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A Fat Mass And Obesity-Associated Gene Polymorphism Influences Fat Mass In Exercise-Trained Individuals, Sarah Knafo, Alina Ali
A Fat Mass And Obesity-Associated Gene Polymorphism Influences Fat Mass In Exercise-Trained Individuals, Sarah Knafo, Alina Ali
Undergraduate Student Symposium
A single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the fat mass and obesity-associated (FTO) gene is a strong predictor of obesity in humans. The FTO SNP (rs1421085) results in a T to C nucleotide substitution that may result in an increased risk for obesity in individuals who carry at least one C allele. The purpose of this investigation was to characterize the FTO genotype in a cohort of exercise-trained men and women. We tested 108 exercise-trained individuals that included professional mixed martial arts fighters, competitive distance runners, collegiate swimmers, stand-up paddlers as well as a cohort of recreational bodybuilders. Body composition was …
A Study Of Pediatric Oral Health In Ahwa, Gujarat, India, Elizabeth Barley
A Study Of Pediatric Oral Health In Ahwa, Gujarat, India, Elizabeth Barley
Undergraduate Student Symposium
Oral health is a critical factor that plays an imperative role in the overall health and well-being of an individual. Dental health requires regular, preventive care at home as well as professional screenings and interventions. The goal of this research is to examine the current need for dental education for children in poor and rural villages in Gujarat, India. Previous research indicates that children aged of 12-15 have not received proper oral health education. This poster will focus on dental health and hygiene of school aged-children treated at the VAD clinic in Ahwa, Gujarat, India, including an oral health education …
Angiotensin Ii Fragment Receptor Binding In The Mouse Brain, Sarin Itty
Angiotensin Ii Fragment Receptor Binding In The Mouse Brain, Sarin Itty
Undergraduate Student Symposium
Angiotensin IV (Ang IV), one of the metabolites of Angiotensin II, is a key player within several systems including the kidneys, brain, and other non-traditional locations. It has functions varying from blood flow regulation, stress response, seizures, learning, and memory acquisition. Administration of Ang IV has been shown to increase cerebral microcirculation, elicit cognitive improvements, improve memory, restore cognitive deficits, and combat memory impairment. In our lab, we developed a new peptide that acts on the angiotensin system, 127I-Ang 1-7. Previous studies showed that 127I-Ang 1-7 is less susceptible to metabolism and ~1000-fold more potent than Ang 1-7 …
Am I #Metoo?, Maha Barakat
Am I #Metoo?, Maha Barakat
Undergraduate Student Symposium
In this documentary film, “Am I #MeToo?,” women of three different cultures, religions, and ethnicities will be interviewed regarding their view of the Me Too Movement. I will focus on whether they feel included and/or represented when it comes to modern social movements. The film will also question whether certain communities get left out because of the stereotypes surrounding their identities. The goal of this project is to shed light on which people are actually receiving the help they seek in these social movements. I want to provide an understanding of what empowerment is being sought through these ideologies, and …
Behavior Checklist For Preschool Children With Reading Dogs, Ammy Castillo, Jahleeyah Muhammad, Angela Ogero
Behavior Checklist For Preschool Children With Reading Dogs, Ammy Castillo, Jahleeyah Muhammad, Angela Ogero
Undergraduate Student Symposium
The present research looks at how dogs can improve focus and attention during book readings at a preschool to different age groups of students who are learning to read and write. An Achenbach-style behavior checklist will be created and tested for adequate psychometric properties. The distribution of the checklist to different researcher-participants will serve as a method study of inter-rater reliability and intra-rater reliability. The main purpose of this study will be to create a Behavior Checklist for Preschool Children with Reading Dogs with high reliability and validity. Additionally, the developmental differences between the different age groups of preschool students …
Bilingualism And Inhibitory Control: The Advantage Of Speaking A Second Language, Maria Morales
Bilingualism And Inhibitory Control: The Advantage Of Speaking A Second Language, Maria Morales
Undergraduate Student Symposium
