Digital Commons Network^™

The Effects Of Environmental Copper Exposure On Developing Zebrafish, Christina Kaucic

Purdue Undergraduate Research Conference

Copper is an essential metal that is key in many metabolic functions and is a vital cofactor in many enzymes. Copper homeostasis is dually important for optimal health. Excess copper has been associated with minor symptoms such as fatigue, weakness, and memory loss as well as with neurological disorders such as Wilson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and some cancers in humans. Similarly, excess copper has been shown to damage visceral organs and produce abnormal behaviors in multiple fish species including the zebrafish who has a high degree of genome sequence homology when compared to humans. For this reason, the zebrafish is …

Do What I Say, Not What I Do? Personal Finance Experiences Of Purdue Alumni And Advice For Current Undergraduate Students, Andi Long

Purdue Undergraduate Research Conference

Undergraduate students in the United States typically lack the necessary money management skills to keep up with their personal finances and meet their current and future financial goals (Lusardi and Mitchell 2014; Lusardi et al. 2010). This has long-term negative consequences on wealth, savings, retirement preparedness, and other important economic outcomes. I conducted a survey of 400 alumni of Purdue’s College of Health and Human Sciences and found that alumni have learned from their experience as college students and have valuable insights for current students. Specifically, they recommend that current students acquire additional knowledge about personal finance than they themselves …

High Wind Alerts For Purdue Campus Based On Observations From The X-Band Teaching And Research Radar (Xtrra), Lauren Warner

Purdue Undergraduate Research Conference

On August 13, 2011, the Indiana State Fair stage collapsed, resulting in multiple fatalities and injuries. The event was caused by a high wind gust from an approaching severe thunderstorm. In light of this tragedy, Purdue established new wind speed limits of 30 mph (13 m s-1) for tents at outdoor events. During these events, volunteers stand outside with handheld anemometers, measuring and reporting when the wind speeds exceed the limit. The recent installation of the XTRRA near Purdue campus may allow these alerts to be automated. The XTRRA, which runs continuously, scans the atmosphere at low elevations over campus …

Deep Reinforcement Learning For Autonomous Inspection System, Romita Biswas, Cassidy Friedrich, Yug N. Rao, Aditya Chakraborty

Purdue Undergraduate Research Conference

The objective of the group is to investigate the application of Reinforced Deep Learning to autonomously complete damage inspection on buildings after natural disasters. By using Reinforced Deep Learning with Convolutional Neural Networks performing image processing, the drone will be trained to navigate itself towards buildings and perform building inspection without scanning the whole structure. The algorithms for Reinforced Deep Learning can be used to drive drones autonomously and perform inspections currently done by humans. The stability of the structure of buildings are unknown when these inspections are performed. This application would greatly reduce the risk of individuals involved in …

Uncovering The True Diversity Of Chanterelle Mushrooms In Indiana, Jairus Chittenden

Purdue Undergraduate Research Conference

Chanterelles are some of the most popular wild mushrooms in Indiana and throughout the Midwest. These attractive orange and yellow fungi are a natural delicacy, and the global trade in chanterelles exceeds $1 billion per year. Like so many other clades of fungi, only a fraction of the chanterelles’ true diversity in North America is known to science. Given their economic and ecological value, I believe that chanterelles deserve a phylogenetic analysis using the full capabilities of modern DNA sequencing technology. This project will determine how many species of chanterelles there are within Indiana and how they are related to …

The Influence Of Tropical Climate On Cognitive Task Performance And Aiming Accuracy In Young International Fencers, Nicolas Robin, Aurelie Collado, Stephane Sinnapah, Elisabeth Rosnet, Olivier Hue, Guillaume R. Coudevylle

Journal of Human Performance in Extreme Environments

This study examined how a tropical climate (TC) influences the cognitive and aiming task performances of young international fencers. The participants performed the tasks in TC and an air-conditioned room. In each session, they completed questionnaires evaluating affective states, fatigue, and comfort and thermal sensations. They also carried out cognitive tasks (simple and choice reaction time, attention, and vigilance tasks) and a motor task testing aiming accuracy with a sword while wearing protective clothing and a mask. TC, which was observed to decrease thermal discomfort, was revealed to decrease aiming accuracy and positive affective states. There was no deleterious effect …

A Path Loss Model For Through The Soil Wireless Communications In Digital Agriculture, Abdul Salam

