Digital Commons Network^™

Keeping Your Library Relevant For Your Users- Engine Parts Petting Zoo, Gabriele Hysong

Midwest Business Librarian Summit (MBLS)

As corporate libraries are downsized or even closed how do information professionals keep their libraries relevant?

Mapping Il Skills To The Departmental Curriculum, Naomi Schemm

Midwest Business Librarian Summit (MBLS)

Problem: some departments use your services heavily for IL instruction, to the point that content gets repetitive for some students. Others use your instruction not at all. Other class visits are hit or miss, based on whether or not you have a relationship with that particular instructor. Attempted solution: mapping specific information literacy skills and database usage onto certain critical classes in a given major. The presenter is piloting this curriculum & IL-skills mapping with the Marketing department in summer 2019, and will give an update on her progress thus far.

Lightning Talk: Use Of The Research Consultation As A Professional Skills Activity, Lumarie Guth

Midwest Business Librarian Summit (MBLS)

A public university with 4000 business majors instituted a professional readiness program requiring students to take part in engagement activities to acquire business skills. A research consultation with the business librarian became an option for an upper-level engagement in critical thinking. This talk will present on the genesis and growth of the partnership (including data on students impacted), changes made to improve access to research consultations, and changes made to the research consultation to enhance the experience and encourage student success.

Business Liaison Librarians: Creating & Connecting Communities, Annette Bochenek

Midwest Business Librarian Summit (MBLS)

Business Liaison Librarian Dr. Annette Bochenek discusses the duties and responsibilities of her job in the public library setting. In addition to offering an overview of her involvement in the community, dedication to business and job-seekers, group instruction opportunities, and one-on-one appointment specialties, Bochenek will offer a discussion of initiatives she has led in the public library setting in order to engage a broader range of audiences and connect them to the library as a robust resource for their businesses to grow. In particular, Bochenek will discuss ways to connect with home-based businesses, sharing her events to engage members of …

When Databases Are No Longer An Option: Teaching Students About Open Access Resources For Business Information, Teresa Williams

Midwest Business Librarian Summit (MBLS)

Academic librarians spend a great deal of time teaching students how to use research databases to find business information, but the unfortunate reality is that students typically lose access to university subscription databases upon commencement. Without adequate training on reliable alternatives, new graduates can find themselves struggling to resolve their information needs as they transition into the business workplace.

To address this issue, the Business Librarian at Butler University Libraries created a Business Research Workshop (BRW) to teach students about open and public access resources for business information. What began a few years ago as a trial offering for five …

Genome Characterization And Annotation Of A Cluster S Bacteriophage, Anna-Nikol Georgiev, Kathryn Myers, Kierra Jammer, Morgan Callin, Taylor Sorrel, Kari Clase, Ikenna Okekeogbu

Purdue Undergraduate Research Conference

Bacteriophages (phages) are viruses that infect their host and cannot reproduce independently outside of them. The application of bacteriophages in the biotechnology and medical sectors has recently increased, including uses as a potential antibacterial agent and CRISPR technology. In this project, the 48,667 to 58,636 base pair region (genes 87-98) of the Corazon phage genome was annotated by five student researchers at Purdue University. Corazon, a cluster S phage was isolated at Lafayette College in Easton, PA. Corazon belongs to the Siphoviridae morphotype and its genome consists of 109 genes. In this study, gene locations were called using evidence consisting …

Functional Annotation Of Myasthenia Gravis Genetic Risk Variants: Results From A Genome-Wide Study, Alyssa Flint

Purdue Undergraduate Research Conference

Myasthenia Gravis (MG) is an autoimmune disease of the neuromuscular junction. The purpose of this study was to analyze the biological pathways and key genetic contributors that lead to MG. In this study, we performed functional annotation of the significant variants from the results of an MG Genome-Wide Association (GWAS) study on a Southeastern European population. Furthermore, the three approaches used were positional mapping of the SNPs, pathway analysis, and eQTL mapping. The positional and eQTL mapping were performed through FUMA. We annotated the SNPs to genes based on their physical position, and for the eQTL we used data from …

