Digital Commons Network^™

Food For Thought: The Relationship Between Nutrition And Academic Performance, Sarah Freeman

Honors Projects in Science and Technology

Nutrition has been shown to impact the level of cognitive function in individuals. Through the analysis of nutritional diets, this new research will aim to uncover the impact that diet has on cognitive function of Bryant University students by analyzing their ability to perform on a variety of cognitive assessments. This study will provide recommendations to students at Bryant University on what they should eat so they can perform their best academically. This research will also investigate whether Bryant University is offering the best food for students to eat setting them up for success.

Racial Health And Productivity Inequalities In The United States, Elissia Vecere

Honors Theses

Across America, it is frequently seen that there are may differences by race in economic and social outcomes. This variability can be seen in judicial, social, and economic systems. The breakdown of economic systems presenting racial variability can be displayed via workplace statistics. There is a general discrepancy between the workplace statistics represented with Black and White employees. These differences frequently are blamed on the productivity and background education supplied by the employee upon being hired. However, the levels of variation across these two races varies minutely in comparison to the differences in wages supplied. When all factors are kept …

The Effects Of Paclitaxel On Cellular Migration And The Cytoskeleton, Ashley Salguero-Gonzalez

Thinking Matters Symposium

In a clinical setting, some patients are exposed to an anti-cancer chemotherapy agent, paclitaxel. Cancerous cells undergo rapid, continuous cell division without control. Chemotherapy treatments try to slow and stop the uncontrollable cell division cycles and eliminate cancerous cells in the process. Paclitaxel serves as a treatment for some types of cancers, including lung, melanoma, bladder, and esophageal. Because it targets the cytoskeleton, paclitaxel can also influence cell migration. This project utilizes a cellular migration assay and an immunohistochemistry assay to analyze the effects of paclitaxel on the movement of cells and on the cytoskeleton of neuroglia rat cells with …

Laurier Biology Departmental Seminars Poster Colouring Book (Vol 1), Tristan A.F. Long

Biology Faculty Publications

Departmental seminar posters are largely utilitarian affairs – who is talking?, when are they speaking?, where is the seminar? (and maybe will there will be refreshments served?). While functional, they often fail to capture the beauty and excitement of their subject matter, and may fail to engage a wider audience. As the organizer of the Wilfrid Laurier University Department of Biology seminar series in 2014, on a lark, I started drawing posters that tried to illustrate our speaker’s research in a non-conventional manner, and hopefully appeal to those that might otherwise find attending a departmental seminar intimidating. Little did I …

Grazing Influences Biomass Production And Protein Content Of Alpine Meadows, Laia Jarque-Bascuñana, Juan Antonio Calleja, Miguel Ibañez, Jordi Bartolomé, Elena Albanell, Johan Espunyes, Arturo Gálvez-Cerón, Josep María López-Martín, Miriam Villamuelas, Diana Gassó, Xavier Fernández-Aguilar, Andreu Colom-Cadena, Jennifer Adams Krumins, Emmanuel Serrano

Department of Biology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Alpine grasslands are essential for carbon sequestration and food supply for domestic and wild herbivores inhabiting mountainous areas worldwide. These biomes, however, are alternatively threatened by the abandonment of agricultural and livestock practices leading to a fast-growing shrubification process while other mountain grasslands are suffering from the impacts of overgrazing. The functioning of alpine meadow ecosystems is primarily driven by climatic conditions, land-use legacies and grazing. However, although it is critically important, the role of large herbivores on the aboveground biomass and protein content of palatable plants is poorly understood for most alpine meadows. In this work, we explore the …

Salve Regina University Act On Climate: Strategic Plan For The University To Reach State Carbon Neutrality Goals, Jameson Chace, Jared Barrows, Casey Bermingham, Dylan Bigansky, Avery Braccia, Natalie Bryant, Claire Cavanagh, Jerry Cheatham, Alexander Colon, Courtney Connor, John Deady, Mary Duman, Mia Farley, Alexander Gajic, Brandon Grover, Andrew Hassler, Dhana Hinds, Abigail Hoye, Emma Karpinski, Finn Doherty, Genevieve Mcclelland, Stella Mccormack, Maggie Mccue, Emma Mcgrillen, Kelly Mckenna, Gianfranco Messina, Liam Murphy, Maeve Newton, Mia Pastorok, Tyler Petrosino, Samuel Richard, Marion Riddle, Allison Sagun, Jessica Serra, Aidan Tucker, Patrick Voli

