Central Michigan University

Capitol

Tuesday, March 25, 2014State Capitol Building Lansing, Michigan

This undergraduate research exhibition is the cooperative effort of CMU’s College of Science and Technology, the Development and External Relations Office, the Development & Alumni Relations Office, and the Honors Program.

Scholars

Capitol Scholars Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Exhibits – 10:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Alumni Lunch Reception – 12:00 p.m.Awards Ceremony – 1:00 p.m.

The fourteenth annual Central Michigan University Capitol Scholars exhibition in the halls of Michigan’s historic State Capitol Rotunda features the research and creative endeavors of some of CMU’s finest students.

This display was made possible by CMU’s dedicated faculty, alumni, students, the esteemed legislators who represent the students’ home districts, and the many parents and friends who support the advancement of knowledge and creativity at Central Michigan University and around the state of Michigan.

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“It is inspiring to witness the transformation and engagement of CMU students as they develop leadership, critical thinking ability and a global perspective through applied research and creative activities to shape our future.”

George E. Ross, Ph.D. President, Central Michigan University

“The faculty and students put forth tremendous effort to prepare for an event that raises awareness at the state level of the types of undergraduate research activities that CMU students conduct.”

Kathleen Wilbur Vice President, CMU Development and External Relations

“This Capitol exhibition provides top CMU students with an opportunity to demonstrate that they are not simply learning the facts of the past—they are scholars preparing to create the knowledge of the future.”

Phame Camarena, Ph.D. Director, University Honors Program

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About Capitol Scholars

Central Michigan University’s College of Science and Technology, the Development and External Relations Office, the Development & Alumni Relations Office, and Honors Program are proud to present the fourteenth annual Capitol Scholars event, highlighting the research projects of some of our outstanding undergraduate students.

Central Michigan University has a long tradition of providing opportunities for undergraduate students to work directly with faculty on cutting-edge research projects, gaining new insights into their chosen discipline and invaluable experience for their future careers. The annual CMU Capitol Scholars event provides a venue to showcase some of these research projects to the public and recognize the contributions made by our students in advancing the understanding of science and technology across a wide range of disciplines.

In this booklet is a summary of each undergraduate research project presented at this year’s event. The students participating are justifiably proud of what they have accomplished. We invite you to come join us between 10:00 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. on March 25, 2014 in the Capitol Rotunda to meet these talented young scientists, and to learn more about their projects and the positive experiences that they are having at Central Michigan University.

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Student Research Projects

Poster # Student Hometown Page #1 . . . . . . . . . . . . Ian Milligan. . . . . . . . . . . . Bath . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

2 . . . . . . . . . . . . Kaitlyn Germain . . . . . . . Bay City . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

3 . . . . . . . . . . . . Amanda Clark . . . . . . . . . Buchanan . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

4 . . . . . . . . . . . . Jenna MacDonald . . . . . Commerce Twp . . . . . . . . 9

5 . . . . . . . . . . . . Nicole Rombach . . . . . . . Davisburg . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

6 . . . . . . . . . . . . Patrick Ruhlman . . . . . . . East China Twp . . . . . . . . 11

7 . . . . . . . . . . . . Michalina Badur . . . . . . . Edwardsburg . . . . . . . . . . 12

8 . . . . . . . . . . . . Shantell Johnson . . . . . . Fort Gratiot . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

7 . . . . . . . . . . . . Christa Hegenauer. . . . . Freeland. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

5 . . . . . . . . . . . . Alayna Smith . . . . . . . . . . Garden City. . . . . . . . . . . . 10

9 . . . . . . . . . . . . Jaime Coon. . . . . . . . . . . . Hamilton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

10 . . . . . . . . . . . James Dunn . . . . . . . . . . . Houghton Lake . . . . . . . . 15

11 . . . . . . . . . . . Patricia Poling . . . . . . . . . Hudson. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

6 . . . . . . . . . . . . Jordan Bricker . . . . . . . . . Hudsonville. . . . . . . . . . . . 11

12 . . . . . . . . . . . Jayson Smith . . . . . . . . . . Kimball . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

13 . . . . . . . . . . . Caitlin Homrich . . . . . . . . Kinde . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

14 . . . . . . . . . . . Kyle Smith. . . . . . . . . . . . . Leola, Pa. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

15 . . . . . . . . . . . Sean Kolhoff. . . . . . . . . . . Mount Pleasant . . . . . . . . 20

16 . . . . . . . . . . . Jiayao Yuan. . . . . . . . . . . . Mount Pleasant . . . . . . . . 21

17 . . . . . . . . . . . Neethu Jacob . . . . . . . . . . Northville. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

18 . . . . . . . . . . . Caitlyn Myers . . . . . . . . . . Rochester Hills . . . . . . . . . 23