Faculty Publications

In this paper, a path loss model is developed to predict the impact of soil type, soil moisture, operation frequency, distance, and burial depth of sensors for through-the-soil wireless communications channel. The soil specific model is developed based on empirical measurements in a testbed and field settings. The model can be used in different soils for a frequency range of 100MHz to 1GHz. The standard deviation between measured and predicted path loss is from 4-6dB in the silt loam, sandy, and silty clay loam soil types. The model leads to development of sensor-guided irrigation system in the field of digital …

A Comparison Of Path Loss Variations In Soil Using Planar And Dipole Antennas, Abdul Salam

Faculty Publications

In this paper, an empirical investigation of propagation path loss variations with frequency in sandy and silty clay loam soils has been done using planar and dipole antennas. The path loss experiments are conducted using vector network analyzer (VNA) in sandy soil testbed, and greenhouse outdoor silty clay loam testbed for different operation frequencies and communication distances. The results show that the planar antenna can be used for subsurface communications in a wide range of operation frequencies. The comparison paves the way for development of sensor-guided irrigation system in the field of digital agriculture.

Underground Soil Sensing Using Subsurface Radio Wave Propagation, Abdul Salam, Akhlaque Ahmad

Faculty Publications

Continuous sensing of soil moisture is essential for smart agriculture variable rate irrigation (VRI), real-time agricultural decision making, and water conservation. Therefore, development of simple techniques to measure the in-situ properties of soil is of vital importance. Moreover, permittivity estimation has applications in electromagnetic (EM) wave propagation analysis in the soil medium, depth analysis, subsurface imaging, and UG localization. Different methods for soil permittivity and moisture estimation are time-domain reflectometry (TDR), ground-penetrating radar (GPR) measurements, and remote sensing. One major bottleneck in the current laboratory-based permittivity estimation techniques is off-line measurement of the collected soil samples. At that, the remote …

Trans-Trismethoxy Resveratrol Decreased Fat Accumulation Dependent On Fat-6 And Fat-7 In Caenorhabditis Elegans, Yiren Yue, Peiyi Shen, Amanda L. Chang, Weipeng Qi, Kee Hong Kim, Daeyoung Kim, Yeonhwa Park

Department of Food Science Faculty Publications

trans-Trismethoxy resveratrol (TMR) is a methyl analog of resveratrol. It is found to exhibit enhanced biological effects compared to resveratrol, such as inhibition of cancer cell growth and pro-apoptotic activities. However, the role of TMR in lipid metabolism is not fully understood. In this study, we used Caenorhabditis elegans, an in vivo nematode model which has been widely applied in disease research, including research on obesity, to investigate the effect of TMR on lipid metabolism. Treatment with TMR (100 and 200 μM) for 4 days significantly reduced triglyceride accumulation (14% and 20% reduction over the control, respectively) of C. elegans, …

Alerts For Community Pharmacist-Provided Medication Therapy Management: Recommendations From A Heuristic Evaluation, Margie E. Snyder, Heather A. Jaynes, Stephanie A. Gernant, Julie Diiulio, Laura G. Militello, William R. Doucette, Omolola A. Adeoye-Olatunde, Alissa L. Russ

Department of Pharmacy Practice Faculty Publications

Background
Medication therapy management (MTM) is a service, most commonly provided by pharmacists, intended to identify and resolve medication therapy problems (MTPs) to enhance patient care. MTM is typically documented by the community pharmacist in an MTM vendor’s web-based platform. These platforms often include integrated alerts to assist the pharmacist with assessing MTPs. In order to maximize the usability and usefulness of alerts to the end users (e.g., community pharmacists), MTM alert design should follow principles from human factors science. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to 1) evaluate the extent to which alerts for community pharmacist-delivered MTM align …

Transforming Trauma: Resilience And Healing Through Our Connections With Animals, Philip Tedeschi, Molly Anne Jenkins

Purdue University Press Books

Have you ever looked deep into the eyes of an animal and felt entirely known? Often, the connections we share with non-human animals represent our safest and most reliable relationships, offering unique and profound opportunities for healing in periods of hardship. This book focuses on research developments, models, and practical applications of human-animal connection and animal-assisted intervention for diverse populations who have experienced trauma. Physiological and psychological trauma are explored across three broad and interconnected domains: 1) child maltreatment and family violence; 2) acute and post-traumatic stress, including military service, war, and developmental trauma; and 3) times of crisis, such …

