Digital Commons Network^™

Benefits Of Stem Mentorship: Introducing Microbiology Research To High School Students, Tassnime Sebaei, Katrina Maktaz, Varsha Chigurupati

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Bacteria Unearthed is an NSU initiative to bring together high school and college students to participate in Tiny Earth: an international consortia of researchers searching for novel microorganisms and antibiotics to combat antibiotic drug resistance. Our group developed a STEM mentor program as a catalyst for students to significantly increase academic performance. The program allows high schoolers to become part of the global research community. These high school students enrolled in their microbiology classes are supported by undergraduate students who have experience working with Tiny Earth. Through this experiential learning, it is expected that there will be improvements in …

Bioremediation Of Algae-Based Water Treatment: Analysis Of Algae Adsorption Of Heavy Metals Based On Ion Size And Covalent Indices, Samir Sakaria, Rebecca Mathew, Amelia Figueroa

Undergraduate Student Symposium

A previous published study completed at Nova Southeastern University determined that Neochloris alveolaris and Neochloris minuta algal strains which were grown in nitrogen-rich (+N) and nitrogen-depleted (-N) environments biosorbed Pb²⁺, Cd²⁺, Zn²⁺, Cu²⁺, and Ni²⁺ at varying concentrations. These algae biosorbed each metal differently based on their biomass composition (carbohydrates, fats, and lipids) and the type of hard or soft metal acids available, according to the Pearson theory of Hard Soft Acid Base (HSAB) definition. Given these promising findings, this study aimed to further analyze and determine the effect of hard …

Can Statins Mitigate Adverse Effects Of Hormone Replacement Therapy In Women?, Adhm Farid

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Heart disease is the leading cause of death for women in the United States. One possible overlooked risk factor for heart disease in women is hormone replacement therapy(HRT). HRT is most often used to treat certain kinds of breast cancer that depend on sex hormones to grow or to supplement estrogen to women over 60 or who have had a hysterectomy. HRT has been found to increase levels of C-reactive protein(CRP), which is the bio-inflammatory marker that best predicts cardiovascular risk. Statin therapy has been found to decrease levels of C-reactive protein. Currently, CRP is not taken into consideration when …

Caribbean Reef-Building Coral-Symbiodiniaceae Network: Identifying Symbioses Critical For System Stability In A Changing Climate, Mackenzie Magyar, Brady Estrada, Timothy Swain Ph.D.

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Coral reef bleaching events across the globe are increasing following intensifying marine heatwaves and higher ocean temperatures. The frequency and intensity of bleaching events are expected to rise over the next 100 years. An increase in coral mortality has been observed in the Caribbean between 1970-2012. Our objective is to produce a network of all Caribbean hermatypic coral-Symbiodiniaceae associations and analyze it in the context of increased temperatures and coral bleaching events. The available scientific literature was explored and inspected to evaluate whether these papers included relevant data for building the network, including the coral host, host depth, sample location, …

Comparative Study Of Homocoupling Reactions To Create 2,2'-Bipyridine Adducts, Ethan Depry, Hoa Le

Undergraduate Student Symposium

The project focuses on investigating the synthesis of 2,2’-bipyridine adducts for potential use as ligands in novel organometallic ruthenium complexes. The bipyridine building blocks, based on their excellent bidentate ligands with complexing abilities, will be incorporated into ruthenium complexes in a collaborative project, increasing the photosensitivity of these complexes, and opening the doors for many applications, ranging from synthetic photovoltaics to anti-cancer activity.

The aim of this study was to optimize the preparation of the 2,2’-bipyridine adducts. Prior studies conducted in our lab have compared several homo and cross coupling reactions. It was determined that homocoupling offers a more efficient …

Covid-19 Vaccine Hesitancy In Pregnant Women From Marginalized Communities, Leona Markose

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Vaccination is known to be one of the most successful public health measures currently available that decreases numbers of mortality and morbidity of various diseases across the globe. Despite the success that has been found in controlling infectious disease through herd immunity from vaccinations, there is a rising problem especially prevalent among developed countries of a voluntarily under vaccinated population that do not believe these methods are safe or successful.