19 . . . . . . . . . . . Stephanie Bonney . . . . . Rockford . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

20 . . . . . . . . . . . Allison Moore . . . . . . . . . Six Lakes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

21 . . . . . . . . . . . Karleigh Cameron . . . . . South Boardman. . . . . . . 26

22 . . . . . . . . . . . Dexter McKellar . . . . . . . Sparta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

23 . . . . . . . . . . . Cody Armstrong . . . . . . . St. Clair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

24 . . . . . . . . . . . Rebecca Pittman. . . . . . . Sterling Heights . . . . . . . 29

25 . . . . . . . . . . . Rachel DeJonge . . . . . . . Swartz Creek . . . . . . . . . . 30

26 . . . . . . . . . . . Hillary Karbowski . . . . . . Three Rivers . . . . . . . . . . . 31

27 . . . . . . . . . . . Nicole Fergestrom . . . . . Waterford . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

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Efficient Synthesis of 2,3,4-tri-O-acetyl/benzoyl-α-D-glucopyranosyl bromide

Ian Milligan, Lingyao Li and Wenjun Du

Advisor: Dr. Wenjun Du Department of Chemistry Science of Advanced Materials Ph.D. Program

Recently synthesized sugar poly(orthoesters) have attracted great attention for their potential biomedical uses, including serving as a pH-responsive delivery system for selective drug delivery to tissues with low extracellular pH values. However, the great potential of this polymer is limited by the challenges in its monomer synthesis, wherein multiple synthesis steps are involved, resulting in overall low yields (Scheme 2, Method A). To address this issue, a brominating agent, which could also serve as a Lewis acid, was proposed. This reagent could be a di-functional compound such as titanium bromide (TiBr4), or a mixture of two compounds such as hexamethyldisilane (HMDS) in combination with Br2 and ZnBr2. Such compounds would ideally replace the monomer 1-OAc with -Br while simultaneously replacing the 6-OTBDPS with OH. If successful, this one-step reaction would kill two birds with one stone (Scheme 2, Method B).

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Evaluation of the Influence of Cyclodextrins on Permeability Enhancement of Sumatriptan Succinate across a Normal Human Airway Epithelium

Kaitlyn Germain, Demetrius Dielman, Dave Albers and Margaret Covington

Advisor: Dr. Stephen Juris Department of Biology Transnasal administration of drugs is an active area of research as this mode bypasses the gastrointestinal tract and the first-pass metabolism in the liver. Permeability of an active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) across the nasal membrane can be enhanced by the use of permeation enhancers. The performance of cyclodextrins as a permeation enhancer with a model API, sumatriptan succinate (SS), was studied. Permeation of SS across a normal human airway epithelium was estimated using a 3D-organotypic in vitro culture system (EpiAirway tissue from MatTek) comprised of isolated normal human airway epithelial cells grown on microporous membranes at an air liquid interface (ALI culture). Permeation of SS across the airway epithelium was monitored using liquid chromatography. Integrity of the membranes was assessed by trans epithelial electrical resistance (TEER) measurements, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) assays, and MTT assays. There was no measurable increase in the permeation of SS in the presence of any of the three cyclodextrins evaluated. Also, some cyclodextrins affected the integrity of the membranes. Based on these results, cyclodextrins are not recommended for use as a permeation enhancer in drug formulations, particularly for sumatriptan succinate.

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Organic Synthesis of a D-mannitol Core-Based Generation 2 Antioxidant Dendrimer

Amanda Clark and Choon Lee

Advisor: Dr. Choon Lee Department of Chemistry Oxidative stress is caused by free radicals in the human body and may lead to pathogenesis of many diseases. Antioxidants are well known for their ability to protect cells against oxidative stress by scavenging free radicals. However, many antioxidants in the presence of transition metal ions such as Cu2+ and Fe3+ produce oxidative damage to biomolecules like DNA, protein, and fatty acid through pro-oxidant activities. This study focused on synthesizing antioxidant that can separate the antioxidant activity from pro-oxidant activity by joining multiple hindered phenolic groups together in dendritic structure to produce high antioxidant activity and by incorporating internal cavities consisting of poly ethylene glycolic moieties to chelate metal ions. The synthesized dendrimer is generation 2(G2) and consists of a total of 36 phenolic units, 24 units on the surface and 12 units inside. It was built on a D-mannitol-based core onto which bis-(4-hydroxybenzyl)propargylamine was attached to form G1 dendrimer via microwave assisted-copper metal-catalyzed 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition, so called click chemistry. The reaction was highly efficient, yielding 89.3% of product. The G1 dendrimer was further reacted with branching unit to form G1.5 (yield=46%), which was in turn reacted with bis-(syringyl)propargylamine to form the G2 target dendrimer (yield=15%). The synthesized target dendrimer in this study is expected to have high antioxidant activities due to its larger number of surface phenolic units and have reduced the pro-oxidant effect by chelating transition metal ions in its internal cavity.