“Going Somewhere Makes Sense, But Somehow It Seems More Shameful:” Italian Women’S Attitudes And Perceptions Of Reproductive Tourism, Kelsie Basile, Adria Diaconu, Camille Goodwyn, Sarah Kincade, Kaylee Mccracken

Purdue Undergraduate Research Conference

Background: Law 40/2004 transformed Italy from a place with a largely unregulated commercial medically assisted reproduction (MAR) market to a country with the most conservative approach to MAR. As a result, the number of Italians seeking MAR outside of Italy skyrocketed, doubling in one year as citizens sought to escape the strict legislation. Even though restrictions were lifted on procedures like gamete donation, surrogacy is still banned, and single women and homosexual couples still cannot access MAR in Italy. Objective: The purpose of this study is to understand Italian women’s perceptions of, and experiences with, reproductive tourism, including benefits and …

Doctor Interaction: Is There Discriminatory Treatment At Play?, Jade Meekin, Kennedy Skipper

Purdue Undergraduate Research Conference

While research on healthcare disparities exist, specifically about racial disparities and pain, no studies have explored how these implicit biases impact young adults and their social interactions with their doctors. This study explored how race, age, and gender impacts the way that their medical professionals interact with their patients. A survey was sent out to many students of Purdue University where they answered various questions regarding their doctor visits. African American participants reported feeling as though their medical doctors were unwilling to pursue more extensive or serious treatment when compared to the responses of Caucasians, Asians, and other ethnicities. A …

Investigation Of Bacteriophage Genomes, Lina Trigg, Rachel Damge, Estefania Martinez, Jenna Ischinger

Purdue Undergraduate Research Conference

Bacteriophage (phage) was first found in the 1900s by Frederick Twort on accident, with the average size of a phage ranging from 3.4kb to almost 500kb (Keen 2015). Phage have become the most abundant organisms on earth and have been used for over 90 years in the treatment of bacterial infections in humans. However, there are many types of phages that are still undiscovered and researched. Discovering and annotating new phages will expand the scientific knowledge of bacteriophage and contribute to new infection treatments. In this project, the unique phage Corazon was investigated. This phage was discovered in Easton, PA …

Corazon Genome Annotation Project, Eung Baek Kim, Eunhui Yoo, Mai Liu, Chao Fu, Yejin Jang

Purdue Undergraduate Research Conference

Corazon Genome Annotation Project Mycobacterium phage, Corazon, was found at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania in 2017. Its plaque was small, round and clear with siphoviridae morphology type. The approximate length of Corazon is 64931 bp with 3’ sticky overhang. The overhang had 11 base length with ‘GCGCGCAGCGC’ sequence. To perform a manual inspection of Corazon, we performed gene annotation by reviewing and revising the prediction and identifying any missing genes using DNA Annotation programs such as DNA Master, GeneMark, BLAST, Phamerator, and HHPred. We annotated the Corazon genome in three distinct steps. First, we established a relationship with our …

Highly Efficient Selection System For Directed Evolution Of Novel Endonuclease, Paula Pandolfi

Purdue Undergraduate Research Conference

Genome editing optimizes traits of interest by introducing specific changes to the genome of organisms. A novel genome editing tool, ASGARD, was developed in our laboratory as a more flexible tool for editing genomes without a binding site requirement, in contrast to the currently popular CRISPR systems (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats). Despite ASGARD’s attractive characteristics, it suffers from low efficiency and off-target activity. We aim to mutate ASGARD and design a screening system that selects for mutants that display highly efficient DNA cleavage activity with minimal off-target effects. As current methods fail to fulfill our needs, we created …

Autonomous Land Vehicle, Ashley Maddock, Sean S. Hwang, Pratik Bansal, Dharan Ramdoss, Somesh Dube

Purdue Undergraduate Research Conference

The demand for the autonomous land vehicle industry has been increasing tremendously, and continues to grow; nearly 30 million autonomous vehicles are expected to be sold by 2040.1 Through the Autonomous Lands Vehicle (ALV) VIP team, students develop both the hardware and software to help enhance knowledge and gain experience in vehicle autonomy. An automatic pilot has been built that can drive the vehicle in real time. The purpose of this pilot is to generate vehicle control commands that will direct the vehicle from the starting point to the finishing point, without hitting unforeseen obstacles. A remote controlled vehicle has …

