Writing the history of women in antiquity is hindered by the lack of written sources by them. It ... more Writing the history of women in antiquity is hindered by the lack of written sources by them. It has been the norm to assume that the only sources that can tell us something about them are the sources written by men. This thesis challenges this convention as it concerns the social history of Rome through the exploration of a written source by a woman named Vibia Perpetua. She was a Roman woman of twenty-two years from Roman Carthage, who was martyred on March 7, 203 C.E. The reason that we know of this Roman woman and what happened to her is because of the diary she wrote. The diary survived because it was preserved in the martyrology Passio Sanctarum Martyrum Perpetuae et Felicitatis. The Passio which was edited by an unknown redactor, documents the martyrdom of several people. Unlike any other martyrologies the editor of the story included the actual diary as it was written by Vibia Perpetua. Although we have a Roman woman\u27s writing from the second/early third century C.E, her ...
Proceedings of the FabLearn 2020 - 9th Annual Conference on Maker Education
As the Maker Movement has continued to expand, there has been a complementary expansion in the sp... more As the Maker Movement has continued to expand, there has been a complementary expansion in the spaces and contexts for engaging in Making. Most pertinent to this paper is the growing body of research on intergenerational making experiences. A hallmark of intergenerational making is its ability to promote both play and collaboration as participants learn from one another. However, the prevailing work on intergenerational making seldom includes children less than seven years old. We build on this body of work by designing and studying an intergenerational making experiences where most of the children were between 2 and 7 years old. Five parents and their family members (ages 2-10) participated in a one-week program on designing games using digital fabrication and household craft materials. Consistent with prior work, and building on designs for intergenerational making experiences, we discuss several interactions that highlight play, joint creation, and connectedness. We consider the benefits and challenges of these types of interactions and present suggestions on the design of intergenerational making experiences that include young children.
2018 IEEE International Conference on Teaching, Assessment, and Learning for Engineering (TALE), 2018
In a time of rapid development, 21st century learning emphasizes innovative thinking and making. ... more In a time of rapid development, 21st century learning emphasizes innovative thinking and making. This has heightened interest in STEAM subjects and its implementation in traditional classrooms through project-based learning (PBL). However, assessment is difficult for open-ended, PBL activities. This work-in-progress study utilizes natural language processing (NLP) tools to analyze content produced in a middle-school media arts classroom. The authors examine student engagement and excitement along dimensions of tone and authenticity. We discuss the results of NLP visa -vis feedback that 1) determines student engagement and excitement and 2) improves the implementation and display of project-based learning in traditional classrooms.
We developed an online system, doGooder, to foster volunteer social networks. Through an extensiv... more We developed an online system, doGooder, to foster volunteer social networks. Through an extensive usercentered design process, including interviews and a literature review, we learned that people experiencing homelessness face a wide range of issues. Most organizations helping the homeless depend heavily on volunteers to enhance their service capacity. One agency we studied was able to extend their budget by 30% as a result of volunteer labor. Research shows that social relationships play a key role in galvanizing potential volunteers and motivating existing ones. doGooder connects voluntee rs with opportunities and service organizations, and builds a community of volunteers to encourage each other. Preliminary usability testing indicates that doGooder will successfully help organizati ons to recruit, retain, and organize volunteers to meet the diverse needs of various populations facing homelessness.
Proceedings of the 18th ACM International Conference on Interaction Design and Children, 2019
Intergenerational making activities provide an opportunity for family collaboration where parents... more Intergenerational making activities provide an opportunity for family collaboration where parents and children learn together. We discuss the facilitative moves that emerged between researchers, parents, and children during a half-day making program where participants played and created games. Four families with a variety of knowledge of digital fabrication technologies participated in three activities: playing a variety of games, designing and making their own games using arts and crafts materials, and optionally utilizing digital fabrication tools to complete their games. We position traditional fabrication and digital fabrication as two different modalities of making. Accordingly, we examine the facilitative moves and behavioral shifts that emerge across the two modalities and as observed through qualitative analysis. This work contributes insights to the field on program structure and the ways formal facilitators and parents can sustain child engagement in a making workshop.
XRDS: Crossroads, The ACM Magazine for Students, 2019
Engagement in STEM learning using athletics and data analytics allows young people to use customi... more Engagement in STEM learning using athletics and data analytics allows young people to use customizable technological devices to analyze performance.
