Life Sciences Commons^™

Adaptive Coping For Covid-Related Stress, Sandra Maloy

Undergraduate Research Conference

The restrictions placed on society by the COVID- 19 pandemic for the purpose of limiting spread of the disease appear to have produced a different set of potential chronic health issues. Through lockdown and social distancing measures the general public lost access to key elements of daily life. The literature and qualitative interview data primarily support a negative association between participation in spiritual and physical activity and COVID-19 related stress. These findings are not surprising based on previous research investigating coping and other chronic stressors.

Expression And Purification Of Hpep Inhibitor Peptide, Olivia Plaza

Undergraduate Research Conference

The enzyme human prolyl peptidase, or hPEP, has been linked to many processes within the brain, including breaking down neural peptides. A bovine milk protein, a-s1-casein (see above), has been found to inhibit hPEP in colon cancer cells. A 68 amino acid long section (bolded) of a-s1- casein containing the inhibitor region was cloned. The casein fragment expression was optimized for expression of the peptide. The purpose for optimizing expression is to have much of it on hand to utilize in further studies on its inhibitory properties on hPEP. By using this fragment of casein, one can study the structure …

Biotransformation Of Hbe And Other Benzofuran Derivatives, Hannah Trauger

Undergraduate Research Conference

No abstract provided.

Creating An Organization To Support Sfa’S Women Employees, Heather K. Olson Beal, Sarah Sanchez, Lauren Brewer, Amanda Rudolph

Diversity Conference

The purpose of this session is two-fold. First, we wish to introduce the SFA OWLE (Organization for Women’s Leadership and Equity), the newly created professional women’s organization, to interested members of our campus community. Second, we wish to share experiences that we believe are relevant to others on our campus, in our community, and at other institutions, who might seek to create organizations through which to advocate for the unique needs of their marginalized or underrepresented group. To that end, this session will include a panel of female employees at SFA who have worked for more than a year to …

Chemophobia And The Relation To Names, Justin Crow

Undergraduate Research Conference

Chemophobia is a recently identified cultural phenomena where people are afraid of chemicals in their lives, whether "chemicals" are in their food, their medicines, vaccinations, and other products. An increasing amount of people have a concern about the risk associated with chemicals in their everyday life. Chemistry professionals find this a bit strange as Chemistry states that all matter is made up of chemicals. Chemistry has many systems of naming and understanding chemicals which can exclude people from understanding the risk or lack thereof attributed to materials that are common in daily life. This effect could be accentuated by educational …

The Relationship Between Objective And Subjective Markers Of Training Stress In Ncaa Division I Women Basketball Players, Casey Pederson, Courtney Elliott, James Hutson

Undergraduate Research Conference

An athlete’s training stress score (TSS) is an objective marker of overall training volume and can be determined by tracking total time spent at specific heart rate (HR) zones. Additionally, an athlete’s power factor (PF) or explosive strength is an important marker of performance and can be measured objectively with power testing equipment. While these measures of training stress and performance are important, a coach with limited resources may not have access to the equipment or expertise to measure these variables. On a subjective level, perceived recovery status (PRS) prior to practice and the rating of perceived exertion (RPE) during …

Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity Is An Emerging Spectrum Of Gluten Intolerance, Darla O'Dwyer

Symposium on Arts and Research

People following gluten free diets have become increasingly prevalent. Many people indicate that they feel better on a gluten free diet and that their symptoms return after eating gluten. This is occurring in the absence of celiac disease or a wheat allergy. This new clinical entity is called non-celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS). Volta and colleagues (2014) cite several reasons for an increase in this condition: 1) farming practices have led to an increase in specific wheat variants that contain high amounts of gluten peptides that maybe toxic to susceptible individuals; 2) dough fermentation has significantly been shortened compared to the …

The Methods Used For Eradication Of Polio Versus The Defense Efforts That Are Being Conducted For Global Defense Against Ebola, Kalyn Johnson

Undergraduate Research Conference

Poliovirus eradication has been a long-lasting and difficult process that has become a global issue. The World Health Organization and the European Union have been trying to end the terrible reign of this abhorrent disease since the 1980s and are continually fighting the virus today. Poliomyelitis is an Old World disease, much like smallpox. It has been easily, through a twenty year process, eradicable through mass vaccination and circle vaccination.