Researchers speculate that speaking a second language has benefits that go beyond communicative abilities. Bilingualism has been linked to enhanced performance on executive function (EF) tasks, particularly, those that require inhibitory control. Inhibition is the ability to ignore salient, but distracting, information which may occupy and divert attention from the task at hand. To date, however, the findings have been inconsistent, and one major limitation in the literature is that most studies do not objectively quantify second language proficiency. This study, therefore, used an objective measure of language proficiency and compared bilinguals and monolinguals on tasks that require different levels …
Bittersweet Dreams (Are Made Of This): Unripe Fruit And Women, Vivian Dang
Bittersweet Dreams (Are Made Of This): Unripe Fruit And Women, Vivian Dang
Undergraduate Student Symposium
This paper investigates the role of woman as a medicinal mother in Christina Rossetti’s 1862 Christian epic poem “Goblin Market” in which two young sisters, Laura and Lizzie, struggle with temptation as wicked goblin men attempt to coerce them into consuming their forbidden fruit. The marriage market, called the “Goblin Market” in this poem, highlights the inequities between marriage expectations for men and women and the disadvantages faced by the archetypal medicinal mother in the early development of modern medicine. While men are the producers in this misogynistic marriage market, women are not the true consumers because they are the …
Cell-Cell Communication In Bacteria Mediated By Weak Photon Emission, Roodelyne Pierrelus
Cell-Cell Communication In Bacteria Mediated By Weak Photon Emission, Roodelyne Pierrelus
Undergraduate Student Symposium
Cells, including bacteria communicate via multiple routes. Prominent amongst these is through chemical signaling. However, literature dating back to the 1970s has suggested that cells may communicate using electromagnetic forces, including weak photon (light) emission. To date, however, these predictions remain largely theoretical, or lack robust experimental support. In this study, we sought to determine if chemically separated cultures of bacteria could communicate across a boundary that allows light, but not chemical signals, to pass. To address this question, we cultured Escherichia coli initiated from either low or high density in an experimental setup that involved growing one population on …
Comparative Investigation Of Coupling Methods To Create 2,2'-Bipyridine Adducts, Sabrina Vazquez, Kylie Wilkinson
Comparative Investigation Of Coupling Methods To Create 2,2'-Bipyridine Adducts, Sabrina Vazquez, Kylie Wilkinson
Undergraduate Student Symposium
The project aims to streamline the synthesis of 2,2’-bipyridine adducts, so they can be efficiently synthesized as precursors for ligands in novel organometallic ruthenium complexes. Specifically, the compounds being synthesized are 4,4’-methylated, 4-methylated, 5,5’-methylated, and 5-methylated, 2,2’-bipyridines. Three different synthetic methods will be explored including homo-coupling and crosscoupling reactions as well as the use of a turbo-Grignard reagent. The homo-coupling reaction with or without the turbo-Grignard reagent uses 2-bromo-4-methyl or 2-bromo-5-methyl pyridine as the starting material to produce the 4,4’-methylated adduct or 5,5’-methylated adduct respectively. This is in contrast to the cross-coupling reaction which utilizes a combination of the 2-bromo-4-methyl …
Creating Unique 3-D Printed Molecular Models To Explain The Role Of Higb Toxin In Cleaving Ribosome-Bound Mrna, Carolina Alzamora, Alesa Chabbra, Helana Ghali, Marina Handal, Mahima Kathiria, Alexander Martinek, Jenny Nguyen, Chandni Patel, Shreja Patel, Antoine Pham
Creating Unique 3-D Printed Molecular Models To Explain The Role Of Higb Toxin In Cleaving Ribosome-Bound Mrna, Carolina Alzamora, Alesa Chabbra, Helana Ghali, Marina Handal, Mahima Kathiria, Alexander Martinek, Jenny Nguyen, Chandni Patel, Shreja Patel, Antoine Pham
Undergraduate Student Symposium
The CREST (Connecting Researchers, Educators, and STudents) team at Nova Southeastern University created two physical models depicting the mechanism of endonuclease cleavage by the HigB protein, as described in the literature. Details of the HigB-ribosome complex and its residues for mRNA cleavage were found in the Protein Data Bank file, 4ZSN, and imported into Jmol, a protein visualization software. Specific program commands were developed to manipulate the original file into a format that was later 3D-printed. The models highlight the small ribosomal subunit, ribosomal proteins, tRNA, rRNA, the mRNA strand, and HigB protein along with its residues involved in mRNA …
