Engineering Commons^™

2021- The Twenty-Fifth Annual Symposium Of Student Scholars

Symposium of Student Scholars Program Books

The full program book from the Twenty-fifth Annual Symposium of Student Scholars, held on April 29, 2021. Includes abstracts from the presentations and posters.

Murray-Burwell Family Collection, 1870-1951, Special Collections, Leonard H. Axe Library

Finding Aids

A collection of correspondence, newspapers, photographs, and other writings related to the Murray-Burwell family in the early to mid-1900s.

David James Murray was born on October 19, 1873 in Pennsylvania and moved to Kansas when he was three years of age. In 1896 David married Mary Selvey (1878-1959) in Cherokee, Kansas. They would have five children. In 1902 their child Marguerite was born in Weir, Kansas. In Weir, David worked in the mines until 1930 when he transferred to the McNally plant in Pittsburg, Kansas. David passed away on December 12, 1943. Jack W. Burwell was born on July 25 ...

Catalogue Of Lichen Species In The Rowan County Sphagnum Swamp, Rowan County, Kentucky, Deanna Kidd, Allen Risk

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

Rowan County Sphagnum Swamp is one of the best remaining examples of a bottomland swamp forest left in the Knobs region of Kentucky. Bottomland swamp forests are characterized by soil with a high percentage of organic matter above clay and Devonian shale. This arrangement leads to standing water much of the year and a strongly acidic soil. Common tree species in the Rowan County Sphagnum Swamp include Acer rubrum (red maple), Quercus palustris (pin oak), Liquidambar styraciflua (sweet gum), Nyssa sylvatica (sour gum) and Betula nigra (river birch). Bottomland swamp forests used to be more common, but have dwindled due ...

Analytical Method Development For The Analysis Of Biomass Degradation Products, Calista Dean, Emma Schmittzehe

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

The goal of this project is to study the kinetics of hydrothermal liquefaction of biomass. Biomass contains stored chemical energy that can be converted to renewable liquid and gaseous fuels through various processes, but an in-depth understanding of the kinetics of these processes is important in order for them to be feasible on a large scale. Since biomass degradation products depend on the type of biomass used as well as the reaction conditions, this task can be quite complicated. To minimize complications in our initial studies, we will use D-glucose as the starting material. To better understand the degradation pathway ...

Through The Eye Of The Beholder: Student Teaching In Kentucky During A Pandemic, Brittany Stidham, Kimberely Nettleton, Sandra Riegle

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

Student teaching is the capstone of student teaching preparation. The Covid-19 pandemic has changed many aspects of student teaching; and students have had to adapt to a new way of both learning and teaching. As the world turned upside down, student teachers were expected to interact with their students and provide instruction. The pandemic caused student teachers to develop new ways to engage lessons and hold conversations in a virtual environment. This pilot study examines the ways in which a small group of student teachers in eastern Kentucky internalized their experience.

The Effects Of Nurse's Mental Health On Quality Patient Outcomes: A Quality Improvement Study, Alexandria Kincaid, Mara Walker, Mila Osborne, Tiyanna Jones, Victoria Clevenger, Suzi White

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

Morale among nurses is declining rapidly, this could be due to the rising mental illnesses like anxiety, depression, chronic fatigue, stress, worry and post-traumatic stress disorder. Not to mention the rate of suicide in female nurses is 11.97/ 100,000 compared to non-nurse females having a rate of 7.58/ 100,000. Also, male nurses have an incidence of suicide at a rate of 39.8/ 100,000 compared to non-nurse males at 28.2/ 100,000. A thorough literature review was conducted and a total of 40 studies were reviewed. Common themes that emerged were "A decrease in ...

