Life Sciences Commons^™

Water Lily Leaf Beetle Ecology On Hourglass Lake In Big Lake, Alaska, Haley Lloyd, Grace Beatty

Scholar Week 2016 - present

The Water-Lily Leaf beetle, Galerucella nymphaeae, is a beetle commonly found on Western Pond Lily pads, Nuphar lutea, in Hourglass Lake. Hourglass Lake is located in Big Lake, Alaska. This area is surrounded by boreal forest and bogs and is situated roughly twenty miles North of Anchorage. Within this ecosystem, the Water-Lily Leaf Beetle and the Western Pond Lily are intrinsically linked, as the lily pads serve as a site of feeding and reproduction for the beetles. Dr. Derek Rosenberger of Olivet Nazarene University noticed an abundance of these beetles as he was kayaking through Hourglass Lake, and a project …

Mediation Of The Uncoupled Enos Pathway Following Oxidative Stress Using Tetrahydrobiopterin And Nitric Oxide Donor Drugs To Restore Tetrahydrobiopterin Concentration, Brianna Munnich

Scholar Week 2016 - present

Presentation Location: Warming House, Olivet Nazarene University

Abstract

The eNOS pathway, found in the endothelium of blood vessels, is a key regulator of nitric oxide levels in the circulatory system. The pathway is controlled through several positive and negative feedback loops [2]. The cofactor tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4) is a major control point in this pathway and under conditions of stress can be reduced into the dihydrobiopterin (BH2) [2,6,7,8,9]. When the reduced form is predominant, the pathway produces reactive oxygen species (ROS) rather than nitric oxide, causing stress and damage to the vessels [6,7,8,9]. In this study, different treatments were studied …

Study Of Blood Viscosity With Added Sodium Nitrate And Temperature Variance: A Potential Therapy To Regulate Blood Flow After Induced Hypothermia, Brianna Munnich

Pence-Boyce STEM Student Scholarship

The human body has natural systems for vasodilation which are fueled by nitric oxide production, but in cases of cardiac disfunction and stress nitric oxide can be inhibited. In this study, nitric oxide was studied as a mediator for the blood rush experienced from the warming after induced hypothermia. Nitric oxide (NO) was introduced through sodium nitrate, which was aimed to reduce the speed and turbulence of blood flow through interaction between NO and the active site of hemoglobin. A viscometer was used to examine the rate of blood flow, while the temperature was varied to simulate the conditions of …

Study Of Alpha Mangostin As A Chemoprotective Agent For Breast Cancer Via Activation Of The P53 Pathway, Vanessa Van Oost

Honors Program Projects

Breast carcinoma is the most frequently diagnosed cancer among women and causes over 400,000 deaths each year worldwide. Current treatments such as chemotherapy are not selective for cancerous tissues but are destructive to normal tissues as well. This causes a range of side effects including pain, nausea, hair loss, weakness, and more. Inactivation of p53 is a very common mutation within human cancer cells. The ability to activate the p53 pathway which protects cells from tumor formation is lost in 50% of cancers. Due to the prevalence of this mutation, p53 is a uniquely valuable target for applied research. Alpha …

The Savegre: Completing The Case Study, Aggie R. Veld, Emilie R. Janes

Scholar Week 2016 - present

Since case studies garner the interest of students necessary for engagement in general biology classes (Himschoot, 2012), the purpose of this project was to create a case study based on the history of San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica and Leo and Zana Finkenbinder’s involvement in its transition to sustainability. Travel to Costa Rica occurred in the summer of 2015. Authors Aggie Veld and Emilie Janes presented the story of the case study and progress to date during Honors Week 2016. Since then, the case study was submitted to SUNY Buffalo’s National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science. Feedback …

Neurotoxicity Of Two Related Organophosphates On Caenorhabditis Elegans, Collin M. Brown

Honors Program Projects

Organophosphates are a class of toxicants that act by inhibiting the activity of acetylcholinesterase, an enzyme vital to normal neuronal activity. Dimethoate and omethoate are two organophosphates that are chemical "cousins" of one another. Omethoate is a metabolite, or byproduct of dimethoate decomposition, and is more toxicologically active than dimethoate. Both toxicants were applied to cultures of Caenorhabditis elegans to determine two qualities of the organophosphates: their relative toxicity and their cumulative effects. The toxicity of omethoate was found to be significantly higher than that of dimethoate. Omethoate was found to have a 144.4% more lethal toxicity than dimethoate, and …

Genetic Determination Of Abo Genotype From Buccal Cells: Incorporating Pcr, Gel Electrophoresis, And Abo Genotyping Into Undergraduate Study, Brian M. Ginn

Honors Program Projects

We streamlined a protocol for isolating chromosomal DNA from buccal cells for the purpose of producing restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs) and identifying ABO genotype. This protocol involves DNA isolation, polymerase chain reaction, restriction enzyme digestion, and gel electrophoresis. Buccal cells are a viable source of chromosomal DNA for amplifying the ABO gene segments of interest. The collection of buccal cell samples is a less invasive method than collecting blood samples, which requires venipuncture. The DNA isolated from buccal cells was comparable in quality to the DNA isolated from blood cells. A complete protocol was produced for use in an …

Locating The Modifier Of Segregation Distorter In Drosophila Melanogaster, Samuel Craven

Honors Program Projects

The Drosophila melanogaster meiotic drive system Segregation Distorter (SD) has been a topic of great interest over the past decades due to its implications for fertility issues in fruit flies and other species as well. Several genes have been associated with this system; however, little research has focused on a particular one of these genes—the Modifier of SD. The location of this modifier gene is still unknown, so multiple deleted segments of DNA that compose a suspect area along the 2nd chromosome were tested here to see if some level of distortion is established in the absence of these segments. …