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Variation in Yellow Perch (Perca flavescens) Habitat Use and Growth Rate in the Great Lakes

Jenna MacDonald, Lee Schoen and Donald Uzarski

Advisor: Dr. Donald Uzarski Department of Biology Institute for Great Lakes Research Partial migration, originally applied to salmon, is a term used to describe a population in which a portion of the population is migratory while the other portion remains sedentary. Widespread analysis of these populations has revealed that subpopulations express differences in characteristics such as growth rate and reproductive fitness (Kerr et al., 2009; Johnson and Jonsson, 2003). Recently, the existence of wetland and nearshore yellow perch (Perca flavescens) subpopulations has been documented in the Great Lakes through genetic and morphological studies (Parker et al., 2009). More recently, the existence of these subpopulations was confirmed through laser-ablation trace element otolith microchemistry (Schoen et al., 2013). As a result, the purpose of this study was to use sagittal otoliths from Schoen et al. (2013) for aging purposes in order to evaluate the extent to which partial migration may influence growth rates in this freshwater species. All fish used in this analysis were collected from Lake Michigan and adjacent wetlands July 10-20, 2012. At age 2, wetland and nearshore-resident lengths differed significantly with nearshore fish showing larger total lengths than wetland residents. These data suggest that partial migration may not be exclusive to saltwater populations as described in Kerr et al. (2009) and Jonsson and Jonsson (1993) and that freshwater subpopulations also show differences in population characteristics such as growth rate. A more comprehensive analysis of Great Lakes wetland/nearshore subpopulations is planned for summer 2014.

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Nurturing Achievement: The Role of Mentors in Personal Narratives of First Generation College Students who Earned the Terminal Degree

Nicole Rombach, Alayna Smith and Phame Camarena

Advisor: Dr. Phame Camarena Honors Program While mentoring may be a valuable resource for all students throughout their education, the potential impact of mentor relationships is especially well documented in families where parents lack the educational background themselves to effectively socialize and guide their children through the academic system. This study reviews narrative interviews conducted with first generation college students who went on to earn a terminal degree. To better understand how the nature and function of academic mentors might change across adolescence and into adulthood, the transcribed interviews were coded by a team of researchers using a constant comparative method to identify the major themes that spontaneously emerge in these personal stories. The implications of these findings are suggested by the participants themselves, who noted that the interview process helped remind them of the role mentors played in their lives and reinforced their own commitment to reaching out to other first generation college students with strong academic promisee.

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Determining Surface Density of Nonporous Membranes Using Air-coupled Ultrasound

Jordan Bricker, Patrick Ruhlman and Terry Lerch

Advisor: Dr. Terry Lerch School of Engineering and Technology Surface density is an important material property often used for quality control of manufactured thin films and membranes. A new measurement and analysis technique for estimating the surface density for nonporous membranes is introduced here. This new technique is derived from the fluid layer transfer function which can be easily measured with air-coupled ultrasonic transducers. From these measurements, the surface density of the membrane can be computed. Surface density estimates are presented for aluminum, brass, polyester and polyethylene.

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Exploring Depression: College Students’ Knowledge, Attitudes and Behaviors

Michalina Badur, Christa Hegenauer and Chunbo Ren

Advisor: Dr. Chunbo Ren Department of Journalism Depression is a mood disorder that is the most common mental illness worldwide. It begins prior to age 24 in three fourths of all cases, and is especially prevalent among college students. A variety of things can contribute to the cause of depression in college student. These can include academic problems, concerns over money and feelings of loneliness. Over one third of U. S. college students report depressive symptoms that they feel negatively interfere with their relationships, well-being, school work and other aspects of life. Although depression is one of the most treatable mental illnesses, only about 3-12% of college students seek help for it (Eisenberg, Gollust, Golberstein, & Hefner, 2007; Reichert, 2012). To better understand why students are not seeking help, a focus group was conducted that discussed the knowledge, behaviors and attitudes of college students concerning depression. Through the focus group we learned that students are generally aware of the symptoms of depression and understood that it is a significant problem on campus. The participants also discussed how stigma affects their own help-seeking behaviors, but not necessarily their behaviors towards getting others help. They also identified other significant obstacles in pursing help and gave practical suggestions for overcoming these obstacles. In order to find a way to effectively combat the stigma and lack of help-seeking behavior on our own college campus, we also looked at efforts and interventions on other college campuses, both past and present. These include campaigns that addressed both reducing stigma and finding ways to increase help-seeking behavior through technology, education, and large-scale community involvement. By carrying out future research, we hope to create a campus campaign, specifically tailored to Central Michigan University, to reduce stigma and increase help-seeking behavior.