This delay in acceptance or refusal of vaccines despite availability of services is known as vaccine hesitancy. The COVID-19 pandemic sparked vaccine hesitancy throughout the United States, with an overabundance …

Deficits In Gait Biomechanics In Runners On A University Team: Implications For Preventative Sport Healthcare, W. Zachary Dean

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Sport healthcare providers in team-based settings conduct functional testing to identify injury risk. Results are used in team-based injury prevention programs. This process is different than care for a patient once they become injured. Gait analyses are a functional test for runners. Therefore, we aimed to describe the bilateral running biomechanics in a university cross country team with emphasis on variables linked to running-related injury (RRI). Twenty-seven male (n=10) and female (n=17) distance runners (age, 18-23yrs; height, 1.82±0.57m; mass, 58.4±6.8 kg) from a single university team participated in this descriptive study. Gait was assessed during a treadmill run at a …

Determinants Of Hospital Charges For Hospital Admissions And Readmissions In 2017 In The United States For Bronchitis And Asthma With Complications And Comorbidities (Drg = 202), Japjot Singh

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Understanding hospital charges in the U.S. healthcare system is vital for value-based care, recovery, and socio-economic wellbeing of the public. Hospital charges vary across hospitals regionally as well as nationally. As per the clinical history of hospital in-patient care, there are several determinants of hospital charges that are specific to the patient, disease, hospital, or the chargemaster. Empirical research on hospital in-patient care has bolstered the extant knowledge on the factors that determine the healthcare cost and utilization, but research is limited on how hospital readmissions impact hospital charges. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has developed a …

Effect Of Gamma Irradiation On Vitamin D Stability In Salmon, Varun Natarajan

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Salmon and other finfish are one of the major dietary sources of vitamin D. However, the presence of pathogenic bacteria, such as vibrio sp and listeria sp, can lead to foodborne illnesses. In 2015, 18% of foodborne illnesses were attributed to finfish. Gamma irradiation can serve as an effective tool to minimize bioburden and thereby decrease the risk of foodborne illnesses. While gamma irradiation has been used on other types of food, including chicken and crustaceans, its effects on fresh finfish has not been studied. This project examines the effect of low dose gamma irradiation on the stability of vitamin …

Effect Of Periodontitis On Inducing Late Onset Alzheimer's Disease (Load) Pathology In Mice, Neha Gupta, Courtney Mai, Miguel Cuello

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia; affecting approximately 50 million people worldwide. Recent evidence indicates poor dental hygiene may accelerate Alzheimer’s degeneration. Experimenters used a mouse model of periodontitis induced by P. gingivalis and investigated the implications of poor dental health on Alzheimer’s Disease and neuroinflammation, as well as memory skills, in relation to aging, gender, and condition. All the mice in the model were the same age, and a total of 8 mice with Alzheimer’s Disease and 8 mice who had Alzheimer’s Disease with inflammation with an equivalent number of males and females were utilized. Experimenters …

Effect Of β-Lactamase Expression And Varying Metabolism On The Inoculum Effect, Kielan Singh, Vijay Patel

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Infections with antibiotic resistant bacteria pose a substantial challenge to the field of medicine. Accordingly, it is of the utmost importance that we understand the mechanisms by which bacteria resist antibiotics towards the development of novel drugs and treatment paradigms. One mechanism by which a population of bacteria can resist an antibiotic is the inoculum effect (IE). During IE, the initial density of the population determines the efficacy of the antibiotic; highly dense populations of bacteria require more antibiotics to kill the population as compared to less dense populations. One mechanism that has been proposed to explain IE is the …

Elucidating The Function Of 3l1w, A Functionally Unknown Enzyme From Enterococcus Faecalis V583, Michael Egozi, Ethan Depry

Undergraduate Student Symposium

As of February 2022, there were 4057 protein structures with unknown functions in the Protein Data Bank. In all biological organisms there are a variety of enzymes that speed up key biochemical pathways. Despite having a known sequence and structure, many enzymes remain uncharacterized. One relevant enzyme identified is 3L1W, whose function has yet to be elucidated. The P.O.I. was isolated and imaged via Xray crystallography from the vancomycin resistant strain E. faecalis V583.