BIO140 Carbon Footprint Project

In order to become more sustainable and meet the mandate set by the 2021 Rhode Island Act on Climate law (RI General Law §42-6.2), Salve Regina University must work to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2050. Action to meet these standards begins now and must be continually built upon to ensure that Salve Regina University, as leader in Rhode Island, is always working for a more sustainable future. Throughout the Spring 2022 semester, students of the BIO-140: Humans and Their Environment course instructed by Dr. Jameson Chace have researched ways in which Salve Regina can begin on …

Volume 13, Payton Davenport, Audrey Lemons, Jacob Shope, Haley Smith, Cassandra Poole, Rachel Cannon, Rachel Boch, Suzanne Stetson

Incite: The Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship

Introduction Dr. Roger A. Byrne, Dean

From the Editor Dr. Larissa “Kat” Tracy

From the Designers Rachel English, Rachel Hanson

The Effect of Compliment Type on the Estimated Value of the Compliment by Payton Davenport, Audrey Lemons, and Jacob Shope

The Imperial Japanese Military: A New Identity in the Twentieth Century, 1853–1922 by Haley Smith

Longwood University’s campus: Human-cultivated Soil has Higher Microbial Diversity than Soil Collected from Wild Sites by Cassandra Poole

Reminiscent Modernism: Poetry Magazine’s Modernist Nostalgia for the Past by Rachel Cannon

Challenges Faced by Healthcare Workers During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Preliminary Study of Age and …

Skin Decision: Northern Fowl Mite Infection Alters Diversity Of The Skin Microbiome In European Starling Nestlings Differentially With Age, Kaitlin Couvillion

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

What Is The Cause Of Blue Eye Color In Humans?, Elaheh Seddiqi

Thinking Matters Symposium

Approximately 16 different genes are responsible for human eye color. This literature review will discuss some changes in one of these genes, OCA2, a major contributor to eye color. One interval on chromosome 15 which contains the OCA2 gene and the OCA2 locus is found to be responsible for an estimated 74% of the variance in human eye color. Expression of OCA2 produces P protein in melanocytes. Melanocytes produce melanin, the substance that gives the eyes their color. Two adjacent genes on chromosome 15, HERC2 and OCA2, are so close together that an intron of HERC2 contains the promoter region …

Annual Faculty Research Symposium 2022, Oakwood University

Proceedings

No abstract provided.

Crossing The Border: A Novel Mouse Line Using Fgf10-Cre To Drive Gata3 Overexpression In Nonsensory Transcriptional Context, Lucas Cunha

Honors Theses

Hearing loss can occur in a variety of ways, and in every case, they have equally devasting effects. While hearing loss and the people who suffer from it shall not be discriminated against, attempting to offer options for treatments nevertheless should be of priority. As such, there has been much progress in the field of genetically based forms of treatment for sensorineural hearing loss. A gene that has been almost always implicated in the conversation of regeneration, Hair Cell and Spiral Ganglia development, and inner ear development, in general, is the Zing Finger transcription factorsGata3. Furthermore, since the Organ of …

Composting During Winter Versus Summer: A Microbial Analysis, Madison Ochs

Honors Theses

Pre-consumer food waste, hay, and woodchips were composted using two different methods of static composting: forced aeration (FA) and natural aeration (NA). The composting process was performed during the winter and summer for 106 and 124 days, respectively. The composting process for both winter and summer processes did not reach the temperature above the 40°C threshold of the thermophilic stage in composting. The microbial communities present during different timepoints (start, peak, and final) along the composting process were analyzed with DNA sequencing techniques and visualized using QIIME 2, an open-source bioinformatics platform. The microbial communities of the winter and summer …