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Fathers and CHARGE Syndrome: Work and Friendship

Shantell Johnson and Tim Hartshorne

Advisor: Dr. Tim Hartshorne Department of Psychology Family research traditionally is centered on the maternal viewpoint; paternal research is extremely underrepresented across subject fields. Commonly, fathers’ viewpoints are synonymously linked to the views, thoughts and stresses of the mother. It is known that fathers and mothers have very different thoughts regarding parenthood and their children. Further, fathers are more apt to prioritize work over family. Women are more likely to put their family above any work-related events. The work more, play less language of the father often translates into fewer friendships. Male-male friendships often exhibit weaker and fewer intimate and superficial relationships.This has been found for fathers of developmentally on-track children, but does the same idea hold true for fathers of children with disabilities? More specifically, this study seeks to examine if these ideas hold true for fathers of children with CHARGE Syndrome? CHARGE Syndrome is a rare, genetic disorder in which the child has pronounced birth and developmental deficits. It was found that since the birth of their child with CHARGE Syndrome, career characteristics have not weathered any significant changes. However, friendship satisfaction has lowered since the birth of their child. But, importance and desire for more friendships is also low. Overall life satisfaction, happiness and purpose of life ratings were high.

Untangling the Norops sericeus Lizard Complex: Discovering Species Relationships

Jaime Coon and Kirsten Nicholson

Advisor: Dr. Kirsten Nicholson Department of Biology There is a critical initiative among biologists to study and conserve as much of the existing biodiversity as they can before it is lost forever. Specifically, in the anole lizard group, many new species of anoles have been recognized in the literature potentially due to habitat fragmentation caused by human development. The complicated evolutionary relationships of anoles are of great interest because thus far biologists have identified most species based on morphological characters; however, genetic data has not always supported the morphological data. Recently, Khler and Vesely (2010) analyzed anatomical data from the N. sericeus complex and hypothesized that the group consisted of three distinct subdivisions: N. sericeus, N. wellbornae, and N. unilobatus based on hepipenis and dewlap morphologies. We analyzed DNA sequences of five mitochondrial genes and two nuclear genes for each of the three proposed species to help unravel this species complex. Both the mitochondrial and nuclear data support the monophyly of the N. sericeus complex but show little support for all three of the species described in Khler and Vesely (2010). Norops sericeus is shown as a paraphyletic group and there is little molecular support for N. wellbornae as separate from N. unilobatus, which is surprising considering that the differences between the species includes the male reproductive organ. Research problems such as those associated with the Norops sericeus complex have a direct conservation management link. Knowing how these model organisms are evolving can help scientists understand the mechanisms of evolution and speciation, which in light of major human-caused climate and habitat alterations that are currently impacting extinctions may provide important insights into the future of the planet’s biodiversity.

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Analyzing the expression of three animal heme peroxidases implicated in microbially-facilitated manganese oxidation

James Dunn and Deric Learman

Advisor: Dr. Deric Learman Department of Biology Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Institute for Great Lakes Research Manganese (Mn) oxides impact the fate of many soil nutrients and contaminants. Bacteria facilitate the formation of almost all Mn oxides via Mn(II) oxidation. Despite this fact, the mechanism behind bacterially-facilitated Mn(II) oxidation is unknown. Roseobacter sp. AzwK-3b is a marine alphaproteobacterium that has illustrated both superoxide production and Mn(II) oxidation. When the superoxide is removed, Mn oxide formation is kinetically and thermodynamically hindered. Thus, other biological products must be present for this process to be completed. The purpose of this study is to determine what protein(s) drive this process to completion. Preliminary data has implicated that three animal heme peroxidases (AHPs) with high degrees of similarity and differences in size (S-AHP, M-AHP, and L-AHP) may be involved in this process.

Evaluating First-Year Medical Students’ Views on Exercise

Patricia Poling and William Saltarelli

Advisor: Dr. William Saltarelli School of Health Sciences Purpose: To investigate the exercise knowledge, attitudes and behaviors of the inaugural class of medical school students at the Central Michigan University College of Medicine (CMED).

Methods: A survey was administered to 52 students at CMED at the end of one semester of medical school training. A primary care doctor also gave a short presentation focusing on the importance of exercise in preventative medicine and the role that physicians play in promoting physical activity. A follow-up assessment of this intervention will take place in a separate phase of this study.

Results: The initial survey found that 30% of the students were overweight and 23% did not meet physical activity recommendations, according to guidelines set by the USDHHS (1). More students found the practice of talking about exercise with patients to be relevant to their future careers, compared to the relevance of exercise prescription; however, physically active students were more likely to consider exercise prescription highly relevant. Students with previous training in exercise physiology (21% of those surveyed) had more positive attitudes about the use of exercise counseling by physicians and were more likely to rate exercise as highly effective in preventing and treating disease, compared to students with no exercise physiology background.