The purpose of this research was to provide an accurate characterization of 3L1W and its substrates, thus directing our approach of combining in silico and …

Emotional Resilience Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On A College Campus, Jenna Binaco

Undergraduate Student Symposium

The perceptions of people during the Covid-19 pandemic cannot always be true. This is due to a life of uncertainty and for many people, fear. Since the pandemic has been around for about two years, this is an excellent opportunity to see how this pandemic has impacted people’s mental health. A way that this information can be recorded is with The Emotional Resilience scale of the Covid-19 Pandemic on a College Campus. Emotional resilience was measured in 1704 American university students, staff, and faculty in October to November 2021 of the Covid-19 pandemic. This was a transitional period for people …

Endoparasite Community Of Common Wood-Warblers (Family Parulidae) In Southeast Florida, Skylar Olsen

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Wood-warblers are small insectivorous passerine birds in the family Parulidae. They are among the first migratory birds in North America to begin their southward migration during the early autumn months and southeast Florida serves as a wintering ground. Although wood-warblers are common and widespread, knowledge of their endoparasite community composition is severely underrepresented in current literature. Carcasses were opportunistically collected from wildlife rescue centers in southeast Florida. The digestive tract of 90 birds representing 5 common wood-warbler species were examined for endoparasites: Common Yellowthroats (Geothlypis trichas), Ovenbirds (Seiurus aurocapilla), Black-and--White Warblers (Mniotilta varia), Palm Warblers (Setophaga palmarum), and American Redstarts …

Evaluation Of Mdm2 Regulation On Aurkb Expression In Lung Cancer, Karen Kameo, Alexandra Carbone

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Objective. This study was conducted to analyze the molecular mechanism of the MDM2 regulation on AURKB in lung cancer cells. Background. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death within the United States, with the 5-year survival rate at about 22%, indicating the need to develop different drugs and treatment strategies. This study focuses on understanding the mechanisms linking MDM2 and AURKB to develop new treatment strategies against lung cancer. Methods. The H446 cells were treated with RG7388 (2 μM), an MDM2 inhibitor, and Barasertib (50 nM), an AURKB inhibitor, including a combination of the two drugs for 24 …

Examining The Impact Of Mind Wandering On Task Performance: Does Task Difficulty Matter?, Kortne Bajor, Jozef Cruz, Amulya Chowd Koritala, Gargee Pandya

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Mind wandering is a phenomenon in which an individual’s thoughts drift from the current task to a task unrelated thought (TUT). It is known to be affected by various factors such as state of mind, neuroticism, and boredom which may differ for each individual. Task difficulty appears to impact mind wandering rates, such that mind wandering increases on tasks with lower difficulty (Seli et al., 2018). However, prior work has not examined how emotionally valenced mind wandering impact task performance at different levels of task difficulty. Mind wandering typically predicts poorer ongoing task performance (McVay & Kane, 2010) and negatively …

Firearm-Related Injuries Rates From 2014 To 2017 Among Floridian Children, Joel Marlapudi

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Purpose: To assess the prevalence of firearm-related injuries among pediatric patients in Florida by age, race, and ethnicity.

Method: The dataset from the Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration from 2014-2017 was utilized for this analysis as well as the Florida Community Health Assessment and Resource Tool Set. The study included ambulatory ED-visits of Floridian patients (aged ≤ 19 years) who had firearm-related Principal Diagnosis coded using the International Classification of Diseases. Patients who reported race as White or Black and Ethnicity as Hispanic or non-Hispanics were included. Patients’ county was categorized into 11 regions defined by Florida Local Health …

Gadra's Allegory, Bianca Vucetich

Undergraduate Student Symposium

“Gadra’s Allegory” is a silent (with no dialogue, but music is utilized) short film that follows a modern day ‘prisoner’ who exemplifies how their society is chained to the screens that surrounds them. The film shows their journey from a repetitive, thoughtless, and disillusioned way of life, to a majestic awakening to the nature of reality. This film is based on and inspired by Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave,”; though the main character of the film is based off the chained prisoner of the allegory, this alternate version shows another path to their own enlightenment and expresses their own internal …