However, as poliovirus is coming to the end of its reign, a more recent danger lurks nearby. Ebola virus is considered a non-traditional disease in that it requires more developed …

Removable Discontinuity: Crispr, Gene Drives, And Bioethics, Emily Dunnahoe

Undergraduate Research Conference

This paper questions whether bioethical scrutiny has been devoted to the ethical dilemmas that have arisen with advancements of CRISPR-Cas 9 gene editing techniques, particularly its use in conjunction with gene drive applications. Therefore, the trend of genetic research using both gene drives and CRISPR-Cas 9 systems must be established, while also simultaneously observing the trend of bioethical scholarly works. The tabulation of all articles from 2012 to 2015 from selected genetic journals yielded a significant increase in articles relating to CRISPR, while no articles were found in their selected bioethical counterparts for the same period. Similarly, no significant CRISPR/gene …

The Addition Of Arachidin 1 Or Arachidin 3 To Human Rotavirus-Infected Cells Inhibits Viral Replication And Alters The Apoptotic Cell Death Pathway, Macie N. Mattila, Caleb M. Witcher, Rebekah Napier-Jameson, Hannah N. Lockwood, Josephine Taylor, Beatrice A. Clack, Judith M. Ball, Fabricio Medina Bolivar, Rebecca D. Parr

Undergraduate Research Conference

Rotavirus (RV) infections are a leading cause of severe gastroenteritis in infants and children under the age of five. There are two vaccines available in the United States and one in India that can be administered early in childhood, however they only protect against specific strains1. From our previous work, both arachidin-1 (A1) and arachidin-3 (A3) from peanut (Arachis hypogaea) hairy root cultures significantly inhibit simian RV replication2,3,4. The purpose of this study was to determine if a human intestinal cell line, HT29.f8, infected with a human RV, Wa, was affected by A1 and A3. Cell viability assays were utilized …

Living The Tasty Life: Cooking For People With Diabetes, Sarah Feye, Carrie Flowers, Amanda Johnson

Undergraduate Research Conference

To compile, format, distribute and organize high quality, affordable and easy-to-understand recipes to the greater East Texas Area in conjunction with East Texas Community Health Services, Inc. of Nacogdoches, TX.

To address the following Didactic Program in Dietetics student learning outcomes required by the Accreditation Council for Education in Nutrition and Dietetics: KR 2.1 a, b; KR 4.1 a, and KR 4.2 b.

Run Like A Kenyan: How To Be An Elite Athlete The Kenyan Way, Becca Blubaugh

Undergraduate Research Conference

By observation and statistics, research shows that one dominating elite group in running is the Kenyan distance runners, specifically the Kalenjinethnic group. Many aspects of the Kenyan life were found to contribute to their efficiency and success. Analyzing Kenyan aspects of environment, altitude, society, diet, transportation, motives, and training may reveal possible ways American runners can improve their running.

When Old-Order Amish Meet New Order Science: Genetic Maladies And The Amish Dilemma, Kelley Downey

Undergraduate Research Conference

The Old World Amish, an Anabaptist Christian domination in the United States and Canada are know for their plain dress, avoidance of modern technology, and separation from the mainstream society.

A traditional agricultural religious group, the Old World Amish maintains isolation from the rest of the community. Financially well-off, they are homogeneous on education, occupation by gender, age at marriage, religion/ethnicity, and health care.

Although the Amish strongly discourage marriage between close cousins, the Lancaster Amish genealogy is described as mutational - inbreeding from multiple, remote connections rather than close consanguinity (first-cousin marriages).

Amish settlements have been identified with certain …