Likelihood Of Soil Health Management Systems Users To Adopt Other Conservation Practices In The Big Pine Creek Watershed, Emma Wade

Purdue Undergraduate Research Conference

Since the 1970s, the hypoxic zone in the Gulf of Mexico has been growing due to fertilizer runoff and soil degradation. The hypoxic zone negatively impacts the productivity of aquatic ecosystems and threatens industries that rely on coastal areas. Soil Health Management Systems (SHMS) include farming practices that reduce nutrient runoff and downstream pollution. Farming practices impact downstream waterways, so it is important to understand what influences the adoption of conservation practices such as SHMS. A survey was developed to collect farmland owner/operator demographic information and to determine whether they adopt conservation practices. Five conservation practices were evaluated: SHMS, nutrient …

Integrating Civic Engagement Through Virtual Learning In The Stem Classroom, Keita Arakawa

Purdue Undergraduate Research Conference

Currently there is a lack of real-world projects/clients integrated into higher education classrooms. Although there has been a recent uptick in the need to integrate the humanities into the STEM classroom, service learning and/or civic engagement focused projects are limited. This research is to investigate methods for incorporating authentic learning experiences into the post-secondary STEM classroom guided by the follow research question: How can we increase access to authentic learning in the higher education classroom? To answer the question, the pilot study will engage six undergraduate students of varying age, major, and genders in a two-phase approach. First, the students …

Best Strategy For Each Team In The Regular Season To Win Champion In The Knockout Tournament, Zijie Zhou

Purdue Undergraduate Research Conference

In 'J. Schwenk.(2018)What is the Correct Way to Seed a Knockout Tournament? Retrieved from The American Mathematical Monthly' , Schwenk identified a surprising weakness in the standard method of seeding a single elimination (or knockout) tournament. In particular, he showed that for a certain probability model for the outcomes of games it can be the case that the top seeded team would be less likely to win the tournament than the second seeded team. This raises the possibility that in certain situations it might be advantageous for a team to intentionally lose a game in an attempt to get a …

A Search For The Most Destructive Tornado Outbreak In The Modern Record (1950-2018)., Charlotte Ellington

Purdue Undergraduate Research Conference

This study has focused on the analysis and comparison of the two greatest outbreaks of tornado activity in the modern U.S. record (1950-2018). The most productive 24 hour period of tornado activity for each was selected: 3 April 1974 and 27 April 2011 from 12 am CST to 11:59 pm CST. The 3 April 1974 outbreak totaled 119 tornadoes ranging from (E)F1- (E)F5, 88 of which were significant. The 27 April 2011 outbreak totaled 137 tornadoes ranging from (E)F1- (E)F5, 59 of which were significant. These events far exceed the criteria for a tornado outbreak, defined as 6-10 tornadoes in …

Investigating The Minimal Counterintuitiveness Effect, David A. Schena Ii, Michelle E. Coverdale, James S. Nairne

Purdue Undergraduate Research Conference

Scholars believe that minimally counterintuitive concepts are more memorable than intuitive ones (Barrett, 2008; Upal 2011). If an item has an unusual or counterintuitive property, such as a ball that rises rather than falls when dropped, the unusual property makes the item more memorable. However, experiments investigating this effect tend to have experimental confounds that make interpretation difficult. Our experiment aimed to solve these problems by using counterbalanced lists of nonwords, using the nonwords to control for prior associations and experiences. Participants viewed a series of nonwords along with a noun-adjective pair (e.g. Frav – a roaring tiger) and were …

Drones On The Rise: Societal Misperceptions Of Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (Suas), Renee Keilman