Disentangling The Effects Of Ptsd From Gwi Via A Network Analysis Of Cell-Cytokine-Symptom Interactions For Improved Diagnostics And Treatments, Jacob Hardy, Ricardo Castellanos
Disentangling The Effects Of Ptsd From Gwi Via A Network Analysis Of Cell-Cytokine-Symptom Interactions For Improved Diagnostics And Treatments, Jacob Hardy, Ricardo Castellanos
Undergraduate Student Symposium
A third of the veterans returning from Operation Desert Storm/Shield in the 1990-91 Gulf War reported cognitive dysfunction, skin rashes, musculoskeletal discomfort, and fatigue. This led to the designation of the unique stress-mediated condition Gulf War Illness (GWI). GWI is similar to other known stressmediated illnesses such as Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in clinical presentation, but as yet we know no concrete understanding of the underlying mechanisms mediating the disease. As such, there are no biological diagnostic to predict the presentation of GWI. Confounding this is the high prevalence of co-morbidity with another war related condition, namely post-traumatic stress disorder …
Effect Of Standardizing Kick Plate Position On Track Start Biomechanics In Elite Swimmers, Angela Cicenia, Caroline Oster
Effect Of Standardizing Kick Plate Position On Track Start Biomechanics In Elite Swimmers, Angela Cicenia, Caroline Oster
Undergraduate Student Symposium
In the swimming track start the kick plate position on the starting block is chosen by the level of comfort of the swimmer but may influence performance. Hundredths of a second often determine the winner of short distance races. Therefore, it is crucial for a swimmer to produce a biomechanically sound start. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of standardizing kick plate positioning based on shin length on selected biomechanics. 15 swimmers (males, 10; females, 5; age, 21.3 ± 1.7 yrs; height, 1.79 ± 0.08 m; mass, 77.4 ± 10.4 kg) participated in the study. Shin …
Effects Of Role Models And Financing Barriers On Women Entrepreneurship, Tiana Henry
Effects Of Role Models And Financing Barriers On Women Entrepreneurship, Tiana Henry
Undergraduate Student Symposium
Entrepreneurship has attracted the attention of many and is seen as the economic engine that has the potential to deliver future job growth. Because of this potential it is crucial to identify what drives entrepreneurship. Extant literature has focused on entrepreneurial wealth--sufficient collateral—as a liquidity constraint hindering small business capitalization. Our study empirically investigates the expected linkage between personal wealth constraints and intention to start a business for women entrepreneurs. Further we examine the moderating effect of successful role models on women entrepreneurship. Funded by a research grant, data has been collected in the state of Alabama from women intending …
El Silbo Gomero - An Ancient Language Evolved, Nicole Suárez
El Silbo Gomero - An Ancient Language Evolved, Nicole Suárez
Undergraduate Student Symposium
Language makes up our identity through tradition and culture. How we communicate in terms of language varies in form and style. The whistling language, El Silbo Gomero, is heard and practiced by the residents of the Canary Islands located in La Gomera. It is not a substitute but a complement to the spoken language that already exists. The whistle makes a sweet tweet and musicality that is quite similar to sounds of birds making it quite easy for the residents of La Gomera to communicate and be heard in their noisy, outdoor environment. The loudness and frequency of the whistle …
Fashion Law: A Comparative Study Of U.S. And European Models, Francesca Chavez
Fashion Law: A Comparative Study Of U.S. And European Models, Francesca Chavez
Undergraduate Student Symposium
The objective of this research project is to bring to light the lack of protection for fashion designers’ intellectual property in a comparative study of intellectual property laws in the United States and the European Union. Legislation and case law surrounding the intellectual property rights of designers in the U.S. enable a culture of “fast fashion” where designs are stolen with ease and mass produced at a low cost to consumers with no legal ramifications. The erosion of intellectual property rights has revealed to have far-reaching ethical implications beyond the injustice the original designer concerning environmental impact and unfair labor …
Harmful Or Helpful?: Helicopter Parenting Among Latina/O Emerging Adults, Alina Alba, Samantha Mirman, Nehemie Dantica, Stephanie Nguyen