Conclusions: Most of the students met physical activity recommendations and had a general understanding of the importance of exercise on health, but few students had any formal training on this topic. This knowledge gap appears to influence student perspectives on the utilization of exercise prescription in medicine; therefore, medical school curriculum should ensure that students are encouraged to learn about, model, and promote physical activity.

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Effects of overexpression of ZWF1 on stress granule formation in S. cerevisiae exposed to furfural

Jayson Smith and Steven Gorsich

Advisor: Dr. Steven Gorsich Department of Biology Yeast form stress granules (SGs) and processing bodies (P-bodies) in response to stress. The compound furfural has been demonstrated to cause cellular stress in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, reducing ethanol yield, and ultimately killing the yeast. Pentose Phosphate Pathway gene, ZWF1, has been found to reduce furfural induced cellular damage and to improve growth in the presence of furfural. As such, overexpression of this gene was considered in this study with regards to its effect on SG formation over time.

The Drudgery of Society: A School Reconciles Public Education Policy with Rural Community Values

Caitlin Homrich

Advisor: Dr. Lauren Griffith Department of Anthropology, University of Arkansas Honest quotes color the findings of an ethnographic study of a public school in rural Michigan. The semester-long study consisted of participant observation, interviews, focus groups and surveys within the close-knit community and its school of 445 students. The findings, situated in a body of literature regarding the nation and world-wide rural education disparity, illustrate a complex situation that is managed with difficulty: reconciling the rural community values with those that are embedded in the public schooling policies. To gain insight into the government’s policies as well as some of the community members’ unabated resistance to the implementation of the policies, the author uses Foucault’s theories of relational power and agency. In between these two powers, the school’s administration, faculty and staff act as negotiators of the policies’ implementation, and a host of ethnographic data and stories from faculty illuminate why one teacher said he felt like “the drudgery of society.”

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Dehydration Detection Using Optical Sensing Circuit

Kyle Smith and Tolga Kaya

Advisor: Dr. Tolga Kaya School of Engineering and Technology Through the development of a sweat-sensing patch, we will address the need for improved detection and prevention of dehydration. Functionally, the sweat-sensing patch must evaluate the concentration of sweat. A proprietary technique has been developed at Central Michigan University to use ultraviolet-visible light spectroscopy to determine the salt concentration of sweat. Lawsone, a dye used in Henna tattoos, is added to sweat and the chemical reaction results in a change in color. The color, detected by ultraviolet-visible light spectroscopy, is dependent upon the salt concentration in the sweat. At this point, the ultraviolet-visible spectrometer has been used to test solutions with known salt concentrations. The results have proven that ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy is a reliable method of determining the salt concentration of sweat. An optical sensor is being developed to perform the same function as the ultraviolet-visible light spectrophotometer.

The optical sensing circuit consists an operational amplifier, an LED and a photodiode. The LED light source shines through a solution and is received by a photodiode. An analog circuit was developed and tested, proving that the optical sensor is capable of detecting a change in color. This change in color will correspond to a particular salt concentration. In order to measure the precision of the digital optical sensing circuit, identical sweat samples will be tested using the optical sensor and the ultraviolet-visible spectrometer. Thus, similar absorption measurements by the optical sensor and the ultraviolet-visible spectrometer will indicate that the optical sensor can precisely determine the salt concentration in sweat. The dehydration sweat sensor being developed in this project would revolutionize dehydration detection.

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Egypt and the Revolution Network: A Rhetorical Study of Internet Communication

Sean Kolhoff and Edward Hinck

Advisor: Dr. Edward Hinck School of Communication and Dramatic Arts Over the last few decades, social movements have originated in Arab nations with the goal of reforming the structure of the current government.These social movements have not been isolated to a particular country and have been recently seen in the Iran in the 1980s, Egypt in the early 2000s and across the Middle East during the 2011 Arab Spring movement. This research hopes to provide a bright line as to what impact the advancement in Internet Communications has had on the rhetorical strategies used by mobilizers in the Middle East. In this rhetorical study, the classic model of social movement organization is compared and contrasted to a new model of Social Network assisted movement development proposed by Phillip Howard and Mousimil Hussain in the 2011 Journal of Democracy. Rhetorical artifacts, in the form of political cartoons, are then analyzed through the lens of the new framework of social movement organization to determine if online connections can influence the outcome of a movement that organizes for change.