Purdue Undergraduate Research Conference

Throughout the past decade, Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS) have been on the rise in both the civilian and military sectors. It is forecasted that in the near future they will create thousands of jobs and billions in tax revenue due to their ability to execute difficult and hazardous tasks safely, efficiently, and cost effectively. However, one current issue with the proliferation of the technology is a shortage of skilled employees due to a lack of education and common negative public misperceptions associated with them. To investigate this, responses from a mixed methods survey will be analyzed. Within the survey, …

Synthesis And Validation Of Acetyl- And Malonyl-Coa Analogs For The Study Of Substrate Specificity And Mechanism Of Acyltransferases, Jianheng Ling

Purdue Undergraduate Research Conference

Acyltransferases (AT) are seen in a wide variety of metabolic functions. These include enzymes in polyketide synthase pathways (PKSs), fatty acid biosynthesis, energy production, and secondary metabolism. The products from these enzymes often include pharmaceutically important natural products. ATs can transfer a variety of metabolites, such as acetyl, malonyl, succinyl, and larger chain fatty acyl groups using Coenzyme A (CoA). The reactivity of the thioester sulfur allows for transfer of these metabolites to secondary metabolites or enzymes. One such example of an AT is type III chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CATIII) from E. coli. CATIII attaches the acetyl moiety of acetyl-CoA to …

Synergistic Effect Of Co-Spray Dried Colistin And Azithromycin For The Treatment Of Lower Respiratory Infections, Athena He

Purdue Undergraduate Research Conference

An ongoing focus of pharmaceutical research is enhancing the efficacy of inhaled medications indicated to treat lower respiratory infections like pneumonia. To achieve this, an inhaled drug must exhibit a high aerosolisation performance, or the ability of fine drug particles to disperse and act at the target site of action in the lungs. Proper deposition of the aerosol drug particles at the target site is dependent upon chemical properties and the aerodynamic diameter of the particles. Preliminary data demonstrated that the aerosolisation performance of colistin, a hydroscopic antibiotic, notably decreased when stored at a relative humidity (RH) of 75% due …

World War One And Edith Wharton's Morocco, Scott Straight, Khalil Williams

Purdue Undergraduate Research Conference

The research is an examination of Edith Wharton, a popular and influential author throughout the 20th century, and whether she portrays an accurate cultural and historical representation of Morocco in her 1920 travelogue, "In Morocco." This research questions if her views on Imperialism, the Arabic world and Morocco are representative of the United States or unique to her. These objectives are addressed through the close analysis of "In Morocco" and relevant book reviews her work. Other forms of media such as newspaper articles and films from the year 1906 to 1925 are analyzed. Primary source documents such as government reports …

Aircraft Concept Design For A Survivable Autonomous Tanker, Neal Ottinger

Purdue Undergraduate Research Conference

The purpose of this concept design is to assess the performance of a survivable and autonomous tanker aircraft that would augment the current U.S. Air Force tanker fleet as a low-cost solution for delivering fuel to fighter aircraft in high-risk combat environments. The design process started with research of the performance parameters and mission profiles of current tanker and fighter aircraft, which was leveraged to create a mission profile and a set of specifications for the conceptual design. The tanker aircraft was required to have a flight range of 3,000 miles, cruise at 35,000 feet at Mach 0.85, and offload …

Use Of Counterfactual Thinking Technique In Storytelling: Effect On Affect And Aesthetic Judgement Of A Destination/An Attraction, Kexin Wang

Purdue Undergraduate Research Conference

The project addresses a significant literature gap in hospitality and tourism marketing with the use of counterfactual thinking strategy, a content strategy that forms an effective brand storytelling mechanism. Hospitality and tourism business offerings are complex with multi-components and a high degree of intangibility. Therefore, content marketing when well executed will play a critical role in tangiblizing our experience-based products and building brand equity. In this project, we aim to identify specific visual traits in brand storytelling that can optimally engage consumers. These identified traits will become useful parameters for hospitality business in their effort to create compelling brand stories. …

Expression Of A Copper Transporter Adp-Ribosylation Factor-1 (Arf1) In The Blood-Cerebrospinal Fluid Barrier, Sai Dwibhashyam