Harmful Or Helpful?: Helicopter Parenting Among Latina/O Emerging Adults, Alina Alba, Samantha Mirman, Nehemie Dantica, Stephanie Nguyen
Undergraduate Student Symposium
When young adults enter college, parents sometimes have difficulties relinquishing control over their child. Parents might continue to be overinvolved and oversolicitous in their child’s life while in college, which is referred to as helicopter parenting (HP). HP tends to be developmentally inappropriate for college students, who often seek autonomy and independence during this time of emerging adulthood. Controlling parenting in general has been linked to the impostor phenomenon, or impostorism, which involves distressed feelings of being intellectually fraudulent despite being highly capable. However, from the perspective of Latina/o emerging adults (those between 18 and 25 years old), parental control …
Hollow, Amelia Figueroa, Jieun Son
Hollow, Amelia Figueroa, Jieun Son
Undergraduate Student Symposium
“Hollow” is a narrative short about a girl that breaks up with her emotionally abusive boyfriend after countless months of trying to make things work. In the final moments of their relationship, the story explores how it all started, what lead her to this point, and how she copes and perseveres in the aftermath. The film is directed by Amelia Figueroa and Jieun Son. Other crew members and actors involved TBA. The film is meant to be a narrative message about emotionally abusive relationships. More recently in pop culture, there’s been a wave of songs and stories about toxic relationships …
Human Angiotensinogen Gene Regulation By Hypoxia Inducible Factor - A Cell-Based Study, Sami Ansari, Moiz Khan
Human Angiotensinogen Gene Regulation By Hypoxia Inducible Factor - A Cell-Based Study, Sami Ansari, Moiz Khan
Undergraduate Student Symposium
Alcohol usage is linked to increased blood pressure and fibrotic transformation of the liver after the hepatocyte death. Angiotensinogen (AGT) is the source of Ang II which is produced from AGT by sequential action of renin followed by angiotensin converting enzyme. The blood AGT levels correlate to blood pressure, therefore, an increase in blood AGT levels result into corresponding increase in Ang II levels affecting blood pressure regulation and liver fibrogenic processes. Alcohol metabolism by the liver produces oxidative stress (ROS) that activates hypoxia inducible transcription factor-1alpha (HIF1α). Hepatocytes lose alcohol metabolizing enzymes after passages, therefore HIF-1α mediated activation of …
Improving Hygiene Behaviors Among Rural School-Aged Children: A Public Health Education Program In Dang District, Gujarat, India, Misha Brahmbhatt
Improving Hygiene Behaviors Among Rural School-Aged Children: A Public Health Education Program In Dang District, Gujarat, India, Misha Brahmbhatt
Undergraduate Student Symposium
In India, over two million children die each year from preventable diseases. Poverty, malnutrition, poor sanitation, and unhygienic environment all contribute to alarming child mortality rates. Millions of lives could be saved with proper hygiene education and sanitation, especially in poor and underserved communities. This poster presents the results of an intervention to educate and encourage hygiene behaviors like washing hands, brushing teeth, cutting nails, and bathing among children. Participants were pediatric patients that presented to the NSU-KPCOM medical clinic camp at the Vanbandhu Arogya Dham community health center in the Ahwa, Dang District of India. Results also highlight the …
Influence Of Diisopropyl Fluorophosphate, An Irreversible Cholinesterase Inhibitor, On Autonomic Modulation, Joseph Puthentharayil, Sandeep Beesabathina
Influence Of Diisopropyl Fluorophosphate, An Irreversible Cholinesterase Inhibitor, On Autonomic Modulation, Joseph Puthentharayil, Sandeep Beesabathina
Undergraduate Student Symposium
After the Gulf War, approximately 25-32% of the 700,000 veterans deployed are still facing cardiovascular issues, joint pain and muscle pain, neurophysiological problems, and various symptoms that cannot be medically explained. These medical mysteries are commonly known as Gulf War Illness (GWI). It is important to know that understanding how these various symptoms are related allows for treatment as veterans return back to civilian life, preventing exposure to further diseases. In this study we used mice that were exposed to diisopropyl fluorophosphate (DFP), a cholinesterase inhibitor that can be used as a substitute for sarin gas, which was used during …
