Life Sciences Commons^™

Ankle Sprain Injuries In The Ed: Assessing Quality Of Discharge Instructions And Compliance Of Physicians With Ottawa Ankle Rules, Sama A. Bég

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Annually a large number of patients seen in the emergency department are diagnosed with an ankle sprain. If not treated properly, these injuries can result in long term complications such as pain, swelling and instability. Appropriate patient discharge instructions using evidence based treatment principles can be utilized to avoid these complications. Many patients seen in the emergency department with a final diagnosis of ankle sprain receive x-rays to rule out a fracture, despite the development of the Ottawa Ankle Rules (OAR) to determine when x-rays are necessary. Use of the Ottawa Ankle Rules has been shown to decrease the number …

The Effects Of Anthropogenic Ambient Noise And Habitat Vegetation On Common Yellowthroat Song, Edith Dooley

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Urbanization not only decreases habitat availability for natural populations, but has also been shown to affect the behavior of animals. This study focuses on how anthropogenic, urban noise and habitat vegetation can affect the structure of common yellowthroat warbler (Geothlypis trichas) song. Ambient noise is concentrated in the low frequencies of noise and can mask the low song frequencies rendering them inaudible to the receiver. I predicted that yellowthroats will change the pitch and overall structure of their songs to avoid overlap with urban ambient noise. To test this possibility, I recorded yellowthroats songs and corresponding ambient noise, …

A Behavioral Assay To Quantify Retinal Degeneration In X. Laevis, Jacob Fleming

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Currently, 3.5 million Americans over the age of 40 are blind or visually impaired. Cases of visual impairment can be attributed to a number of causes. Retinitis pigmentosa, glaucoma, and macular degeneration all involve some form of damage to the retina. While medical advances continue to aid those with vision loss, there is currently no cure for visual impairment due to cell death. In the age of stem cells however, there is hope for those with retinal damage.

Seven eye field transcription factors play specific roles in eye development. When injected into developing Xenopus laevis, these transcription factors induce …

Influence Of Carbonate On The Binding Of Carboplatin To Dna, Robert S. Sorokanich

Honors Capstone Projects - All

The reaction of aged carboplatin (reaction of carboplatin in 24 mM NaHCO₃ for 45 h, 37^o C, pH 8.6) with pBR322 DNA for 0 ≤ r ≤ 2.8, where r = [drug]/[DNA-bp], in 24 mM HEPES buffer, pH 7.4, for 24 h followed by agarose gel electrophoresis showed DNA mobility changes consistent with unwinding closed circular DNA. However, identical experiments conducted in a two buffer system, 24mM HEPES plus 24mM carbonate, showed no DNA mobility changes, indicating that carbonate blocks formation of the 1,2-intrastrand crosslink on DNA. Studies with aged carboplatin and with cisplatin carried out with 2.0 …

Asymmetric Jaw Morphology In An Herbivorous Cichlid From Lake Malawi, Bianca Williams

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Cichlid fish exhibit a high frequency of variation across species. This study focused on a particular asymmetry in the jaws of fish in the genus Tropheops. An asymmetry towards the left side was observed and then tested. Each side of the jaw was measured in a number of individuals from different Tropheops species. These measurements were then analyzed to see if the left side was indeed longer than the right. Statistical analysis was utilized to test the significance of sided differences. It was found that Tropheops species exhibit a left sided bias, some species having a significant bias, and others …

Expressing A Mammalian Signaling Protein In E. Coli, Soyika A. Richardson

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Much of what is currently known about GPCR structure was based on X-ray crystallographic measurements of rhodopsin. Furthermore, due to its inexpensiveness and the availability of simple methods to purify it in large quantities from cow eyes, bovine rhodopsin has been successfully used in obtaining diffraction-quality three-dimensional crystals. In our experiment, the bovine rhodopsin protein was cloned into the commercially available E. coli expression plasmid, pBAD TOPO^®, using forward and reverse PCR primers designed in our lab. Plasmid DNA from these cells was purified in order to analyze the direction of the inserted gene. The purified plasmid DNA …

Characterizing The Interaction Between Subunit C Of V-Atpase And Actin Of The Cytoskeleton In Saccharomyces Cerevisiae, Amanda Blackley

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Little is understood about the major functions subunit C of vacuolar proton-translocating ATPase (V-ATPase), a membrane-bound enzyme found in many eukaryotic cells that is responsible for pumping protons across its membrane in order to acidify either organelles or extracellular compartments. Subunit C is a known stator subunit and is required for assembly of the functional holoenzyme. In addition, it has been shown that subunit C interacts with actin of the cytoskeleton in the plasma membrane V-ATPases of Manduca sexta. However, the universality of this interaction—specifically its presence in organelle membrane V-ATPases—has yet to be determined. Consequently, the interaction between …

Ethanol Exposure In Rats And Its Effect On Genetic Markers, Ceena Philipose

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Alcoholism is believed to affect an estimated 18 million people each year. The number of people abusing alcohol is three times the number of people abusing all other substances combined. (Institute for Health Policy, 2001) An estimated $276 billion per year(Institute for Health Policy, 2001)is spent to combat the influence of alcoholism in this country alone; more than cancer, heart disease, and diabetes, combined.

A full understanding of the effects of alcohol on the developing nervous system and other organ systems, and knowing when and where that central or internal organ damage has occurred after a certain period of abuse …

The Role Of Fibroblast Growth Factor 20a In The Craniofacial Development Of Zebrafish, Julie Adams

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Fibroblast growth factors are a family of intercellular signaling molecules that participate in the normal growth of the craniofacial skeleton. Advances in molecular genetics have revealed that fibroblast growth factors are involved in the regulation of bone growth by maintaining a balance between the differentiation of osteoblasts and the proliferation of mesenchyme (Morriss-Kay and Wilkie, 2005). The focus of my research is fibroblast growth factor 20a because it seems to play a significant role in the normal development of the skull. At birth, the skull is made up of bony elements, that meet at fibrous membranes called sutures. Throughout development, …

The Role Of Estrogen Receptor Alpha In Neonatal Oocyte Development, Jemella C. Raymore

Honors Capstone Projects - All

The development of primordial germ cells into oocytes is important for mammalian reproduction. Female germ cells first undergo a number of cell divisions resulting in the formation of cysts. Germ cell cysts are clusters of cells connected by intercellular bridges, formed by incomplete cytokinesis. The cysts breakdown after birth, resulting in individual oocytes that become surrounded by somatic pre-granulosa cells to form primordial follicles. During cyst breakdown two thirds of the original population of oocytes die. However, the processes by which cells within the cyst are designated to survive or die is not yet known. In addition, it is not …