Introduction

WHY MORNING SIGN OUT?

The "Morning Sign Out" is the handoff of patients between

healthcare providers from the night shift to the morning
shift. During this meeting, healthcare providers must
concisely and accurately convey what occurred during the
night and important information about their patients. As a
publication, we strive to embody this handoff by crafting
articles that efficiently and effectively convey dense
information from scientific and medical research in terms
understandable by a diverse audience.

We are a team of exceptional students with the skills to

translate scientific jargon into concise and interesting
articles or what we refer to as the "MSO Voice." The MSO
community strives to maintain a welcoming culture of
excellence that supports and encourages members to be
the best version of themselves as they pursue a wide range
of ambitious personal and career goals.
 PRESIDENT'S
MESSAGE

On behalf of the entire Morning

Sign Out team and executive
board I am incredibly proud to
introduce this first edition of the
Morning Sign Out magazine. This
magazine is filled with a
collection of some of the most
outstanding articles produced by
our writing team throughout the
last year. We became motivated
to create this magazine in an
effort to reach a wider audience
and provide readers with a
snapshot of the types of articles
that are published regularly on
the Morning Sign Out website. It
is our hope that this magazine
will help further our mission of
making information about
science and medicine more
accessible to everyone. Thank you
for taking the time to read this
magazine and for supporting the
advancement of scientific and
healthcare literacy!
 Research also suggests that multitasking has negative
effects on one’s memory. A recent study in Nature looked
at memory failure and its correlation with attention
lapsing and media multitasking. Specifically, media
multitasking is studied by employing an inventory that
estimates the number of different media an individual
engages with during an hour to quantify the subjects’
level of media multitasking. During memory retrieval,
several different complex neurological and cognitive
processes work in unison to access memory. In their
study, the authors were able to show that “heavier [media
multitasking] is associated with worse episodic memory”
because media multitasking increases the likelihood of
experiencing lapses in attention. Media multitasking is a
phenomenon especially prevalent among adolescents and,
unfortunately, has been shown to have a variety of
negative effects on youth. Research supports the
scattered-attention hypothesis; media multitasking is
negatively related to cognitive processes such as
sustained attention and other aspects of cognitive
control. In addition, for youths, media multitasking is
associated with negative emotions such as feelings of
depression, anxiousness, and alienation, as well as sleep
disorders.

In short, while it may seem tempting in the

moment to multitask, extensive cognitive research
suggests that multitasking is not an efficient
practice. Studies have clearly shown that
multitasking can produce negative effects on
memory, grades, sleep, and a number of other
cognitive processes. So, the next time you are in a
busy lecture or working through a problem set,
maybe put aside your phone until you are done.
After all, they will still be there once you are
finished.
 MEMBER OF THE
QUARTER Fall 2020

JACK DALY

Jack Daly (He/Him) is a third-year Human

Biology major. This year, Jack took on lots
of new challenges, along with
transferring to UCSD. From his position
within a nearby hospital volunteering
program to recently being accepted to a
psychological research lab, he is excited
to continue to learn more and gain more
experiences before applying to medical
school in 2022.

Jack believes MSO has been great, and

he joined because of his passion for
scientific literacy and scientific literature
being available to everyone and not
inaccessible due to paywalls. He enjoys
being able to use his knowledge to help
others as well. Jack believes others
should definitely join if they’re passionate
about writing, education, or any scientific
field. There are a variety of roles within
the organization, and he is sure you can
find one that you will find a lot of fun and
learn a lot from.

As we all know, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced
us to change certain aspects of our lifestyles. From
required face masks to necessary self-isolation, the
impact it has had on our lives has been, without a
doubt, a challenging experience to adjust to. One
aspect that has impacted students all around the
world has been the transition to online learning.
School was challenging enough before the pandemic,
even when we were able to participate in one-on-
one interactions with our professors, TAs, and
classmates. However, access to that kind of
communication is much more difficult to obtain now,
and as a result, there is a lack of social and academic
support. There are numerous barriers to students
receiving necessary support, such as poor internet
connection, conflicting class times, an increase in
workload, dealing with important family matters, etc.
Therefore, there have been an array of new problems
stemming from the shift to online learning. These
factors, combined with figuring out how to properly
manage online learning, have an overall negative
impact on students’ mental health and academic
performance.
Edited by Ishrak Ramzan
Graphic by John Nguyen
As expected, online learning may have its perks, but it
also has its disadvantages as students are unable to get
the full college experience. Due to the limited amount
of interaction students have with their professors and
classmates, finding a source of social support during
these times can be difficult. Higher education comes
with many challenges, including managing classes and
learning how to efficiently study for classes. A way in
which some of this pressure was relieved and
reassurance was attained was through a personal
connection to peers. Simply by having someone to
discuss lecture material with, classes felt less lonely and
isolating. That kind of support is lacking in online
learning as there is almost no way that students can
interact with each other. Although there are breakout
rooms associated with online learning platforms
intended to allow people to experience that personal
interaction, most often, students do not talk to each
other, and instead, sit in complete silence. As a result,
students feel lonely in classes, which may even lead to
them experiencing isolation as it may feel like no one
can understand their struggle. This leads to students
experiencing little to no motivation and being more
likely to procrastinate and lose the determination they
need to succeed in school.
Similarly, the lack of regular communication causes students to receive mixed signals, or
even receive misinformation from professors and TAs. Online learning makes it more
difficult to get ideas across to others, making it more difficult to understand what
instructors are saying or what they are referring to. This impacts students’ academic
performance as it may seem like there is no support from instructors, and many students
feel as if instructors do not want to help them, or they do not care about students’ success.
The lack of support proves to have a negative impact on students’ GPA as they are
receiving unclear information about what is expected of them. This is especially difficult if
lectures are pre-recorded, as students no longer have the opportunity to ask for
clarifications. Professor and TA office hours then become packed with students, meaning
that some may not have the opportunity to ask their questions. These issues are even more
difficult to handle since online learning requires considerable time management, as some
professors assign more readings, assignments, papers, or exams to compensate for the lack
of in-person experience. As a result, students are more likely to steer away from dealing
with the pressure of school, decreasing their academic performance. Altogether, these
factors are impacting students’ performance academically, even to the point where it is
impacting their mental health.
 By Aisha Warsame
Edited by Mitchell Stoddard
Graphic by Alix Westgaard