Measuring The Difference Volunteers Make: An Evaluation Of A Residential Air Quality Program In San Miguel, Costa Rica, Courtney Commissiong
Measuring The Difference Volunteers Make: An Evaluation Of A Residential Air Quality Program In San Miguel, Costa Rica, Courtney Commissiong
Undergraduate Student Symposium
The purpose of this trip is to serve the residents in the slums of Los Lagos through home renovation work. The public health topic surrounds community and environment improvement. The task is to build two wood-burning stoves and convert two houses from dirt floors to wooden (pallet) floors. There will be little side projects, that the trip participants will complete as needed by each individual family home. This includes painting houses and gardening work. Currently, only a few families have stoves in their homes. The wood-burning stoves that will be built are EPA-certified and thus burn more efficiently. The objective …
Memory And Attention While Scuba Diving, Stephanie Talavera, Anastasia Zwenger
Memory And Attention While Scuba Diving, Stephanie Talavera, Anastasia Zwenger
Undergraduate Student Symposium
There is a high level of cognitive functioning required by SCUBA diving given the task loading that divers experience. Poor memory and attentional skills are reported by divers while under water, especially as the depth of the dive increases. In this study, participants completed both shallow (8 m) and deep (28 m) dives. Participants learned and were tested on a list of 36 words, completed the trail making task to assess executive functioning, and completed the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory to assess anxiety levels. The Profile of Mood States survey was also completed and they provided saliva samples to measure cortisol …
Mind Wandering: The Powerful Effects Of Mindfulness Meditation, Alyssa Garcia, Samantha Suarez, Zykiah Daniels
Mind Wandering: The Powerful Effects Of Mindfulness Meditation, Alyssa Garcia, Samantha Suarez, Zykiah Daniels
Undergraduate Student Symposium
The contents of one’s thoughts can be very powerful. Mind wandering refers to thoughts that are offtask. Negative task-unrelated thoughts (TUTs) decrease sustained attention task performance. Mind wandering leads to a decrease in reading comprehension and working memory, which can negatively impact workplace, academic, and daily performances. Mindfulness meditation training increases sustained attention on the present and decreases attention on the past and future. Specifically, meditation training decreases mind wandering reports. The current study tested whether a brief fifteen minute mindfulness induction could moderate the effect of the negative affect manipulation on a sustained attention task. Participants were randomly assigned …
Mind Your Thoughts: Individual Differences In Mind Wandering, Chethani Chitraacharige, Catherine Weber, Brianna Thompson, Dayna Jetmore
Mind Your Thoughts: Individual Differences In Mind Wandering, Chethani Chitraacharige, Catherine Weber, Brianna Thompson, Dayna Jetmore
Undergraduate Student Symposium
Mind wandering consumes almost half of our day, while influencing behaviors and activities experienced throughout individuals’ lives (Killingsworth & Gilbert, 2010). The impact of mind wandering on task performance may vary but typically, task performance is impaired when people mind wander (Randall, Oswald, & Beier, 2014). The current study examined predictors of mind wandering in both the laboratory and the real world. New to this study we examined mind wandering across two dimensions: emotional valence and intentionality. To measure mind wandering in the lab, participants completed a sustained attention task with thought probes. Mind wandering in the real world was …
Muscle Fatigue Analysis During Welding Tasks Using Semg And Recurrence Quantification Analysis, Cheyenne Doyle-Schreffler, Kaija Ranglin, Nicole Staley
Muscle Fatigue Analysis During Welding Tasks Using Semg And Recurrence Quantification Analysis, Cheyenne Doyle-Schreffler, Kaija Ranglin, Nicole Staley
Undergraduate Student Symposium
This study is a quantitative investigation of the task and muscle activity related to welding through realtime surface electromyography (sEMG) to identify ways to prevent work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) related to welding. Six right-hand dominant participants simulated two different welding tasks to conduct research on 16 muscle groups for three hours. To analyze this data, recurrence quantification analysis (RQA) is used to detect muscle fatigue during the welding task. Average DET% values were calculated among all the participants to find out the determinism values of the first and last 10 min of the experiment for each muscle. The highest difference …