Preliminary Study On Beetle Biodiversity And Its Role As A Metric For Ecosystem Heterogeneity In The Rowan County Area, Belinda Candra, Sara Monfalcone, Charles Lydeard, Sean O'Keefe

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

Biodiversity is important for maintaining ecosystem function, including the adaptation of the organisms to reflect the change in the ecological community. Many ecological roles are performed by insects, including keystone organisms, ecosystem engineers and soil modifiers, part of the food chain, general symbionts, and pollinators, and creating a cumulative database of the variety of insect types allows for an effective overview of the different aspects of the environment from which samples are collected. With approximately 400,000 described species, beetles are immensely diverse in their lifestyles and ecological roles, thus making them valuable tools in environmental assessments of terrestrial and ...

Evidence Based Evaluation Of A Ventilator Management Clinical Practice Protocol, Kyle Mills, Michelle Mcclave

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

Nursing care and management of mechanically ventilated patients requires specific care elements to be achieved in order for optimal patient outcomes. The ventilator management policy guides nursing care for this select group of patients. The ventilator management policy of a rural community acute healthcare facility was evaluated for evidence-base and validity using the AGREE GRS rating scale. The evaluation process included interview of the director of the inpatient unit responsible for care of ventilator patients, as well as review of the most current evidence-based practice protocols. Evaluation results indicate the facility’s policy met the needs of the patients, and ...

Ekap Update: Rethinking The Presentation Of Historic Sites, Elizabeth Debord, Joy Gritton

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

The Eastern Kentucky Art Project was founded in 2007 as a way to connect communities with resources pertaining to visual arts and music in Eastern Kentucky. One significant type of resources EKAP features is information regarding historic architecture in Eastern Kentucky. Understanding cultural landmarks in people’s own communities can foster an inclusive and healthy community identity, but it became clear through recent efforts to update the EKAP website that information surrounding the preservation of historic sites is often difficult to access and understand for a general audience. Previous efforts to educate and encourage preservation of important sites was often ...

A Protocol To Overcome The Negative Health Effects Associated With Urinary Catheters In The Hospital Setting; A Quality Improvement Project, Katelynn Arnett, Mary Bott, Abigail Bray, Dakota Brown, Zachary Mains, Suzi White

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

There are estimated to be 449,334 CAUTI events per year (hospitalsafelygrade). As well, this costs the health care system to the United States Healthcare System which shows that it costs the country an extra 340-370 million every year (Gray et al., 2016). The purpose of this quality improvement project is to determine how to overcome the negative effects that patients experience when receiving catheters (indwelling or external) while in the hospital. Increased catheter rates and infections were noted at an urban teaching hospital which led to the creation of this new protocol guideline.

Data Acquisition For Physics With Arduino, Kyle Litton, James Adkins

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

Arduino is an open-source electronics microcontroller board that allows us to marry technology with our environment. There are countless modules commercially available that can be easily manipulated with programs written in the Arduino Integrated Development Environment (IDE), giving users full control of input and output. Several of these modules naturally relate to physics and data acquisition. Since physics analyses rely on data, the Arduino is a natural choice for a system where the user has full control of data collection methods. This poster will present our development of a data acquisition system that integrates equipment commonly found in physics laboratories ...

Genetically Screening For Gain Of Function Mutations In Telomerase Rna, Jose Childers, Melissa Mefford

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

Telomeres are DNA structures located at the ends of linear chromosomes. They function, in part, to allow DNA ends to be copied before cells divide. Since the standard DNA replication machinery can’t fully copy telomeres, most eukaryotic cells require the vital ribonucleoprotein enzyme telomerase. Telomerase is composed of a TERT (telomerase reverse transcriptase protein) and telomerase RNA. As we age, telomeres shorten since most human cells do not express telomerase. If telomeres grow too short, it triggers a cell-cycle arrest known as senescence, which can ultimately result in cell death. On the other hand, >85% of human cancers show ...

Effects Of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy On Intraocular Pressure In Dogs, Sierra Ott, Lauren Mirus

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) is a method in which pressurized oxygen is used to improve oxygen delivery to tissues. This treatment has been found to be effective in a variety of disorders in human and animal medicine, however it is underutilized in small animal medicine, in part because veterinary professionals may not be adequately familiar with how it works and when it is worthwhile. There has been hesitancy to utilize this method of treatment due to the fear of the unknowns, one example being a potential for an increase in intraocular. The mission of this project was to expand knowledge ...