New Ant In The Big City: Known Natural History Of Lasius Cf. Emarginatus In Its Native Range And Potential Impacts Of Recent Us Introduction, Samantha M. Kennett, Clint A. Penick

Symposium of Student Scholars

New York City has been the site of introduction for some of North America’s most damaging invasive pests, from chestnut blight to the Asian long-horned beetle. Despite these cautionary examples, there has been no formal tracking of a newly introduced ant species, Lasius cf. emarginatus, which has quickly become among the most common species in the city. Sometime between the first ant diversity survey of New York City in 2006 and the second in 2011,L. cf. emarginatus was introduced and quickly became established in the most urban habitats with the highest human contact. In contrast to other urban …

Pseudomonas Aeruginosa Evades Predation By Myxococcus Xanthus, Sarah Joie Beauvais

Symposium of Student Scholars

Multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa causes an estimated 32,600 hospital-acquired-infections and 2,700 estimated deaths in the US in 2017(CDC). Myxococcus xanthus is a strain of myxobacteria that preys on Pseudomonas sp, through the production of antibiotics and digestive enzymes. In previous experiments, P. aeruginosa evaded predation, through an unknown mechanism. Using confocal microscopy, this research investigates if quorum sensing, a cell density-dependent signaling pathway, could be a factor in motility and evasion of M. xanthus. Liquid suspensions of log-phase PA01 were dyed with two fluorescent dyes: SYTO 9 for marking live cells and Propidium iodide (PI) for marking dead cells. …

Microbial Diversity And Community Structure In Sediments Associated With The Seagrass (Thallassia Testudinum) In Apalachicola Bay, Florida, Rahma Ahmed, Thomas Mcelroy, Troy Mutchler

Symposium of Student Scholars

Seagrass is an angiosperm which provides many ecosystem services in coastal areas, such as providing food, shelter and nurseries for many species, and decreasing the impact of waves on shorelines. A global assessment reported that 29% of known seagrass meadows are in a state of decline due to the effects of human activity. Seagrass is commonly found in shallow marine waters where they form meadows containing a microbiome that plays an important role in providing nutrients for seagrass growth, though little is known about the microorganisms within the seagrass meadow sediments. Our project collected sediments from seagrass meadows and adjacent …

Future In Phage Therapy Against Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria​, Elizabeth Breckenridge, Sandra Arias, Bonnie Butter

Research and Creativity Symposium

The genus Bacillus is a medically important genus because several species cause disease like cereus and anthracis, that involves several species within it. We chose B. thuringiensis, a non pathogenic species of Bacillus, as our host as it is very abundant in the environment and therefore it is easy to isolate phages. The University of Mary Washington Class of 2021-2022 isolated a total of eight phages. The phages were photographed using a Transmission Electron Microscope to determine their morphotype. They were further characterized by host range analysis showed that KoopaTroopa grew on other Bacillus species such as B. cereus. B. …

Myokine Expression In A Myotonic Dystrophy Type 1 Cell Culture Model, Abigail Vorsteg

Research and Creativity Symposium

Myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1) is a multisystemic disease characterized by muscle weakening and wasting. DM1 is the most commonly diagnosed adult-onset muscular dystrophy, and skeletal muscle wasting is responsible for 60% of DM1 related mortality, although the mechanism responsible for the DM1 skeletal muscle wasting phenotype has not been concretely identified. DM1 is caused by expansion of CUG repeats in the 3′ untranslated region of the DMPK gene. Pervious research has suggested that myokines, signaling molecules typically involved in cell-cell communication, play a role in muscle wasting. Additionally, gene expression analysis of a mouse DM1 model identified elevated expression …

The Effects Of Voluntary Physical Exercise On Hedonic Drive And Hypothalamic Orexin In Cd-1 Mice, Katie Warlick