Components Of The Triarchic Model Of Psychopathy Are Nested Within The Five-Factor Model, Courtland S. Hyatt, Donald R. Lynam, Joshua D. Miller

Department of Psychological Sciences Faculty Publications

The triarchic model of psychopathy is a recently developed model of psychopathy that identifies three primary domains: Boldness, Meanness, and Disinhibition. These traits overlap substantially with general and pathological five-factor model of personality (Boldness = low Neuroticism + high Extraversion; Meanness = low Agreeableness; Disinhibition = low Conscientiousness). In the current study (total N = 1,266), we compare domains from the triarchic model of psychopathy and five-factor model in relation to self- and informant-report of external criteria (e.g., pathological traits, antisocial behavior), and quantified their absolute similarity using a profile-matching approach. The corresponding traits from these models show large interrelations …

Mapping Industry Standards And Integration Opportunities In Business Management Curricula, Margaret Phillips, Heather Howard, Alyson Vaaler, David E. Hubbard

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Industry standards have a significant impact on business as a means to eliminate waste, reduce costs, market products (e.g., for quality, safety, interoperability) and lessen liability (Thompson, 2011). Consequently, an understanding and the ability to use standards, agreed upon practices among interested or vested parties, is a critical workplace competency for those engaged in business and industry. To have a workforce competent in the use of standards, higher education curricula must be developed to integrate standards education at appropriate points within the curriculum. Despite the importance of standards, they are not universally integrated into the college and university curricula.

Given …

Willingness To Pay Of Nigerian Poultry Producers And Feed Millers For Aflatoxin-Safe Maize, Andrew M. Johnson, Tahirou Abdoulaye, Bamikole Ayedun, Joan R. Fulton, Nicole Olynk Widmar, Akande Adebowale, Ranajit Bandyopadhyay, Victor Manyong

Department of Agricultural Economics Faculty Publications

Dietary aflatoxin exposure is a widespread problem in the developing world and causes severe negative health consequences to humans and livestock animals. A new biological control product, called Aflasafe, has been introduced in Nigeria to mitigate aflatoxin contamination of maize in the field and in storage. No known prior work has estimated how much African agribusinesses using maize for animal feed will pay for aflatoxin-safe maize. This study measured the levels of Aflasafe awareness, surveyed current aflatoxin management practices, and estimated, using choice experiments, willingness to pay (WTP) for aflatoxin-safe maize by Nigerian poultry producers and feed millers. Data was …

A Systematic Review Of Studies On Educational Robotics, Saira Anwar, Nicholas Alexander Bascou, Muhsin Menekse, Asefeh Kardgar

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

There has been a steady increase in the number of studies investigating educational robotics and its impact on academic and social skills of young learners. Educational robots are used both in and out of school environments to enhance K–12 students’ interest, engagement, and academic achievement in various fields of STEM education. Some prior studies show evidence for the general benefits of educational robotics as being effective in providing impactful learning experiences. However, there appears to be a need to determine the specific benefits which have been achieved through robotics implementation in K–12 formal and informal learning settings. In this study, …

Infant Temperament As An Indicator Of Patterns In Heart Activity During Arm Restraint, Dina Al Ghabra, Alexis Morell, Tessa Garwood, Ellie Bonanno

Purdue Undergraduate Research Conference

Previous investigations have produced mixed results regarding the relationship between infant temperament and autonomic physiology. The present study assessed whether temperament, as measured by Negative Affect (NA) scores on the Infant Behavior Questionnaire (IBQ-R), was predictive of changes in heart rate throughout an arm restraint task in typically-developing infants (n=24; 10-13 months). Maternal responses to the IBQ-R were collected prior to a developmental assessment (NA=3.47+0.9; M+SD). Infants wore EKG monitors throughout the assessment. We hypothesized that (1) higher NA scores would be associated with a steeper rise in heart rate at the onset of arm restraint and (2) higher NA …

The Significance Of The Victorian Era And Digitalized Humanities, Alicia Geoffray