Great Plains Midcontinental Loess Deposits Following Prehistoric Megadroughts And Climate-Change Related Ecosystem Collapse In The Badlands, Melanie Vasquez, Drew Tozer, Catherine Acosta

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Understanding effects of prehistoric extreme climate events on the environment is necessary to help predict effects of modern global climate change. Research shows prehistoric megadroughts caused the collapse of North American grassland ecosystems, allowing wind to erode soils and fined-grained sediment. Timing, severity, and regional extent of these megadroughts remain controversial, but research indicates at least three megadrought periods on the North American midcontinent over the last 20,000 years. Evidence for prehistoric megadroughts is preserved in dune fields and loess deposits throughout the North American Great Plains, including our field area in the Badlands of South Dakota. Loess, composed of …

Ha Ha Ha... Good One!... Not You Hmongs. Laughter, White Privilege, And "Othering" In Medical Cultures, Sarah Soliman

Undergraduate Student Symposium

The response to alternative medical approaches of underprivileged and underrepresented groups detailed by Anne Fadiman differ from the hegemonic alternative approaches exemplified by Norman Cousins. In The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Fadiman describes the inadequate efforts made by healthcare professionals to communicate with the Lee family who did not understand English and had significantly different medicinal practices from Western biomedical practices. Rather than being met with respect and attentiveness, these medical professionals viewed this family as “difficult” and “stupid.” In comparison to the various mistreated groups of minorities, the Hmong are a minority within the minority …

Heavy Metal Contaminants In The Sciaenids From Lake Sabine, Katerina Sawickij

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Lake Sabine is a shallow, estuarine lake situated on the border between Texas and Louisiana with outflow to the Gulf of Mexico. The Louisiana side is a protected natural area while the Texas side is susceptible to pollution from several commercial industries as well as maintenance dredging. This study determined the concentrations of metal(loids) within commercially and economically important fish tissues and compared them intra- and inter-specifically using known diets and a range of sizes. Specimens were collected from Lake Sabine from April through October 2018 from four sciaenid fishes: Atlantic Croaker Micropogonias undulatus, Red Drum Sciaenops ocellatus, …

How Non-Profit Organizations Can Create A Hybrid Social Media Strategy Using Paid And Organic Posts, Samantha Carl Selorio

Undergraduate Student Symposium

The emergence of social media has changed the methods and approaches for communication between health agencies and their community. As such, non-profit organizations must learn to use social media to better promote their mission. Organizations can engage and capture the attention of their online target audience via paid posts. Broward Regional Health Planning Council (BRHPC), a non-profit organization, provides an analysis of how integrating social media tools has increased its social media presence. BRHPC already had an online presence on the social media sites Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. To increase the number of people in BRHPC’s intended audience who …

How The Molecular Vibrations Of Water May Prevent Skin Cancer, Ramson Munoz Morales, Jenna Handal

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Studies have shown that when DNA absorbs ultraviolet light it can become structurally damaged leading to a mutation and possibly skin cancer. However, exposing skin to sunlight rarely leads to a mutation. This indicates that after the ultraviolet light is absorbed by the DNA the energy from the light can either cause a structural change to the DNA (a mutation) or be dissipated in a way that does not damage the DNA. Absorption of ultraviolet light causes molecular vibrations in DNA and these vibrations are what likely leads to structural changes in the DNA. One way the structural changes could …

Human Mtdna Copy Number Quantification, Leonardo Lacayo, Luzcarime Saco-Vertiz

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Our social worlds and physical health are profoundly intertwined, but we have limited tools for studying these important connections. Within the recent psychiatric literature, changes in mitochondrial DNA copy number (mtDNAcn) have been linked to a variety of socially influenced mental illnesses such as major depression. In principle, this biomarker may therefore also be responsive to more subtle changes in our social environments, including life events that attenuate stress.