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Novel Oral Drug Inhaler Design to Optimize Lung Deposition for Children

Jiayao Yuan and Jinxiang Xi

Advisor: Dr. Jinxiang Xi School of Engineering and Technology Orally inhaled pharmaceuticals via a conventional inhaler system are often deposited in the lung at very low deposition efficiencies, usually less than 20%. As an example, dry powder inhalers (DPI) require high flow rates and turbulence to aerosolize the drug and produce a fine distribution of particles. As a result of these high flow rates, inertial impaction and turbulence often result in significant deposition in the mouth and throat (MT) region. This will significantly reduce therapeutic outcomes and increases unwanted side effects. For young children, poor acceptance of inhalation devices is also a major impediment to effective treatment. Only a small amount of the applied dose reaches the target receptor. Children adapted methods, dose and devices are likely to increase therapeutic options leading to improved inhalation therapy and medical outcomes.

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An Analysis of Theme Content in CASPA Personal Statements

Neethu Jacob, Autumn DeGroat and John Lopes, Jr.

Advisors: Dr. John Lopes, Jr. Physician Assistant Program The purpose of this research project is to develop a paper on the results of the qualitative analysis of personal statements from CMU’S PA program. These results will then be analyzed to see if personal statements are even essential to the application process. Personal statements that have been submitted to CMU’S PA program that have made it to the interview process will be read. Roughly one year’s worth of statements will be analyzed and ranked in the order of people who were admitted into the program. From reading these statements, similar trends and ideologies will be noted. The research will be conducted on CMU’s campus under a faculty advisor, and undergraduate research will be done with computer software that analyzes qualitative data. There is limited research data regarding the usage of personal statements during the application process. A study at the Department of Anesthesiology in Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston conducted similar research (2009). The results showed that similar trends were found throughout the personal statements of those who applied to the anesthesiology program. However, although similar trends were found among statements, those accepted into the anesthesiology residency program had personal statements with proper usage of English, an important factor in the application process.

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Impact of Reality Television on Perceptions of French Louisiana Identity

Caitlyn Myers and Laura Cochrane

Advisor: Dr. Laura Cochrane Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work The purpose of this study is to identify the role that reality television plays in shaping American perceptions of Cajun and Creole communities in French Louisiana. Focus groups were used to gather the data used in the study, with questions aimed at gauging the participants prior knowledge of French Louisiana and their perceptions about the people starring in the reality television segments shown. The data was then coded, searched for common themes and analyzed. The study shows that reality television is increasing negative perceptions about Cajun and Creole communities and increasing stereotyping of these groups. This research can be used to educate the American public about French Louisiana culture and help to alleviate some of the negative stereotyping.

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Predictability of Impacts Associated with the February 2011 “Groundhog Day” Storm

Stephanie Bonney and Martin Baxter

Advisor: Dr. Martin Baxter Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Heavy snow and freezing rain affected 100 million people and caused billions of dollars in damages during the Groundhog Day storm of February 2011. The financial and societal impacts could have been mitigated had the influence of the storm been anticipated further in advance. The use of ensemble forecasting enables better predictions of weather events by analyzing an array of potential results. The Grand Global Ensemble is a collection of ensembles from 10 forecasting centers from around the world. It has been created to allow research studies that will help increase the accuracy of 1-14 day forecasts for high-impact weather events. By downloading data from the TIGGE archive from seven of the 10 forecast centers, research will be conducted through qualitatively analyzing plots via GrADS scripting and quantitatively by computing the Mean Absolute Error and Anomaly Correlation for these centers. Results showed that NCEP was most accurately able to predict the long-range 500 mb pattern and that ECMWF excelled in the mid/short-range forecast of the 500 mb pattern. UKMO and ECMWF predicted MSLP and accumulated precipitation for the event with the most accuracy. By thoroughly investigating the predictability of the Groundhog Day storm in particular, the results can be applied to other large-scale Midwest winter events in general.

Genetic modification and characterization of mesenchymal stem cells used to overexpress human and mouse brain derived neurotrophic factor

Allison Moore and Gary Dunbar

Advisor: Dr. Gary Dunbar Department of Psychology Huntington’s disease (HD) is an incurable progressive neurodegenerative disorder caused by an expanded CAG trinucleotide repeat on chromosome four. In HD, degeneration of medium spiny neurons begins in the putamen and caudate nucleus and progresses to the cerebral cortex as its severity increases. Symptoms include cognitive dysfunction and chorea. After its onset, life expectancy of victims of HD is only 20 years. Although there is currently no known cure for HD, stem cell therapies offer viable potential for replacement or protection of degenerated cells. Recent research suggests that bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) possess the ability to support neuronal growth in a toxic environment when transplanted intrastriatally through expression of brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a protein that supports survival of existing neurons and differentiation of developing stem cells, which is diminished in those afflicted with HD. To counter its depletion, the goal of this study was to genetically modify MSCs with a permanently integrative lentivirus plasmid to overexpress either human or mouse BDNF. Lentiviral vectors containing green fluorescent protein (GFP) and human and mouse BDNF were constructed from E. coli plasmids and verified with PCR and restriction assay. Following verification, the vectors were then introduced in a culture medium of packaging cells for virus purification and collection. After purification, bone-marrow-derived MSCs from a non-carrier of the YAC-128 transgenic mouse model of HD were separately transfected with the human BDNF lentivirus plasmid and the mouse BDNF lentivirus plasmid. Fluorescent microscopy imaging indicated that MSCs express GFP, which suggests BDNF expression. Results indicate that this procedure has significant therapeutic potential by influencing a more nutritive environment for degenerating neurons through MSC overexpression of BDNF. 25

