data. He’s worked on projects revolving around medicine and patient well-being, one of them being using predictive data models to whether hospitalized patients would experience adverse events—injuries caused by medical management rather than the underlying condition of the patient—during their hospital stays. His goal with these medical models is to supply healthcare providers with the information they offer to best treat and protect patients.

Dr. Lin also works with data dealing with electronic medical record systems, start-ups and deep neural networks. He hopes to better develop medical institutions information keeping via wide-scale implementation of better protocol, and he looks at start-ups to see how their shared knowledge—or lack thereof—can affect their success and development as a complany. In terms of neural networks, Dr. Lin sees them and their functionality as the “frontier of unstructured data analytics.”

Faculty Profiles, News and Announcements, Second Century Initiative

How a Second Century Initiative Professor’s Approach to Law and Disparities Impacts Lives

How a Second Century Initiative Professor’s Approach to Law and Disparities Impacts Lives

Anderson found herself at Georgia State in 2012 when the university was searching for a legal scholar to research health disparities related to socioeconomic determinants of health.

During a clinical fellowship at Georgetown, Anderson had worked with low-income tenants who wanted to purchase their building and the low-income issues they had faced during these kinds of processes. Considering her additional real-estate background, Anderson said the area of research was a perfect fit for her. Her research right now is focusing on bioethics and health disparities to prepare for the course she will be teaching, as well as an article on the opioid crisis, and how housing, neighborhoods and housing structure intersects with it.”

“I’m trying to offer a different perspective on what a lot of people are talking about, and what a lot of people are looking at.”

Feature Stories, News and Announcements, Press Releases, Research Stories

Researchers Find Building Mutations Into Ebola Virus Protein Disrupts Ability To Cause Disease And Activates Protective Immunity

Researchers Find Building Mutations Into Ebola Virus Protein Disrupts Ability To Cause Disease And Activates Protective Immunity

Creating mutations in a key Ebola virus protein that helps the deadly virus escape from the body’s defenses can make the virus unable to produce sickness and activate protective immunity in the infected host, according to a study by the Institute for Biomedical Sciences at Georgia State University.

The mutated virus even works as a vaccine to protect animals from infection with the virulent Ebola virus, researchers said.

The study suggests that VP35, a protein that enables Ebola virus to block early immune responses to infection, is critical for virulence and is a potential drug target. The findings are published in the journal Cell Reports.

The study’s coauthors include faculty hired under the university’s Second Century Initiative (2CI).

News and Announcements, Press Releases, Research Stories, Second Century Initiative

Georgia State University Neuroscientists to Investigate Neural Markers of Mental Illness

Georgia State University Neuroscientists to Investigate Neural Markers of Mental Illness

Neuroscientists at Georgia State University are using large-scale imaging analysis to study how symptoms associated with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depression relate to changes in the brain. The researchers say they hope to yield new diagnostic classifications, uncover potential new treatment targets in the brain and identify which patients may benefit from those treatments.

The team, led by the Second Century Initiative’s Jessica Turner, professor of psychology and neuroscience, and Vince Calhoun, Distinguished University Professor of Psychology and director of the Center for Translational Research in Neuroimaging and Data Science (TReNDS), will examine two so-called “negative” symptoms, anhedonia (loss of pleasure) and asociality (loss of interest in social engagement), in patients with schizophrenia, major depression and bipolar disorder. The work is supported by a five-year, $5 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).

2CI Fellows, News and Announcements

Shoot for the Moon: 2CI Fellow Uses Astronomy Research Opportunities to Prepare for Career Among the Stars

Shoot for the Moon: 2CI Fellow Uses Astronomy Research Opportunities to Prepare for Career Among the Stars

Second Century Initiative (2CI) fellow Deborah Gulledge is planning on using her research to apply to NASA’s Astronaut Corps after graduating. She is currently in a doctoral program focusing on Astronomy, accompanied by a Master’s in Physics. Her priority in research focuses on planetary research and evaluation—Gulledge is an advocate for the exploration of extraterrestrial planets in our solar system and beyond. She looks at both Jupiter and Saturn primarily, studying their core composition via seismology.

Through Dr. Jefferies, a 2CI hire in the Astroinformatics cluster, Gulledge will have the opportunity to travel to the South Pole in order to conduct research on these planets and their cores in an observatory. Planetary research aside, Gulledge also has her eyes set on something even larger: the frontier of space itself. After the completion of her Ph.D., Gulledge will apply to NASA’s Astronaut Corps, in hopes of being trained to become an astronaut.

Her parting advice for any potential student seeking higher education? Ask plenty of questions. Be curious. Opening a dialogue will allow for numerous opportunities to pop-up in your academic career. “It took me a long time to realize that so many more opportunities would be available to me if I would’ve just asked for them instead of sitting to the side and waiting for them to just show up.”

2CI Fellows, News and Announcements, Second Century Initiative

Former Police Officer and Second Century Initiative Fellow Studies Police Behavior

Former Police Officer and Second Century Initiative Fellow Studies Police Behavior

Second Century Initiative (2CI) Fellow Thaddeus Johnson is exploring police behavior and how it is connected to the education level of police officers.

Johnson is currently researching police professionalism, specifically the education of police officers and how it impacts different outcomes. His dissertation looks at how police professionalism impacts clearance rates and homicide rates. He said working as a police officer in the past, along with the research conducted with his mentors, is what led to his interest in this topic.

“I am a former officer of ten years. I was a ranking officer when I decided to stop and my research was always a question that I found interesting while I was working in the field,” said Johnson. “The education of officers has always been an issue in policing. Should we hire more educated officers? Should a college degree be required to become a police officer. So, I’m trying to answer those kinds of questions with my research.”