Latinos are one of the fastest growing racial/ethnic population in the United States yet they exp... more Latinos are one of the fastest growing racial/ethnic population in the United States yet they experience a substantial amount of mental health disparities, such as anxiety and depression, compared with non-Hispanic Whites. The current study examined the interactive effects of rumination and mindful attention on anxiety and depression symptoms among economically disadvantaged Latinos. Participants consisted of 391 Latinos (86.7% female; Mage = 38.8 years [ SD = 11.4]; 95.3% first language Spanish) who attended a community-based primary health care clinic. Results provided support for an interaction effect of rumination with mindful attention in relation to depressive, suicidal, social anxiety, and anxious arousal symptoms as well as number of mood and anxiety disorders. The pattern of findings was consistent across each of these continuous dependent measures such that the highest levels of each affective variable were found for those with a combination of higher rumination and lower ...
The American journal of orthopsychiatry, Jan 9, 2017
The present investigation examined the interactive effects of subjective social status and rumina... more The present investigation examined the interactive effects of subjective social status and rumination in relation to anxiety/depressive symptoms and psychopathology among 276 Latinos (82% female; Mage = 39.2, SD = 11.1; 97.0% reported Spanish as first language) who attended a community-based primary health care clinic. Results indicated that the interaction between rumination and subjective social status was significantly associated with depression (B = -.04, t = -3.52, p < .001, 95% CI [-.06, -.02]), social anxiety (B = -.01, t = -3.84, p < .001, 95% CI [-.02, -.01]), and the number of mood and anxiety disorders (B = -.004, t = -2.80, p = .005, 95% CI [-.006, -.001]), after controlling for main effects of rumination and subjective social status. The form of the interactions suggested that the associations of rumination and the outcome variables were stronger for those with lower compared to higher subjective social status. For anxious arousal symptoms, however, there was not ...
Bradykinin (BK), a nanopeptide (Arg-Pro-Pro-Gly-Phe-Ser-Pro-Phe-Arg), is the prototype of a famil... more Bradykinin (BK), a nanopeptide (Arg-Pro-Pro-Gly-Phe-Ser-Pro-Phe-Arg), is the prototype of a family of powerful vasodilatory peptides, the kinins. Although known for a long time only as a pro-inflammatory peptide, BK is now considered an important mediator of the benefits of angiotensin I-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEi). In fact, over the years, numerous papers have been dedicated to BK, and a number of them dealt with its cardiovascular effects. Different experimental and clinical arguments plead for a role of BK in the cardiovascular effects of ACEi. BK may also be an important mediator of a new class of drugs, vasopeptidase inhibitors. These single molecules simultaneously inhibit the activity of neutral endopeptidase 24.11 and angiotensin-converting enzyme, two kininases, with similar nanomolar inhibitory constants. The protective effect of omapatrilat, the first of this new class of drugs, on BK degradation at the cardiomyocyte and endothelial level, two target sites for metallopeptidase inhibitors, has also been documented and compared to that of ACEi. The purpose of this paper is to review the different experimental and clinical arguments that support a cardioprotective role of this vasodilatory peptide, BK.
CHI '08 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2008
We developed an online system, doGooder, to foster volunteer social networks. Through an extensiv... more We developed an online system, doGooder, to foster volunteer social networks. Through an extensive user-centered design process, including interviews and a literature review, we learned that people experiencing homelessness face a wide range of issues. Most organizations helping the homeless depend heavily on volunteers to enhance their service capacity. One agency we studied was able to extend its budget by 30% as a result of volunteer labor. Research shows that social relationships play a key role in galvanizing potential volunteers and motivating existing ones. doGooder connects volunteers with opportunities and service organizations, and builds a community of volunteers to encourage each other. Preliminary usability testing indicates that doGooder will successfully help organizations to recruit, retain, and organize volunteers to meet the diverse needs of various populations facing homelessness.
Proceedings of the 52nd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, 2021
In this Birds of a Feather (BoF) session, we aim to create and foster a safe and open environment... more In this Birds of a Feather (BoF) session, we aim to create and foster a safe and open environment that allows participants to get feedback on research-in-progress and share experiences and issues with being a graduate student in CSEd research. We invite genuine and honest conversations about the challenges facing rising academics and professionals in this area. We have three goals: (1) to foster a community of support among CSEd grad students, (2) to connect students with new opportunities and ways of thinking about CSEd, and (3) to cultivate mentorship among participants to send them off with potential collaborators, supporters and advocates.