Parental Sensitivity And Children's Emotion Regulation Development, Griffin Newell, Olivia Kee, Shari Kidwell

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

Parental sensitivity is critical in the development of children’s attachment to their caregivers. Sensitivity refers to a parent's ability to understand and react synchronously with their child's emotions. Covert hostility is a form of insensitivity in which parents are subtly dismissing. The current study examines both parenting constructs during a frustration task, in relation to child behavior in an emotion interview. As part of a larger longitudinal study, 35 children (average age 6 years) and their parents waited eight minutes for children to be permitted to open a bag of prizes. Parental reactions to their children's ...

A Portable Analyzer For Rapid And Sensitive Protein Detection By Ac Electrokinetics Capacitive Sensing, Allie Skaggs, Cheng Cheng

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

Capacitive bioparticle detection is a promising method for point-of-care diagnosis. There are a wide range of applications for such a device: diagnostics, pharmacology, and medical science. The end goal of this project is to develop a portable capacitive sensing platform for rapid and sensitive bioparticles detection. When bioparticles bind to receptors located on the surface of the electrode there would be a change in the interfacial capacitance, which indicate the presence of the bioparticle. The ADuCM355 – a precision analog microcontroller with a chemical sensor interface – is being used to perform biased electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). An AC potential is applied ...

Improving Patient Outcomes With High Nurse To Patient Ratios: A Quality Improvement Study, Abigail Ross, Alexis Bradshaw, Brenna Murphy, Carson Jones, Cierra Connelley, Haley Nyderek, Hannah Dorton, Morgan Minton, Mary Suzi White

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

According to the United States Registered Nurse Workforce Report Card and Shortage Forecast: A Revisit published in the May/June 2018 issue of the American Journal of Medical Quality, a shortage of registered nurses is projected to spread across the country between 2016 and 2030. Surveyed nurses see the shortage in the future as a catalyst for increasing stress on nurses (98%), lowering patient care quality (93%) and causing nurses to leave the profession (93%) (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2021). A thorough literature review was conducted, and 40 studies were reviewed. Common themes that emerged include: high nurse ...

Growth Performance Of Weaned Angus Bulls Housed In A Compost Bedded Pack Barn, Anna Meyers, Courtney Branham, Flint Harrelson, Patricia Harrelson

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

Compost-bedded pack barns (CBP) are a typical facility utilized in dairy cattle operations across the United States. Their popularity is the result of improved animal welfare and reduced costs. The crossover of CBP into the beef cattle industry is new and the benefits and downfalls are not yet explored. Through a grant from NRCS, a CBP was built at the Derrickson Agricultural Complex in 2019-2020. In fall of 2020, the pack was established by mixing manure and sawdust shavings to start the aerobic composting process and weaned bulls were given access to the barn in November 2020. The objective of ...

Backyard Bio Security: How Social Media Bridges The Gap Between Urban Chicken Farmers, Carrie Sorrell, Morgan Getchell

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

Urban chicken farming, defined as the practice of keeping a small flock of chickens in an urban or suburban setting for the purpose of this study, has increased in popularity in recent years. The purpose of this study is to examine how well-equipped urban chicken farmers are to care for their chickens, where they get information from, and how they judge that information to be credible. Specifically, the research looks at two diseases, Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) and Virulent Newcastle disease, and whether these urban farmers know about the diseases and can deal with them appropriately based on the ...