Research and Creativity Symposium

Orexin, also referred to as hypocretin, is a peptide produced in the hypothalamus that regulates many physiological and behavioral processes, including sleep, wakefulness, metabolism, thermoregulation, and reward (Chieffi et al., 2017). The multiple mechanisms of orexin stem from the neural circuit or nucleus where it is synthesized or released. Orexin produced in the perifornical and dorsomedial hypothalamus projects to the amygdala, and is most heavily associated with arousal and wakefulness, whereas orexin produced in the lateral hypothalamus (LH) projects to the mesolimbic pathway and is associated with hedonic behavior, as it influences the Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA) and the Nucleus …

Grumio Bacteriophage Genome Annotation, Celeste Lockwood

Research and Creativity Symposium

Bacteriophages, or phages, are virus particles which are only capable of infecting bacterial cells (Clokie et al.). These phages are of interest as a potential replacement for antibiotic therapies in cases of drug resistant bacterial infections (Sulakyelidz et al. 2001). One such phage, Grumio, was discovered and isolated at the University of Mary Washington. As a recently discovered phage there was very little known about it, such as the specific sequences of DNA responsible for its infection of certain strains of bacteria. By analyzing this genetic material, the genomic sequences responsible for the phages ability to infect certain strains of …

Essential Oils As Bacterial Disinfectants, Chandler Carlson, Julia Rizzo

Research and Creativity Symposium

Essential oils have become quite popular in natural medicine and their uses as an antibacterial household cleaner have been touted. We investigated how essential oils compared to bleach when used as disinfectants. Previously, we examined eight essential oils and two recipes (mixtures of oils) from Art Naturals for bacterial inhibition and found that six oils and both recipes consistently inhibited bacterial growth. In this study, we tested bacterial inhibition of individual oils, combinations/recipes of oils, exposure time to oils, concentrations of an oil, and build-up/toxicity of oil residues from doTERRA. Escherichia coli was plated onto McConkey agar as a lawn …

The Consequences Of Climate Change For Native Bee Assemblages, Melanie R. Kazenel

Biology ETDs

Recent declines in terrestrial arthropod biodiversity highlight the need to pinpoint which taxa and ecosystem services are most threatened, and why. But, for most of the world’s ~20,000 bee species, we lack robust evidence of population trends, and the role of climate change remains surprisingly little studied. I used long-term bee monitoring data from the Sevilleta Long-Term Ecological Research Program (Socorro, NM, USA), along with complementary experimental and observational data, to examine how climate relates to bee abundance and diversity patterns over time and space, and to identify the traits that govern bees’ climate sensitivities. Under climate change, drylands worldwide …

In The Face Of Climate Change, Does Human Trampling Affect Dune Resilience And Alter Ecosystem Services?, Alexandra O. Findlay

Honors College Theses

Sand dunes play a valuable role on the coastline supporting unique native species and protecting beach communities. The City of Tybee Island, Georgia, USA has undergone extensive dune restoration to expand and rehabilitate its shoreline to better defend the town against the increasing frequency of hurricanes and storm surge. The project included the recovery of existing dune structures and construction of new dunes filled with sand pumped from offshore and vegetated with a variety of native species. To analyze the impact of human trampling on dune vegetation occurring adjacent to footpaths and crossovers in new and established dunes, we measured …

The Effect Of Clay On The Inhibitory Effect Of Mustard Seed Meal On Velvetleaf Seedling Growth, Heeyun Oh

Honors Theses

Mustard seed meal (MSM) has been studied as a biofumigant in suppressing weed growth in an organic-friendly way. Previous studies have shown that MSM in the presence of elevated sand content was highly effective in suppressing the germination of velvetleaf seeds, and that as clay/silt in sand content increased, MSM effectiveness decreased in suppressing seed germination. Based on these results, it was postulated that clay may have effects on MSM by inhibiting this biofumigant from suppressing weed growth. Two different types of pure clay--kaolin and montmorillonite--were selected with their increasing concentrations. Low concentrations of clay do not seem to influence …

All Extant Loons Belong To The Same Created Kind: A Baraminological Analysis Of Morphology, Vocalizations, And Hybridization, Mary-Clark Matthews, Alexis Ramerth, Mckayla Guillory, Timothy R. Brophy