A Toxic Concoction:
How Wildfires Worsen
Environmental Health Disparities
Amidst the August heat, smoke surrounds the mountainous horizon. It’s officially wildfire season. For those
of us in California, this is a familiar annual occurrence. Wildfire season is without doubt catastrophic. But
what happens when you live in a community that already exhibits dangerously high levels of air pollution?

ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH disparities affect
individuals and communities who are subject to
poor environmental conditions and subsequent
health hazards. According to the Minnesota
Department of Health, these environmental health
hazards are divvied into three categories:
contaminants resulting from a natural occurrence,
manufactured for human activities, and by-
products of an action or production process. It is
lower-income communities and particularly
communities of color subject to these
environmental health hazards due to what scholar
Robert Bullard once coined, environmental racism.
Bullard described the term as any environmental
policy, practice, or directive that disadvantages
individuals, groups, or communities based on race.
AIR QUALITY is calculated using the air quality
index (AQI). It evaluates current air based on
cleanliness measures by determining how many air
pollutants such as ozone, sulfur dioxide, carbon
monoxide, particulate matter, and nitrogen dioxide
are in the air. Researchers from the Office of
Environmental Health Hazard Assessment
(OEHHA) used a data assessment tool called
‘CalEnviroScreen’ (CES 3) to track pollution
burdens and characteristics based on census tracts
or neighborhoods. In communities with lower-
incomes, there are substantially higher levels of
pollution burden.
BY DEFINITION, wildfires originate in wildlands
or similar habitats sparked from weather patterns
and/or from accidental, or even intentional,
human activities. The devastating effects of
wildfires are heightened by climate change;
warmth and humidity play essential factors in
determining wildfires’ manageability. Since lower-
income communities struggle with access to REASSESSMENT of environmental regulations,
sufficient basic needs and shelter, they are most policies, and responses are needed to address the
affected by climate change. Furthermore, root of this issue. By turning to environmental
compositionally, wildfire smoke consists of health nonprofits and experts from or already
harmful toxins like ozone, volatile organic working closely in lower-income communities
compounds, particulate matter, carbon committed under the principles of environmental
monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, and polycyclic justice, disaster response organizations and
aromatic hydrocarbons, all of which can cause counties can adequately respond in times of crisis
detrimental health effects. These effects include and address what was previously neglected.
lung irritation, itchy eyes, chronic coughing, or
even evolve to more severe consequences such
as “reduced lung function, pulmonary
inflammation, bronchitis, exacerbation of asthma,
and other lung diseases, exacerbation of
cardiovascular diseases, such as heart failure, and
even premature death.”