Comparing Growth Of Mutant Strains Of Acinetobacter Baumannii To Wild Type After Treatment With Mitomycin C, Kaylee Compton, Deborah Cook, Janelle Hare

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

In Acinetocbacter baumannii bacteria, an error-prone DNA damage repair response is induced by the self-cleavage of the UmuDAb protein. Previous experiments indicating that a ddrR mutant becomes growth sensitive after DNA damage suggested that ddrR is also involved in this process. To explore this relationship, eight mutant strains of A. baumannii were made with different combinations of mutations in either ddrR and/or the adjacent gene, A1S_3662. Our experiment compared the growth of wild type cells to strains containing various mutations: DC4 (no gene mutations, just an antibiotic resistance marker, Kanr), DC5 (stop codon mutation in ddrR), and DC6 (both ...

Relation Among Potential Predictors Of Drug Abuse Risk In Rats, Emma Brock, Wesley White

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

Animal models have been used to investigate behavioral processes and mechanisms that underlie addiction. A variety of measures have been developed for rats that are modest predictors of drug abuse risk. The purpose of this pilot study was to begin to assess whether several established and potential measures of drug abuse vulnerability were correlated. The subjects were eight adult male Wistar rats. The rats were run on procedures that yielded measures of anxiety, sensation seeking, short term responsive to acutely administered drug, and sensitivity to conditioned stimuli. These measures were correlated with a potential new measure of drug abuse vulnerability ...

Identification Of Kentucky Land Snail Species, Tessa Whalen, Allen Risk

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

Land snails are members of the Phylum Mollusca and the Class Gastropoda. The importance of land snails to their native ecosystems has been greatly underestimated and understudied. For example, land snails play a huge role in the cycling of micronutrients in their ecosystems, they are active in the dispersal of plant seeds and fungal spores, and they have been shown to be bioindicators for vertebrates of conservation concern. They also contribute to the ecosystem by leaving their shells behind when they die, which is then used as a source of calcium carbonate by many species, and used in the formation ...

Impulse, Spring 2021, Matt Schmidt, Emily Weber, Christine Delfanian, Dave Graves, Micayla Standish

Impulse (Jerome J. Lohr College of Engineering Publication)

2 | Tonkoski Receives Hohbach Honor
4 | College And Faculty News
8 | Trendsetter Keys Hall Steps Away
10 | Bassett Retiring
12 | Retirements
14 | Donations Key To Crothers' Renovations
16 | Extension Making South Dakota Safer
17 | Ltap's Valuable Guidance
18 | Nasa Competition A First For Robotics
20 | Recent Grads Fund Senior Project
22 | Vital Stats
24 | How To Melt Ice On Mars
26 | SDSU Nabs 5 Power And Energy Scholarships
27 | Sjurseth Named Student Of Year
28 | Dean's Club
30 | Distinguished Engineer
32 | The Result Of Passion, Hard Work And Luck
35 | Dean's Advisory Council Spotlights
36 | Alumni News ...

“The Never Ending Story:” Circularizing Ch. Viii In Saccharomyces Cerevisiae, Chisom Iloegbunam, Melissa Mefford

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

Chromosomes are molecules of DNA that hold large quantities of genetic material in an organism. Generally in nature, eukaryotic chromosomes are linear while prokaryotic chromosomes are circular. Since they are linear, eukaryotic chromosomes possess telomeres, or repetitive nucleotide sequences, on their ends. This significant difference in structure requires different additions to the basic replication process. In prokaryotes, replication starts at a single point on the chromosome and continues until the whole chromosome has been copied. In eukaryotes, replication happens in fragments with multiple starting points. Because of this more complicated replication, the free 3’ ends cannot be fully copied. Unchecked ...

Virtual Reality Environment Of Excavator Training For Operation License, Victoria Russ, Jorge Ortega-Moody, Kouroush Jenab

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

In 2018 unfilled construction worker jobs rose to 404,000[1]. This was an all-time high, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey. The government has no restrictions for operating an excavator; however, it is impossible to get a job without any operation and competency documentation. For this documentation, an employer could be looking at about $1000 for the most highly recognized training, which must be reinstated every five years. Excavation operation is a highly sought-after profession, and jobs are expected to rise by over 10% until 2028. The NSF EPSCoR research project is ...