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Tumor Dynamics: An Exploration of Antigenicity in Cancer Modeling

Karleigh Cameron and Leela Rakesh

Advisor: Dr. Leela Rakesh Department of Mathematics

Mathematical models and numerical simulation techniques have been used to develop strategies for the construction of many cancer therapies and explore their effectiveness. The bodys natural response to the presence of cancer cells is to combat them through an immune system process orchestrated by T-cells, which are stimulated by cytokines. In order for the immune response to be activated, the cancer cells must be distinguishable from other cells. Their ability to be distinguished, i.e. the amount that they differ from the surrounding normal cells, is referred to as their level of antigenicity. Building upon a nonlinear system of ordinary differential equations by Kirschner et al. that simulates the interactions between effector cells, tumor cells, and the cytokine interleukin-2 (IL-2) in the body, this research explores how the tumor growth dynamics would be effected if antigenicity varies with time. It is found that if antigenicity is represented by an exponential decay function, indicating the tumor cells are becoming more similar to the surrounding normal cells with time, there is uncontrolled tumor growth or chaotic dynamics present that are unable to be generalized. While there may be a narrow range of parameter values for which the tumor is able to be controlled, they are unable to be defined precisely without more advanced mathematical models and numerical methods. In addition, the case is explored where antigenicity levels follow oscillatory patterns based on genotype.

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Investigating the Membrane-Binding Activity and Localization of Copine Proteins in Dictyostelium

Dexter McKellar, Janet Price, Jordan Dix, Bria Graham and Cynthia Damer

Advisor: Dr. Cynthia Damer Department of Biology

Copines are a family of membrane-binding proteins found in many diverse organisms and are hypothesized to be involved in cell signaling pathways. Copines have two C2 domains, which typically confer calcium-dependent lipid-binding activity. The C2 domains are followed by an A domain, which is similar to the VWA domain found in integrins and is thought to be a protein-binding domain. We are using Dictyostelium discoideum to study copine (cpn) function and have focused our work on cpnA. To study the other five copine genes, cpnB-cpnF, we obtained full-length cDNA clones of cpnB and cpnE and partial cDNA clones of cpnD and cpnF. We used PCR to create full-length cDNA clones for cpnD and cpnF by adding the missing bases to the primers. We are using RT-PCR to create the cDNA for cpnC. To determine the intracellular location of each of the Copine proteins, we are tagging each protein with GFP. We have created constructs to express CpnB and CpnE tagged with GFP at either the N or C-terminus. Using fluorescence microscopy, we observed GFP-tagged CpnB and CpnE in the cytoplasm and associated with intracellular organelles. CpnB was also observed in the nucleus in some cells. Membrane binding assays indicated that CpnB and CpnE with GFP at the C-terminus pelleted with membranes in a calcium-dependent manner; however, when the GFP was at the N-terminus, the GFP-copine proteins pelleted with membranes in a calcium-independent manner.

Passive Mode-Locking Fiber Laser via Nonlinear Polarization Rotation

Cody Armstrong and Adam Mock

Advisor: Dr. Adam Mock School of Engineering and Technology

This research project will construct a fiber laser using existing fiber optic equipment in the Electromagnetics Research Lab (ERL) directed by my mentor, Professor Adam Mock. The fiber laser will emit a beam of light with steady continuous output intensity. The next step of the project is to utilize polarization rotation and non-linear optical effects for selective enhancement of short pulses of light. The ensuing output beam will no longer be a continuous beam but rather a periodic train of sub-picosecond (10-12 seconds) optical pulses. This pulse formation process is known as passive mode-locking.

While polarization-based passive mode-locking has been demonstrated before, development of a pulsed laser source will have three novel applications in the ERL:

1.) Laser microfabrication: tightly focused pulsed lasers can ablate materials such as silicon on the micrometer scale enabling fabrication of integrated optofluidic and photonic systems.

2.) Passive mode-locking using nanomaterials: demonstration of polarization-based mode-locking will serve as a control experiment enabling performance comparison to passive mode-locking through saturable absorption of nanomaterials such as graphene and carbon nanotubes.