LOWER-INCOME communities subject to

environmental racism exhibit higher incidences of
environmentally-induced diseases like asthma,
cancer, and heart disease. When faced with
health hazards from wildfire smoke, this creates a
potential for comorbidities. In addition to being
given inadequate disaster responses, what makes
lower-income communities particularly
vulnerable is the disaster response’s aftermath. In
research conducted by Substance Abuse and
Mental Health Services (SAMSHA) about disaster
responses affecting people experiencing low SES
(socioeconomic status), residents left without
housing reported greater levels of stress,
depression, and PTSD.
 Theoretical Chemistry in
Medicine
By Steven Swee | Edited by Winston Lee | Graphic by Dan Tran
One of the challenges behind synthesizing new
drugs is that it tends to be a long and expensive
process. Finding the right organic (or inorganic)
molecule is difficult because there are millions of
known compounds, and perhaps even more that
have yet to be synthesized and tested. But what if
instead of guessing and checking every single
compound in a wet lab, we could have a computer
do most of that work for us? If we could find a way
to narrow down the list of compounds by
accurately predicting their behavior, that means
less time synthesizing and testing compounds in
the wet lab. This is the power of theoretical and
computational chemistry in medicine.
One of the greatest advantages of theoretical and
computational chemistry is its relatively low cost.
According to Nature, smaller biotech companies
like Verstem had a greater share of new FDA
approved drugs in 2018, a majority of 24 out of
the 29 approved drugs. Larger companies like
Amgen, Vertex, and Gilead contributed towards
the remainder. Smaller biotech companies were
able to contribute much more because they relied
on molecular simulations. In other words, by
simulating how a molecule could behave, these
smaller biotech companies were better able to
narrow down which chemicals to synthesize and
test.
But what do these simulations look like, and how
feasible are they to perform? It may be helpful to
first start with the chemical databases that we
frequently use in chemistry labs. Some examples
include ChemSpider, PubChem, and DrugCentral.
These databases contain a plethora of data.
Therefore, the next natural step is data-mining, or
retrieving and storing relevant data of select
chemicals rom these databases. Programs written
in computing languages such as Python, R, or SQL
are frequently used to gather such data. Ironically,
gathering and cleaning data is usually the most
expensive step as only the “right” data will lead
to desired results.
After collecting and cleaning all the necessary
data, the next step is modeling and
simulations. Quantitative structure–activity
relationship models are used to quantitatively
determine if a particular chemical is worth
testing. In other words, if the proposed
chemical meets all the specifications, then
synthesis and testing can begin. However, the
process is not always so simple due to a lack of
sufficient data.
To that end, molecular simulations can aid.
Three examples of simulation methods are
Quantum-Mechanical (where quantum
mechanics predicts molecular behavior),
Monte Carlo (repeated random sampling for
the most likely outcomes), and Molecular
Dynamics (analyzing the movement of atoms
and molecules). Various algorithms and
software have been developed in the past few
decades to simulate molecular behavior and
assist in identifying (or even discovering) a
chemical that is suitable for testing.
​ hile theoretical and computational chemistry
W
cannot entirely replace in-lab experiments, it
can certainly make the drug discovery process
much more efficient. And while
experimentalists are constrained with what the
world is, theorists have the ability to think
about what the world could be. After all,
perhaps this is why theorists tend to be more
famous than experimentalists.
"If we could find a way to narrow down the
list of compounds by accurately
predicting their behavior, that means less
time synthesizing and testing compounds
in the wet lab."
 STRESS, SLEEP, REPEAT
THE VICIOUS CYCLE
BY TASNEEM ALHOMSY
EDITED BY RACHEL LIAN
GRAPHIC BY CHERRY NGUYEN

Do you ever stress about the fact that you’re
so stressed that you can’t go to sleep when you
feel tired? Well, did you know that the reason
for that is probably because the hormone
responsible for stress, cortisol, is trying to keep
you awake so you can deal with the thing that’s
causing you the stress you’re experiencing?
As human beings and as college students, we
are constantly under a lot of stress, which makes
our bodies fight the stress to maintain
homeostasis, or balance, in our bodies. Since our
bodies are under a type of stress, they cannot
maintain the equilibrium it needs to, so they go
into a flight-or-fight response. Furthermore,
because of the stress it is experiencing, it will
have trouble shutting off/sleeping because it
needs to fight whatever is causing you to stress.
Cortisol works with other hormones in our bodies
to maintain homeostasis. These hormones are all
controlled by the control center of our brains,
known as the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus
is what signals to the anterior and posterior pituitary
glands to release certain hormones necessary for the
body. In turn, those hormones will bind to our adrenal
glands, which are responsible for releasing other
hormones associated with stress - cortisol. Therefore,
the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis is extremely
important in maintaining balance in our bodies. If
something is wrong within that axis, then it will
negatively or positively feedback to try to fix the
imbalance. However, when we are constantly under
stress, our bodies will keep signaling and feedbacking
onto the axis. As a result, at one point, the HPA axis
will be overly active and will lead to chronic stress,
which may lead to other health problems.
As you can imagine, our bodies do not do well when
they’re constantly overstimulated, as they feel the
need to always be prepared to fight stressors. This
creates a cycle and series of stress leading to
anxiety/depression, headaches, weight gain/loss,
digestive problems, and even heart disease. If your
stress is making you
 "Our bodies do
experience such conditions, then your body will
start to stress even more because it cannot
maintain the amount of unease it is going

not do well when

through, further augmenting this vicious cycle.

Students must learn how to cope with the

they’re
stress they undergo. A few examples can include
exercising, taking breaks from whatever is
causing the stress, having a good support system,

constantly
and modes of self-care that may be unique to
each individual. Overall, it is extremely important
to understand what is happening inside our

overstimulated,
bodies at the physiological level so we can better
understand the steps we must take to learn how
to deal with stress.

as they feel the

need to always be
prepared to fight
stressors."