This poster outlines plans for a novel molecular study of how interspecies social bonding impacts human cells. Specifically, we propose to use quantitative PCR to measure the abundances of (single copy) …

I Can Hear You, I Just Can't Remember You: Deconstructing The Sensory And Cognitive Components Of Hearing Loss, Pranay Narang, Hana Amireh

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Hearing loss is commonly thought of as solely a sensory, not cognitive, problem. According to the effortfulness effect, however, those with presbycusis are burdened with an increased attentional cost for auditory processing, taxing the central executive such that working memory is impaired. The excess strain placed on the central executive to decode sensory noise ultimately impairs one’s capacity to attend to and consolidate memories, compromising retention. We hypothesize that the presence of white noise during encoding will mimic the effect of hearing loss sustained in older adults and will impair the retrieval of auditory information in those with normal hearing. …

Implications Of Covid-19 For Education And Research In Healthcare And Stem: Analysis Of Global Case Studies, Yumna Indorewala

Undergraduate Student Symposium

The novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 has posed a major threat to global education and research in STEM and healthcare. Social distancing guidelines were initially recommended to refrain from face-to-face operations for preventing the transmission of the virus. As schools and higher academic institutions implemented multifarious methods to effectively transition to remote/online or hybrid educational formats, the Coronavirus Infectious Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic introduced further hurdles and necessitated designing, adopting, as well as evaluating the efficacy of new instructional approaches, especially for disciplines that require active, experiential learning such as healthcare and STEM. These effects are accentuated in less developed/developing nations or …

Inter-Limb Kinetic Asymmetries Differ Between Concentric And Eccentric Phases Of The Vertical Jump, Vanessa Alexandre

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Inter-limb asymmetries during the vertical jump (VJ) have been used to identify injury risk and performance deficits with >10% being a threshold. Force, or kinetic asymmetries have typically been studied for the concentric (propulsive) phase of the VJ while eccentric (loading) phase analyses are limited. The purpose of this study was to determine if there were differences in inter-limb asymmetry (%) in impulse (force * time) and peak force between VJ eccentric and concentric phases. Results may inform coaches and sport healthcare providers. Participants were 60 highly skilled males (age, 22.7±1.1yrs.; height, 186.4±6.8cm; mass, 103±21.2kg) undergoing training for the National …

Investigating Polymer Metal Chelation Via Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy, Meha Pandya, Agustin Olivares

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Heavy metal contaminants in water are known to disrupt ecological systems and cause detrimental biophysical and physiological effects in living systems. Prominent metallic environmental contaminants include lead, cadmium, and zinc. Removing heavy metal contaminants is essential to enhance water quality and reduce heavy metal toxicity. Chelating polymers that contain functional groups such as carboxyls and amines, offer an inexpensive and efficient way to remove metals from solution. The purpose of our study is to develop a protocol to quantify metal binding efficiency of various polymers via Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS). Alginate and Chitosan, two bio derived polymers with known chelating …

Investigating The Bouba-Kiki Phenomenon In Impression Formation, Pritika Shah

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Humans associate sounds and symbols in non-arbitrary ways. One example of this phenomenon is the Bouba/Kiki effect: the nonword “Bouba” is associated with rounder shapes, whereas “Kiki” is associated with sharper shapes. Although many studies have been done on the Bouba-Kiki effect, it has not been studied in the context of personality judgments and impression formation. Study 1 used a between-subjects design to test the Bouba/Kiki effect in this domain. A person named “Bouba” was rated as more moral than a person named “Kiki”, whereas “Kiki” was rated as more sociable, however no significant difference was found for competence ratings. …

Investigating The Specific Phosphorylation Sites Of The Human Mineralocorticoid Receptor Using Phospho-Mapping, Valentina Guidi

Undergraduate Student Symposium

The purpose of this project is to confirm the specific sites where G protein receptor kinase 5 (GRK-5)- mediated phosphorylation of the mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) of aldosterone occurs. The significance of the study stems from prior findings indicating that e-cigarette vapors induce lung inflammation and tissue destruction. While research has typically focused on the effects of tobacco use, the detrimental influence of e-cigarette vapors, which accumulate in the airway epithelium, must also be identified. This may include desensitization of the beta2-adrenergic receptor (β2AR), a protective receptor against airway inflammation and fibrosis and the only AR subtype expressed in human bronchial …