Parasites Of Raptorial Birds Of South Florida, Vanessa Blanchard
Parasites Of Raptorial Birds Of South Florida, Vanessa Blanchard
Undergraduate Student Symposium
Raptors are a polyphyletic group of birds characterized by predatory behavior and physiology. They regulate small mammal and reptile populations, playing key roles in local ecosystems as apex predators; as such, they are themselves largely regulated by their parasites. However, little is known regarding the species composition and structure of their endoparasite communities. To address this knowledge gap, we surveyed endoparasites of southeast Florida raptors: American kestrels (Falco sparverius), peregrine falcons (F. peregrinus), merlins (F. columbarius), Cooper’s hawks (Accipiter cooperii), sharp-shinned hawks (A. striatus), red-shouldered hawks (Buteo jamaicensis), …
Parents: To Or Not To Genetically Enhance Children, Genesis Alvarez
Parents: To Or Not To Genetically Enhance Children, Genesis Alvarez
Undergraduate Student Symposium
Genetic therapy and genetic enhancement technology are not only developing at a rapid rate, but are also now, as proven by a Chinese scientist’s recent breakthrough, being utilized for unnecessary purposes, reasons beyond disease prevention and treatment. This development both drives society’s concern for ethical use of genetic technology and presents issues that society must immediately address. This work acknowledges the ethical concerns society has regarding genetic enhancement and subsequently analyzes a significant consequence that would come about were said practice implemented. This analysis of genetic enhancement’s morality is carried out from an ethics of care perspective, with a particular …
Patterns Of Foraging On Dead Birds In A Coastal Mangrove Environment, Laura John
Patterns Of Foraging On Dead Birds In A Coastal Mangrove Environment, Laura John
Undergraduate Student Symposium
South Florida falls along the Atlantic Flyway, the migratory route for numerous North American bird species. In particular, the coastal ecosystem of South Florida provides habitat, protection and a food resource. However, the migration is energetically taxing and the mortality rate of these birds is unknown. One way to evaluate mortality is to monitor the number of carcasses, but bird carcasses are rarely observed in South Florida coastal habitats, presumably due to a high rate of carcass scavenging. To address this knowledge gap, infrared automatic game cameras at stations baited with frozen feeder chicks (to simulate dead migratory birds) were …
Population Dynamics Of Branching Corals Pocillopora Spp. In Devil's Crown, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, Ean Brinker
Population Dynamics Of Branching Corals Pocillopora Spp. In Devil's Crown, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, Ean Brinker
Undergraduate Student Symposium
Corals in the genus Pocillopora (e.g. P. elegans and P. damicornis) are important reef constructors in the Eastern Tropical Pacific. Pocillopora spp. are also susceptible to bleaching and mortality from temperature shifts associated with El Niño-Southern Oscillation events, affecting their contribution to benthic community structure. Colony numbers and live tissue surface area have been monitored at Devil’s Crown, Galápagos Islands for the past 36 years (1983–2017). This project quantifies the data collected in 2017, in preparation for another site visit in May 2019. In previous analyses, colony numbers ranged from 0 (1983–1995) to a maximum of 154 colonies in …
Pre-Reading And Prewriting In Prekindergarten, Janet Lopez, Lina Orrego-Garcia
Pre-Reading And Prewriting In Prekindergarten, Janet Lopez, Lina Orrego-Garcia
Undergraduate Student Symposium
The present research looks at the behaviors associated with the stages before actual reading and writing in 4-5 year old preschoolers. An Achenbach-style behavior checklist will be created and tested for adequate psychometric properties. The main purpose of this study will be to create a Pre-reading and Prewriting Behavior Checklist with high reliability and validity. The Checklist will be used and verified by multiple independent observers. In future studies, it will be used to test hypotheses for improving preschool development of reading and writing skills. Pre-reading and prewriting skills are important for kindergarten readiness and further academic success, especially in …