Writing the history of women in antiquity is hindered by the lack of written sources by them. It ... more Writing the history of women in antiquity is hindered by the lack of written sources by them. It has been the norm to assume that the only sources that can tell us something about them are the sources written by men. This thesis challenges this convention as it concerns the social history of Rome through the exploration of a written source by a woman named Vibia Perpetua. She was a Roman woman of twenty-two years from Roman Carthage, who was martyred on March 7, 203 C.E. The reason that we know of this Roman woman and what happened to her is because of the diary she wrote. The diary survived because it was preserved in the martyrology Passio Sanctarum Martyrum Perpetuae et Felicitatis. The Passio which was edited by an unknown redactor, documents the martyrdom of several people. Unlike any other martyrologies the editor of the story included the actual diary as it was written by Vibia Perpetua. Although we have a Roman woman\u27s writing from the second/early third century C.E, her ...
Proceedings of the FabLearn 2020 - 9th Annual Conference on Maker Education
As the Maker Movement has continued to expand, there has been a complementary expansion in the sp... more As the Maker Movement has continued to expand, there has been a complementary expansion in the spaces and contexts for engaging in Making. Most pertinent to this paper is the growing body of research on intergenerational making experiences. A hallmark of intergenerational making is its ability to promote both play and collaboration as participants learn from one another. However, the prevailing work on intergenerational making seldom includes children less than seven years old. We build on this body of work by designing and studying an intergenerational making experiences where most of the children were between 2 and 7 years old. Five parents and their family members (ages 2-10) participated in a one-week program on designing games using digital fabrication and household craft materials. Consistent with prior work, and building on designs for intergenerational making experiences, we discuss several interactions that highlight play, joint creation, and connectedness. We consider the benefits and challenges of these types of interactions and present suggestions on the design of intergenerational making experiences that include young children.
2018 IEEE International Conference on Teaching, Assessment, and Learning for Engineering (TALE), 2018
In a time of rapid development, 21st century learning emphasizes innovative thinking and making. ... more In a time of rapid development, 21st century learning emphasizes innovative thinking and making. This has heightened interest in STEAM subjects and its implementation in traditional classrooms through project-based learning (PBL). However, assessment is difficult for open-ended, PBL activities. This work-in-progress study utilizes natural language processing (NLP) tools to analyze content produced in a middle-school media arts classroom. The authors examine student engagement and excitement along dimensions of tone and authenticity. We discuss the results of NLP visa -vis feedback that 1) determines student engagement and excitement and 2) improves the implementation and display of project-based learning in traditional classrooms.
We developed an online system, doGooder, to foster volunteer social networks. Through an extensiv... more We developed an online system, doGooder, to foster volunteer social networks. Through an extensive usercentered design process, including interviews and a literature review, we learned that people experiencing homelessness face a wide range of issues. Most organizations helping the homeless depend heavily on volunteers to enhance their service capacity. One agency we studied was able to extend their budget by 30% as a result of volunteer labor. Research shows that social relationships play a key role in galvanizing potential volunteers and motivating existing ones. doGooder connects voluntee rs with opportunities and service organizations, and builds a community of volunteers to encourage each other. Preliminary usability testing indicates that doGooder will successfully help organizati ons to recruit, retain, and organize volunteers to meet the diverse needs of various populations facing homelessness.
Proceedings of the 18th ACM International Conference on Interaction Design and Children, 2019
Intergenerational making activities provide an opportunity for family collaboration where parents... more Intergenerational making activities provide an opportunity for family collaboration where parents and children learn together. We discuss the facilitative moves that emerged between researchers, parents, and children during a half-day making program where participants played and created games. Four families with a variety of knowledge of digital fabrication technologies participated in three activities: playing a variety of games, designing and making their own games using arts and crafts materials, and optionally utilizing digital fabrication tools to complete their games. We position traditional fabrication and digital fabrication as two different modalities of making. Accordingly, we examine the facilitative moves and behavioral shifts that emerge across the two modalities and as observed through qualitative analysis. This work contributes insights to the field on program structure and the ways formal facilitators and parents can sustain child engagement in a making workshop.
XRDS: Crossroads, The ACM Magazine for Students, 2019
Engagement in STEM learning using athletics and data analytics allows young people to use customi... more Engagement in STEM learning using athletics and data analytics allows young people to use customizable technological devices to analyze performance.