Purdue Undergraduate Research Conference

This project involves pinning geospatial locations and allowing for easier visualization of their significance during the Victorian era on Central Online Victorian Educator (COVE); thus, digitizing and making the research process easier for Victorian scholars. The project is significant because it allows for easier visualization of integral cities, houses, and other significant locations and displays how these various locations connect and overlap. These locations are then hyperlinked within a multitude of scholarly articles published on British Representation and Nineteenth-Century History (BRANCH). Through deeper research into these locations, and in retrofitting the BRANCH articles with hyperlinks to the COVE map, this …

Analyzing The Effect Of Air Pollution Regulations On Aerosol Concentrations In Urban Areas, Bode Hoover

Purdue Undergraduate Research Conference

Aerosols, any solid or liquid suspended in air, have significant environmental and biological effects. Fine particulate matter can cause serious respiratory issues and aerosols in the atmosphere absorb and reflect radiation which can warm or cool the atmosphere, respectively. This study compares air quality at two urban areas, the city of Wilmington, CA in the United States and the city of Arequipa, Peru. Concentrations of emissions are under higher regulation standards in California than in Peru which is a developing country. Air filters that measured total suspended particles were collected every 24 hours on Marine Avenue in Wilmington, CA and …

Detecting Obsessive Compulsive Personality: The Agreement Between Self And Others, Srinithya Nagarajan

Purdue Undergraduate Research Conference

The Five Factor Obsessive Compulsive Inventory-Short Form (FFOCI) is a brief measure of maladaptive variants of the Five Factor Model (FFM) personality traits that are linked to obsessive compulsive personality disorder (OCPD), which includes problematic aspects such as perfectionism, workaholism, and rigidity. The present study provides further validation to FFOCI-SF by investigating the degree of overlap of self-report ratings of FFOCI-SF, as well as ratings from a close friend. A total of 302 undergraduates completed FFOCI-SF, general personality measures and the information of a close friend to serve as an informant rater. One hundred thirty-five informants responded to the invitation …

Overlapping Scriptworlds: Chinese Literature As A Global Assemblage, Wai-Chew Sim

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article “Overlappinig Scriptworlds: Chinese Literature as a Global Assemblage,” Wai-Chew Sim offers a globalist vision or understanding of Chinese literary studies/Sinophone studies. Deploying the notion of scriptworld (Damrosch), he examines how the Chinese, English, and Malay-language scriptworlds interact in the Southeast Asian context. He traces the rhizomatic connections between Joo Ming Chia’s Exile or Pursuit, a Singapore Sinophone text that explores multiple belongings, and two novels: M. L. Mohamed’s Confrontation (originally published as Batas Langit), and T.H. Kwee’s The Rose of Cikembang (originally published as Bunga Roos dari Cikembang). Tracing the sinophonicity of the latter …

Final Words, Final Shots: Kurosawa, Bortko And The Conclusion Of Dostoevsky’S Idiot, Saera Yoon, Robert O. Efird

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In their article "Final Words, Final Shots: Kurosawa, Bortko, and the Conclusion of Dostoevsky’s Idiot" Robert O. Efird and Saera Yoon discuss film adaptations of Dostoevsky’s novel. Both in his homeland and abroad, the major works of Fyodor Dostoevsky have largely made for disappointing film adaptations. This article examines the cultural diversity and aesthetic motivations underlying two very different adaptations of his novel Idiot, with particular attention to the concluding scenes. Both Akira Kurosawa and Vladimir Bortko follow the novelist's lead by hinting at some form of hope and future redemption amidst the tragedy but, for different reasons, …

Urban Landscape In Mcewan's Narrative Representation Of Berlin, Barbara J. Puschmann-Nalenz

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Urban Landscape in McEwan's Narrative Representation of Berlin," Barbara J. Puschmann-Nalenz discusses the image of Berlin created in Ian McEwanﹸs novel The Innocent (1990) and the chapter titled "Berlin" in Black Dogs (1992). It starts from the hypothetical statement that while British literary fiction set in Berlin is rare after 1970 the genres of spy and detective novel, where crime and violence take center stage, shape the image of the city in highbrow narratives as well. The perspectivization of the cityscape, including its monuments, through the protagonists fundamentally influences its image. In The Innocent the limited view …