3.) Materials characterization: short pulses enable characterization of non-linear optical properties and carrier dynamics in novel materials.

Upon successful completion of the experimental setup, the optical spectrum, time-domain shape and intensity of the pulses will be characterized. This data will be used as the pulsed laser is applied to the three areas outlined above.

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Effect of Body Composition on Vascular Endothelium of Children Ages 10-12

Rebecca Pittman and William Saltarelli

Advisor: Dr. William Saltarelli School of Health Sciences

In this study, we compared body composition measures of children with emerging cardiovascular risk factors of 22 children ages 10-12. These risk factors determine early risk for atherosclerosis and we were trying to determine at which age negative changes in vasculature occur and can be measured. Mean intima-media-thickness (IMT), flow-mediated dilation of the brachial artery (FMD), biochemical markers of dyslipidemia, body fat percentage, body mass index and waist circumference were measured and correlated. FMD and IMT were measured using sonogram image video loops. No significant differences between males and females were discovered in any variable (p <0.05). The average peak dilation of FMD occurred at 60 seconds with 9.02% dilation. The average IMT was 0.52, which is in a healthy range for these individuals. Pearsons test for correlation was performed and compared the risk factors to body composition. No significant values were found. In conclusion, no significant correlations between IMT, FMD and body composition measurements were found. We believe this to be due to the low number of participants above the 85% for body composition measurements. In order to prevent coronary atherosclerosis and other cardiovascular complications we must maintain early markers of progression and ways to test this. Ultrasonography of the arterial wall may be used in a clinical setting to help identify at risk patients in a noninvasive manner.

Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells and Dose Dependent Behavioral and Neurological Improvements in an R6/2 Mouse Model of Huntington’s Disease

Rachel DeJonge and Gary Dunbar

Advisor: Dr. Gary Dunbar Department of Psychology

Bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have shown beneficial motor and neurological improvements in mouse models of Huntington’s disease, but the optimal amount of cells used has not been quantified. Different quantities of MSCs were transplanted into an R6/2 transgenic mouse model of Huntington’s disease (HD). The results of this study showed a dose-dependent effect of MSC treatment in an R6/2 mouse model of HD. The 1,000,000 MSC per hemisphere cell group had the greatest effect on behavioral and neurological symptoms. Metabolic activity was constant between groups. More Huntington protein was present in HD animals than wild-type. Mean BDNF levels were optimized in the 400,000 MSC group. The 2,000,000 MSC per hemisphere group resulted in striatal damage and impaired behavioral results.

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Local abiotic factors: An investigation in variability among prairie fens

Hillary Karbowski, Rachel Hackett and Anna Monfils

Advisor: Dr. Anna Monfils Department of Biology

Prairie fens are one of the most species diverse ecosystems in the temperate region. In Michigan, 35 endangered and threatened plants and animals are sustained by prairie fens. These vulnerable wetlands are supported by calcium rich groundwater and are distinguished by high accumulations of organic and carbonate substrates (peat). Our objective was to investigate soil and water chemistry and the potential impacts of anthropogenic disturbances. Soil parameters included calcium, magnesium, nitrogen, nitrates-nitrites, pH, phosphorous, potassium, sodium and soil organic matter. Water parameters included depth to the water table, temperature, pH, nitrates, nitrites and phosphorous. Parametric tests used for analysis of normally distributed site level variables were one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) tests and Turkey’s post hoc tests. For non-normally distributed variables, a Kruskal-Wallis and multi-comparison Kruskal-Wallis test was used. All nine soil variables were significantly different among sites (p-value<0.05); soil chemistry values were within published ranges with the exception of calcium and magnesium. Water chemistry values were within published ranges for prairie fens, with the exception of ammonia. Data from this study contributes to our understanding of water quality and soil chemistry in prairie fens. Results can be used to inform our understanding of prairie fen ecosystem functioning.

Gender Differences in Impulsivity Measures

Nicole Fergestrom and Reid Skeel

Advisor: Dr. Reid Skeel Department of Psychology

Impulsivity has been defined as relatively thoughtless behavior, executed rather quickly. Impulsivity can be measured in various ways, including self-report measures and behavioral tasks. There are strengths and weaknesses to using self-reports and behavioral tasks. The aim for the study was to evaluate the relationship between different categories of impulsivity measures. Correlations were conducted between a self-report test and two behavioral tasks. The data were further analyzed to compare males and females. Males were found to be more impulsive on a self-report delay discounting task and females were found to be more impulsive on a time estimation task. However, time estimation was correlated with a measure of mathematical ability, indicating that time estimation as a measure of impulsivity may be confounded by mathematical ability. Overall, results suggested self-report and behavioral tasks measure unique aspects of impulsivity.

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