Liberty University Research Week

Undergraduate

Applied

Nextgen Stats Confirm That All Fossil Horses Belong To The Same Created Kind, Jack Gregory, Luke Ragan, Mary-Elizabeth Tallman, Timothy R. Brophy

Liberty University Research Week

Undergraduate

Applied

Molecular Approaches For The Validation Of The Baboon As A Nonhuman Primate Model For The Study Of Zika Virus Infection, Emma Mask, V. L. Hodara, Jessica E. Callery, L. M. Parodi, V. Obregon-Perko, S. Yagi, J. Glenn, P. Frost, E. Clemmons, J. L. Patterson, L. A. Cox, Luis D. Giavedoni

Biology Faculty Research

Nonhuman primates (NHP) are particularly important for modeling infections with viruses that do not naturally replicate in rodent cells. Zika virus (ZIKV) has been responsible for sporadic epidemics, but in 2015 a disseminated outbreak of ZIKV resulted in the World Health Organization declaring it a global health emergency. Since the advent of this last epidemic, several NHP species, including the baboon, have been utilized for modeling and understanding the complications of ZIKV infection in humans; several health issues related to the outcome of infection have not been resolved yet and require further investigation. This study was designed to validate, in …

Genomic Similarity To Predict Infection In Bacillus Phages, Kayla Botto

Research and Creativity Symposium

Bacteriophages, also called phages, are viruses that only infect bacteria. Phages are used in phage therapy, which is a new treatment for bacterial infections and hopes to be the solution to antibiotic resistance. Each bacterium has a unique set of phages that can infect it and finding these phages can be difficult and tedious. The aim of this research was to grow phages on Bacillus thuringiensis kurstaki (Btk) and do a host range study on an array of Bacillus species. I also analyzed and compared the phage genomes to find genes of interest and identify genes that could be responsible …

Influence Of Nutrient Contamination On Macroinvertebrate Communities In Two Tidal Freshwater Creeks, Molly Curling, Mika Bishton

Research and Creativity Symposium

Freshwater ecosystems are some of the most biodiverse on the planet, but they are threatened due to human actions resulting in habitat loss, pollution, and nutrient runoff. Macroinvertebrates can be used to measure the health of a freshwater system because different taxa have different tolerances to pollutants. However, the relationship between nutrient runoff and macroinvertebrates remains understudied. Accokeek Creek and Aquia Creek are two tidal freshwater streams in Stafford, VA. Accokeek Creeks drains a watershed containing the Crow’s Nest Natural Area Preserve and minimal development. Aquia Creek’s watershed is largely suburban. The objectives of this study were a) to examine …

Localization Of Transgenes For Drosophila Models Of Myotonic Dystrophy Type 1, Andrea Waltrip, Noah Smith

Research and Creativity Symposium

Myotonic Dystrophy Type 1, DM1, is a multi-systemic disorder that results from expansion of CTG repeats in the DMPK gene in humans. Drosophila melanogaster has been established as a model organism for the study DM1, by the construct of multiple transgenic DM1 lines containing different numbers of CTG repeats (60, 250, and 480), expressed using the GAL4/UAS system. The precise chromosomal location of insertion of the transgenes has not been reported. We are using both classical genetic and molecular approaches to localize CTG-repeat transgene insertion in the genome. To narrow down location to a specific chromosome, genetic crosses using GAL4 …

First Reproductive Evidence For The Slender Glass Lizard (Ophisaurus Attenuatus) In Nebraska, Keith Geluso

Transactions of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences and Affiliated Societies

The Slender Glass Lizard (Ophisaurus attenuatus) reproduces across parts of northern and central Kansas, but its distribution extends into southern Nebraska. In Nebraska, not a single aspect of reproductive activity has been reported for this species in the state. Herein, we report on the first documentation of reproduction in Nebraska. On 22 September 2021, we captured two hatchling Slender Glass Lizards at the Ash Grove Wildlife Management Area in Franklin County, Nebraska. We calculated that those individuals likely hatched around the first week of September. Presence and reproduction of Slender Glass Lizards at the study site likely was …