Retro-Future In Post-Soviet Dystopia, Sergey Toymentsev

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article “Retro-Future in Post-Soviet Dystopia” Sergey Toymentsev explores the vision of retrospective future in such Russian novels as Tatiana Tolstaya’s The Slynx, Vladimir Sorokin’s Day of the Oprichnik, Olga Slavnikova’s 2017, and Dmitry Bykov’s Zhd. Unlike Zamyatin’s and Platonov’s anti-Soviet satires, post-Soviet dystopias do not respond to any utopian narrative, but project the historical and ideological reality of Russia’s violent (predominantly Soviet) past into the future. Such a traumatic reenactment of the Soviet past in the dystopian future testifies to the rise of authoritarianism in contemporary Russia as well as its incomplete collective memory …

On Imaginary Content Analogies In Musico-Literary Imitation, Rodrigo Guijarro Lasheras

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "On Imaginary Content Analogies in Musico-Literary Imitation,” Rodrigo Guijarro Lasheras analyzes "imaginary content analogy," a term often used in musico-literary studies to describe a type of imitation of music in literature. His paper aims to examine and characterize this important concept, establishing several of its features that musico-literary criticism has not normally paid attention to, such as its static or dynamic character, its implicit or explicit musical correlate, and its relation to vocal music. He argues that all imaginary content analogies must have a correlate, and that, despite the fact that we normally think of them as …

The Disenchantment Of History And The Tragic Consciousness Of Chinese Postmodernity, Alberto Castelli

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

Magic Realism brings fantastic events into the frame of the narration. Yet it cannot quite be defined. At the very start of the process of definition, there is a question: Magic Realism is a mode of narration, or rather a post-colonial movement rising sociological issues alternative to the logic of power? The paper parallels and juxtaposes Latin American Magic Realism and the literary experience of Chinese literary Avant-garde in the 80s, similar apocalyptic thematic, but different narrative structures. Relating to the fictional universe of Can Xue and Yu Hua, the aim is to illuminate an exclusive mode to narrate history: …

Okonkwo’S Reincarnation: A Comparison Of Achebe’S Things Fall Apart And No Longer At Ease, Mary J. N. Okolie, Ginikachi C. Uzoma

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

Abstract: The reincarnation myth is a global concept, founded basically in religion and tradition. It was especially vibrant in the ancient times in places like Egypt, Greece, and in continents like Asia and Africa, which possess varying understandings of the myth. In Igbo tradition, for example, it is believed that reincarnation occurs within a family. And that some of the marks of reincarnation are usually the possession of the birthmark or certain other physical features and the exhibition of character and behavioral traits of a deceased person by a living member of his/her immediate or extended family. Thus, reincarnation entails …

Thermodynamics Of Coherent Structures Near Phase Transitions, Julia M. Meyer

Purdue Undergraduate Research Conference

Phase transitions within large-scale systems may be modeled by using partial differential equations, in which system dynamics are captured by appropriate polynomial potentials. The ability to simulate and predict phase transition behavior has many applications, from material behaviors (e.g., liquid crystal phase transformations, coherent movement of granular materials) to traffic congestion. Coherent structures in these systems evolve along a single spatial dimension randomly through time; thus, the statistical behavior of these fields is of greater interest than particular system results. Past research focused on deriving solutions to the system probability density function (PDF) and verifying solutions for fourth-order and other …

Alkynylnicotinaamide-Based Compounds As Abl1 Inhibitors With Potent Activities Against Drug-Resistant Cml Harboring Abl1(T315i) Mutant Kinase, Alyssa Lambrecht

Purdue Undergraduate Research Conference

Chronic Myeloid Leukemia makes up about 10% of all leukemia diagnoses. Although the 5-year survival rate has increased from 6% to 90% in the last 30 years from the introduction of imatinib, there are several mutated forms of the cancer that are resistant treatment. Treatments such as Ponatinib can be used to treat CML patients that harbor the T315I mutation, but they have toxic effects on the body. Safer treatments need to be discovered to inhibit the proliferation of these resistant lines by inhibiting the activity of proteins and mutated proteins. Through research done utilizing cell cultures of CML lines …

Effects Of Evaporation On Rain Water Isotope Composition, Brianna Westerberg

Purdue Undergraduate Research Conference

Isotopes are very useful in understanding hydrologic processes. When water evaporates, the lighter isotopes will evaporate more quickly than their heavier counterparts. When collecting water samples in an open environment, we want to make sure that what we are sampling is what fell. The purpose of this study was to test two techniques to limit evaporation and observe the isotope composition of water before and after evaporation, and how the weights of the isotopes effect the water composition before after a test period. Various methods were used to test how evaporation can be slowed. Nine collectors were filled with various …