College Students' Understanding Of Analog Time Keeping And Rotational Directionality, Katelyn Collins, Wilson Gonzalez-Espada

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

Although time-telling using analog clocks is a topic covered in KY math standards in 1st and 2nd grades, and most older adults assume that everyone can read analog clocks, recent media reports and personal anecdotes have indicated that an ever-increasing proportion of young people struggle to correctly read them because most timing devices they are exposed to are digital. Although the personal and academic consequences of not mastering this skill are unknown, it is important to document the extent of this issue at a college level. Of particular interest to the researchers is the description of rotational direction as clockwise ...

Miscommunication Among Healthcare Professionals In The Hospital Setting: A Quality Improvement Project, Benjamin Hutchinson, Carrie Conley, Courtney Collins, Erin Downey, Jordan Jenkins, Lorren Sales, Makayla Canchola, Savanna Roades, Suzi White

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

Research has identified that 81% of interruptions during handoff were from the nurse receiving handoff(Rhudy, L., Johnson, M., Krecke, C., Keigley, D., Schnell, S., Maxson, P., McGill, S., & Warfield, K., 2019). Miscommunication in the healthcare field is a considerably large issue. It often times goes unmentioned, which can negatively impact patient’s care. A thorough literature review was conducted and a total of 64 studies were reviewed. Common themes that emerged included language barriers and cultural differences can often be associated with miscommunication in the healthcare setting. With miscommunication and the errors that result from it, trainings and policies ...

Photography Practicum: Learning The Basics Of Managing A Fine Art Photography Studio, Brooklin Routt, Robyn Moore

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

The photography practicum provides Art and Design student researchers with the practical experience of managing a fine art photography studio. Students learn how to operate, manage, and maintain industry standard fine art archival inkjet printers as well as a twelve-station traditional black and white darkroom. This project provides essential expertise and knowledge that students, as lab monitors, both share with other students and incorporate into their own fine art practice and professional activities. Student researchers learn how to mix, store, and dispose of photographic chemistry, provide daily assistance to undergraduate and graduate photography students, and generate ideas for improvements to ...

Role Of Apolipoprotein E In Parkinson's Disease, Georgia Clark, Ilsun White

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disease that affects more than 10 million people worldwide. PD is a movement disorder, which causes tremor, rigidity, bradykinesia, and postural instability. Although PD is characterized by degeneration of dopamine neurons in the substantia nigra, the precise cause of degeneration or loss of dopamine neurons is unknown. Studies suggest that specific gene mutations and environmental factors may trigger PD. Other studies suggest that abnormal accumulation of alpha-synuclein may cause degeneration of dopamine neurons, and that Lewy bodies which contain alpha-synuclein are a histological hallmark of PD. Recent studies suggest that high levels ...

The Effect Of Utilizing An Electronic Medication Administration Record: A Quality Improvement Study, Ally Sipple, Branden Workman, Caitlyn Smith, Megan Smith, Rebecca Werring, Shayenne Slone, Taylor Stroud, Victoria Thomas, Suzi White

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

The suspected cost of medication errors in clinical practice is an annual $1.69 billion dollars. A thorough literature review of a total of 64 studies were reviewed. Common themes that emerged were barcode administration errors greatly reduces medication errors, that electronic records greatly reduced the severity of adverse effects, a lack of communication between medical staff results in more errors in medication administration, and the use of an electronic record reduces workload and stress on the nurses administering the medications. As a result of this literature review, an intervention was developed utilizing the importance of electronic records on reducing ...

Increasing Student Engagement In Introductory Physics Hybrid Classes, Breanna Epperson, Kent Price

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

The demand for online instruction is on the rise. In a classroom setting, research shows that student interactions are important for overcoming common misconceptions, but it is challenging to achieve the same level of engagement in an online setting. To try to improve online interactions in a hybrid physics class at Morehead State University, the Fall 2020 online class was required to post a total of three times about a closed, multiple choice, conceptual physics question in each assignment while following certain criteria. In the Spring of 2021, the discussion format was kept the same, but was moved to a ...