Purdue Undergraduate Research Conference

ADP-ribosylation factor 1 (Arf1) is a GTP binding protein that functions as a secondary messenger in cell signaling to maintain the Golgi architecture for vesicular trafficking. Copper (Cu) is an essential element indispensable for a variety of cellular enzymatic reactions, and its homeostasis is tightly regulated by Cu-transporting ATPases (Cu-ATPases), i.e., ATP7A and ATP7B. Evidence from this lab and others has established that elevated intracellular Cu levels prompt the translocation of ATP7A from the trans-Golgi network (TGN) towards the plasma membrane to facilitate the efflux of Cu. Moreover, literature data suggest that Arf1 is involved in Cu intracellular trafficking. The …

Social Factors Associated With Obstacles To Human Milk Donation, Claire Hornsby

Purdue Undergraduate Research Conference

Background: Human breast milk has been shown to improve the health outcomes of infants. When an infant’s mother’s milk is not available donated breast milk is an option; however, donated human breast milk has a limited supply and is very costly. To increase the supply and availability of donated breast milk we must first understand the population of breast milk donors and the obstacles they experience throughout the donation process. Purpose: To determine the significance of human milk donor demographic and obstacles encountered during the donation process. Methods: A cross-sectional online survey with a convenience sample of 227 women who …

An Investigation Of A Cluster S Mycobacteriophage Genome, Corazon, Genes 4-16: Location And Function, Marina Mehling, Eli Cline, Remington Wilson, Mckenna Pineau

Purdue Undergraduate Research Conference

Mycobacteriophages are a type of virus particle that specifically attack mycobacteria. This attribute can be exploited to fight antibiotic resistance mycobacteria. As of February 2019, only 14 Cluster S types (a specific group of mycobacteriophage) have been completely sequenced and published in the Actinobacteriophage Database. The purpose of this investigation is to establish the presence, location, and function of genes within the genome of a novel bacteriophage, Corazon and add to this database. Corazon, isolated from a soil sample collected in Lafayette, Indiana, is a member of Cluster S and belongs to the Siphoviridae morphotype. It has 109 genes and …

Developing Drug Therapies For Cognitive Damage In Mice Following Brain Radiation, Rachel Yuska

Purdue Undergraduate Research Conference

Pediatric brain cancer patients are at a high risk for radiation induced cognitive impairment due to white matter changes in the brain. Half of six-month radiotherapy survivors develop significant changes in white matter. Previous research has shown that a mouse model can be used to show similar cognitive and behavioral deficits shown in human patients. The purpose of this work is to evaluate the effectiveness of two drug therapies, Donepezil and 3,3-Diindolylmethane, (DIM), that could be used to either protect the brain from radiation injury or cure the cognitive injury and behavioral deficits that result from whole-brain irradiation. This project …

“I Think You Might Feel Isolated:” Infertility Knowledge, Attitudes, And Behaviors Among Italian Women, Kaylee M. Mason, Alyson C. D'Eramo, Lesley J. Flores, Savannah M. Hottle

Purdue Undergraduate Research Conference

Background: Italian women live in a complex reproductive society, which is currently facing several obstacles: the fertility rate is the lowest in Europe and in Italian history. Due to recent legislation, this infertility crisis is far from being settled. Women who experience infertility face adverse physical and psychological outcomes. Objective: The purpose of this study is to investigate Italian women’s infertility perspectives and experiences, and how cultural constructs (e.g., recent legislation, social stigma, and religion) intersect with the issue. Inclusion criteria included women (ages 18 – 50 years) who lived in Florence and were utilizing the Italian healthcare system at …

The Effects Of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (Ptsd) And Depressive Symptomology On National Guard Service Member Commitment, Courtney Isgett

Purdue Undergraduate Research Conference

Military deployments can impact the psychological functioning of service members, sometimes resulting in comorbid diagnoses of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression, which could have ramifications for service members’ commitment to the military. Additionally, the multitude of unique experiences facing National Guard members, such as social isolation and transitions within civilian employment, can have significant impacts on mental health. The goal of this study was to examine the effects of PTSD and depressive symptomology on commitment to military service. We addressed this goal using data from 129 National Guard service members three months (Time 1) and eight-months (Time 2) following …