Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Survey Analysis: Senior And One-Year Out Surveys, Paige Phillips

Computer Science: Student Scholarship & Creative Works

Through surveys colleges are able to collect and analyze data pertaining to the institution's alumni, including valuable information about employment post-graduation. The number of alumni employed after graduation is an important statistic for colleges. In addition, the location, company, industry sector, and relevance to major are other aspects that can be analyzed by the college. Collecting alumni information not only provides pertinent employment status but can also maintain alumni connections. Therefore, this project works to organize and analyze alumni major feedback collected through alumni surveys, in order to provide pertinent information for departments and the college.

The Effects Of Floodplain Restoration On Biodiversity, Ireland Keeney, Jessica Gutekunst

Summer Scholarship, Creative Arts and Research Projects (SCARP)

During the colonial era, numerous mills and dams were built in Pennsylvania. This and other intensive land uses led to sediment eroding from upstream and burying wetlands. The accumulated sediment is known as legacy sediment1.

There has been a significant loss of wetlands throughout the centuries, with many of them in the Piedmont region being buried under thick layers of legacy sediment as shown in Figure 1 below2.

The removal of legacy sediment is a new technique used to restore wetlands, mainly with the intent being to improve water quality3. However, a restored wetland as shown by Figure 1 may …

Development Of Sensitive And Fast Immunoassay For Lyme Disease, Justin Cosgrove

Summer Scholarship, Creative Arts and Research Projects (SCARP)

Testing for Lyme disease has proven to be time consuming and inaccurate, especially in its early stages. The goal of this project is to develop a new diagnostic that has improved timeliness, sensitivity, and selectivity. This test is based on an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, or ELISA. To improve on what is currently in place, magnetic beads will be used. Unlike a normal ELISA, these magnetic beads are the binding site of the capture antibody instead of the microplate surface. With greatly increased surface area from the beads, the process can be much faster and detect far lesser concentrations of protein …

Encapsulation Of Molecular Probes In Polymer Nanoparticles For Visual Detection Of Heavy Metals In Water, Kyla Dewittie

Summer Scholarship, Creative Arts and Research Projects (SCARP)

Heavy metal contamination is a problem worldwide, and it has dangerous effects on humans and the environment. Lead is one of the most common metal toxins due to its presence in a variety of household items including paint and pipes. Mercury is another common toxin that is dangerous due to its long half-life which causes it to buildup in not only water sources, but also inhabiting wildlife. The consumption of both metals is detrimental to human health, therefore proper detection methods are needed. Various detection methods exist but are not cost or time efficient. Molecular probes could be a solution …

Luminescence From Metal-Organic Frameworks: Structural Modification And Small Molecule Uptake, Nicholas A. Erisman, Brandon A. Molina

Summer Scholarship, Creative Arts and Research Projects (SCARP)

Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) are materials that contain metal centers coordinated by organic molecules that form an extended, porous lattice. These MOFs are of interest in the field of sensing for their unique properties such as high stability, high surface area, high crystallinity, and ability to perform small molecule exchange. Luminescent metal-organic frameworks (LMOFs) are of specific interest since they contain the potential to detect volatile organic compounds via adsorption into the porous framework. 1 Luminescent properties can be imparted to MOFs in several ways. Previous projects focused on the inclusion of the luminescent osmium complex Os(dcphen)(CO)2 (Cl)2 (dcphen = 1,10-phenanthroline-4,7-dicarboxylic …

Synthesis Of Asymmetrically-Substituted Tetraphenyl-Class Porphyrins, William J. Davis

Summer Scholarship, Creative Arts and Research Projects (SCARP)

Porphyrins are macrocyclic compounds that can be synthesized and used in photodynamic therapy (PDT), a noninvasive and selective method designed to eliminate diseased tissue (such as cancer) without killing healthy tissue. PDT involves the following three steps. A photosensitizer enters a cancerous cell, is excited by electromagnetic radiation, and transfers the energy to molecular oxygen which is then converted into singlet oxygen, which triggers cellular apoptosis. However, for a porphyrin to be utilized as a therapeutic in PDT, it must satisfy the following two criteria: the porphyrin needs to possess the correct solubility to pass through the cell membrane and …

Optimization Of The Control Line On A Lateral Flow Assay For Lead (Ii) Detection In Drinking Water, Yudeliz Sanchez

Summer Scholarship, Creative Arts and Research Projects (SCARP)

According to a recent survey by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), there are between 6 to 10 million lead (Pb2+) service lines in the country. Consumption of lead can cause brain and kidney damage. Our goal is to create a simple, inexpensive paper-based assay to make lead testing accessible. Lateral flow assays (LFAs) are rapid tests (5-30 mins) used to detect or quantify analytes in mixtures. Each LFA has a control line and a test line(s). The control line ensures the test is working. In our test, the control line is composed of neutral red polymer nanoparticles, which …

Design And Synthesis Of Hoogsteen-Binding Peptide Nucleic Acid Monomers With Extended Linkers For Triple Helical U-A Recognition In Rna, Angelina B. Giglio-Tos, Tristan L. Mabee, James A. Mackay

Summer Scholarship, Creative Arts and Research Projects (SCARP)

RNA provides many functions within biological systems. For example, noncoding RNA (ncRNA), a form of RNA that is not part of transcription or translation, serves a variety of unique roles, such as catalysis or gene regulation. ncRNA generally forms double helical motifs that are ripe for molecular recognition. Sequence selective recognition of double helical RNA (dhRNA) can be achieved using Peptide Nucleic Acids (PNA) through triple helical formation by Hoogsteen hydrogen bonding of PNA nucleobases in the major groove of dhRNA. However, strong, and selective recognition is typically limited to polypurine strands and pyrimidine recognition remains an unsolved problem. A …

Creation Of A Cell Line For Rapid Identification Of Potential Receptor Agonists Or Antagonists, Brandon Baxter

Summer Scholarship, Creative Arts and Research Projects (SCARP)

Developing drugs to combat disease is costly and time-consuming. Efficient methods for rapid drug screening for diseases such as Type 2 diabetes mellitus or cancer would be extremely advantageous. Diabetes effects 33.3 million people in the United States and 462 million worldwide and 17 million new cases of cancer are diagnosed each year. Many diseases result from the cells inability to respond to external signals that bind to receptors on the cytoplasmic membrane. This research attempted to create a cell line containing an intracellular protein fused to GFP. This protein would alter its cellular location and serve as an indicator …

Netsec: Real-Time And Scalable Malware Traffic Detection Within Iot Networks, Ethan Weitkamp, Yusuke Satani, Peilong Li, Jingwen Wang

Summer Scholarship, Creative Arts and Research Projects (SCARP)

Detecting malicious network traffic in real time has become a crucial requirement at smart communities for elderly care and medical facilities with the prevalence of Internet-of-things (IoT) devices. Existing machine learning based solutions for network traffic malware detection often fail to scale with the exponential increase of IoT devices at the facility and to detect malicious traffic with desirable low latency. In this paper we seek to fill the gap by designing a scalable end-to-end network traffic analyzing system that permits real-time malware detection. By leveraging distributed systems such as Apache Kafka and Apache Spark, the system has demonstrated scalable …