Latinos are one of the fastest growing racial/ethnic population in the United States yet they exp... more Latinos are one of the fastest growing racial/ethnic population in the United States yet they experience a substantial amount of mental health disparities, such as anxiety and depression, compared with non-Hispanic Whites. The current study examined the interactive effects of rumination and mindful attention on anxiety and depression symptoms among economically disadvantaged Latinos. Participants consisted of 391 Latinos (86.7% female; Mage = 38.8 years [ SD = 11.4]; 95.3% first language Spanish) who attended a community-based primary health care clinic. Results provided support for an interaction effect of rumination with mindful attention in relation to depressive, suicidal, social anxiety, and anxious arousal symptoms as well as number of mood and anxiety disorders. The pattern of findings was consistent across each of these continuous dependent measures such that the highest levels of each affective variable were found for those with a combination of higher rumination and lower ...
The American journal of orthopsychiatry, Jan 9, 2017
The present investigation examined the interactive effects of subjective social status and rumina... more The present investigation examined the interactive effects of subjective social status and rumination in relation to anxiety/depressive symptoms and psychopathology among 276 Latinos (82% female; Mage = 39.2, SD = 11.1; 97.0% reported Spanish as first language) who attended a community-based primary health care clinic. Results indicated that the interaction between rumination and subjective social status was significantly associated with depression (B = -.04, t = -3.52, p < .001, 95% CI [-.06, -.02]), social anxiety (B = -.01, t = -3.84, p < .001, 95% CI [-.02, -.01]), and the number of mood and anxiety disorders (B = -.004, t = -2.80, p = .005, 95% CI [-.006, -.001]), after controlling for main effects of rumination and subjective social status. The form of the interactions suggested that the associations of rumination and the outcome variables were stronger for those with lower compared to higher subjective social status. For anxious arousal symptoms, however, there was not ...
Bradykinin (BK), a nanopeptide (Arg-Pro-Pro-Gly-Phe-Ser-Pro-Phe-Arg), is the prototype of a famil... more Bradykinin (BK), a nanopeptide (Arg-Pro-Pro-Gly-Phe-Ser-Pro-Phe-Arg), is the prototype of a family of powerful vasodilatory peptides, the kinins. Although known for a long time only as a pro-inflammatory peptide, BK is now considered an important mediator of the benefits of angiotensin I-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEi). In fact, over the years, numerous papers have been dedicated to BK, and a number of them dealt with its cardiovascular effects. Different experimental and clinical arguments plead for a role of BK in the cardiovascular effects of ACEi. BK may also be an important mediator of a new class of drugs, vasopeptidase inhibitors. These single molecules simultaneously inhibit the activity of neutral endopeptidase 24.11 and angiotensin-converting enzyme, two kininases, with similar nanomolar inhibitory constants. The protective effect of omapatrilat, the first of this new class of drugs, on BK degradation at the cardiomyocyte and endothelial level, two target sites for metallopeptidase inhibitors, has also been documented and compared to that of ACEi. The purpose of this paper is to review the different experimental and clinical arguments that support a cardioprotective role of this vasodilatory peptide, BK.
CHI '08 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2008
We developed an online system, doGooder, to foster volunteer social networks. Through an extensiv... more We developed an online system, doGooder, to foster volunteer social networks. Through an extensive user-centered design process, including interviews and a literature review, we learned that people experiencing homelessness face a wide range of issues. Most organizations helping the homeless depend heavily on volunteers to enhance their service capacity. One agency we studied was able to extend its budget by 30% as a result of volunteer labor. Research shows that social relationships play a key role in galvanizing potential volunteers and motivating existing ones. doGooder connects volunteers with opportunities and service organizations, and builds a community of volunteers to encourage each other. Preliminary usability testing indicates that doGooder will successfully help organizations to recruit, retain, and organize volunteers to meet the diverse needs of various populations facing homelessness.
Proceedings of the 52nd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, 2021
In this Birds of a Feather (BoF) session, we aim to create and foster a safe and open environment... more In this Birds of a Feather (BoF) session, we aim to create and foster a safe and open environment that allows participants to get feedback on research-in-progress and share experiences and issues with being a graduate student in CSEd research. We invite genuine and honest conversations about the challenges facing rising academics and professionals in this area. We have three goals: (1) to foster a community of support among CSEd grad students, (2) to connect students with new opportunities and ways of thinking about CSEd, and (3) to cultivate mentorship among participants to send them off with potential collaborators, supporters and advocates.
Uploads
Papers by Melissa Perez