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Life Sciences

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Symposium of Student Scholars

Conference

2023

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Controlled Radiation Capsule For Precision And Rapid Cancer Treatment, Hoseon Lee, Zsolt Kollar, Bailey R. White, Junia Nguyen, David Roque, Sowjanya Palagani Nov 2023

Controlled Radiation Capsule For Precision And Rapid Cancer Treatment, Hoseon Lee, Zsolt Kollar, Bailey R. White, Junia Nguyen, David Roque, Sowjanya Palagani

Symposium of Student Scholars

This research aims to transform cancer treatment through the optimization of brachytherapy, with a focus on reducing treatment duration, setup complexities, and financial burdens, all while emphasizing patient safety. Patients living at a distance from radiation clinics, particularly those undergoing extended Low Dose Radiation brachytherapy, often struggle with the formidable financial challenges associated with securing nearby accommodations. In response to these issues, the research introduces a radiation capsule designed to condense the conventional six-month treatment period to approximately just one week, thereby significantly reducing the duration of required accommodations. This capsule is especially relevant considering the construction cost of $40 …


Quantifying The Role Of Water Quality On Nitrogen Cycling In A Trophic Estuary, Kayla Gonzalez-Boy Nov 2023

Quantifying The Role Of Water Quality On Nitrogen Cycling In A Trophic Estuary, Kayla Gonzalez-Boy

Symposium of Student Scholars

Jobos Bay Estuary is an intertidal, tropical estuary located in southern Puerto Rico. The estuary covers about 12 km2 and has a variety of habitats, such as seagrass beds, mangroves, mud flats, and coral reefs, which play important roles in sediment trapping and water quality maintenance. Seagrasses also serve as nursery and feeding grounds and provide shelter for macrofauna. Currently, the role of seagrasses and water quality on nitrogen (N) cycling in trophic estuaries is not well constrained. Understanding variations in sediment-based effects on N cycling rates and transformations, and how they are associated with water quality, is an …


Culled Lionfish Sexual Maturity Over A Four-Year Timespan​, Christina Bland, Jurgen Hauer, Bilal Saleem, Noelle James Nov 2023

Culled Lionfish Sexual Maturity Over A Four-Year Timespan​, Christina Bland, Jurgen Hauer, Bilal Saleem, Noelle James

Symposium of Student Scholars

Lionfish are invasive in the Atlantic and the Caribbean. Like many other invasive species, they do not have any natural predators in these areas, so their population can grow unchecked. This can decrease the population of native fish species due to lionfish eating to excess. Because of their impact on native species, resource managers have incentivized lionfish hunting. Hunters were paid $6 USD for every pound of lionfish they brought in, so they possibly favored larger lionfish to increase their reward which would lead to an adaptive advantage for fish of smaller sizes. We hypothesized that the lionfish bounty program …


White Blood Cell Make Up In Kellback Snake Offspring Of Varying Maternal Size, Angelica Mccoy Apr 2023

White Blood Cell Make Up In Kellback Snake Offspring Of Varying Maternal Size, Angelica Mccoy

Symposium of Student Scholars

The immune system is composed of various organs, systems, and other components with one of the most important being white blood cells. White blood cells are commonly separated into two scientific varieties, granulocytes and agranulocytes, which can be differentiated by the presence or absence of granules in the cytoplasm once stained on a slide. There are three granulocytes and two agranulocytes, each with a distinct function and shape. The ratio of these may impact the effectiveness of this portion of the immune system, and multiple factors could play a role in this ratio, an example being the size of an …


Does A Brisk Six Minute Walk Cause Upper Body Fatigue In Females, Kaden Buford Apr 2023

Does A Brisk Six Minute Walk Cause Upper Body Fatigue In Females, Kaden Buford

Symposium of Student Scholars

Non-local performance fatigue (NLPF) can be described as performance decrements occurring for a muscle group that was not directly involved in the fatiguing activity that preceded. Most studies on NLPF involve strenuous exercise of an isolated joint in trained populations, however, little evidence exists on NLPF derived from activities mimicking acts of daily living. Determining whether NLPF exists following brisk walking is worthwhile, and rate of force development (RFD), the rate at which muscle force is produced, may possess increased susceptibility compared to maximal strength. The purpose of our ongoing study is to determine the responses, if any, for maximal …


Distribution Of Micropredators In The Longleaf Pine Soil Microbiome, Faith Arends, Eithar Mirghani Apr 2023

Distribution Of Micropredators In The Longleaf Pine Soil Microbiome, Faith Arends, Eithar Mirghani

Symposium of Student Scholars

Bacterial micropredators of the soil, like their larger-scale counterparts, play a key role in shaping their ecosystem and are thus of particular interest from an ecological standpoint. An important micropredator to study are Myxobacteria. Myxobacteria are gram-negative rod-shaped social bacteria that hunt in wolf packs to lyse their prey and facilitate their growth. Myxobacteria are a potential source of novel antibiotics, therefore, the isolation of new strains is of great interest. We investigated longleaf pine soil as a source of novel isolates. The Longleaf Pine Ecosystem is an endangered ecosystem that is of crucial importance due to its ability to …


Estimating Blue Carbon Stocks In Native And Non-Native Seagrass Beds Of Jobos Bay, Pr, Michael Chapman, Raven Winant, Kayla Gonzalez-Boy, Mark Mccarthy, Ángel Dieppa-Ayala Apr 2023

Estimating Blue Carbon Stocks In Native And Non-Native Seagrass Beds Of Jobos Bay, Pr, Michael Chapman, Raven Winant, Kayla Gonzalez-Boy, Mark Mccarthy, Ángel Dieppa-Ayala

Symposium of Student Scholars

Seagrasses are keystone species that support coastal biodiversity, but not all species of seagrasses provide the same ecosystem services. Although seagrasses occupy a small area of marine habitat, they provide many ecosystem services. They stabilize sediments, remove nutrients, provide habitat and food for diverse marine life, and promote carbon storage in sediments. Jobos Bay is the second largest estuary in Puerto Rico and contains salt marshes, mangroves, and seagrass beds. The native seagrass, Thalassia testudinum, is the most abundant seagrass in the bay; however, a seagrass species from the Indian Ocean, Halophila stipulacea, began invading in recent years. The impacts …