Digital Commons Network^™

Sex Trafficking And Slavery In Southeast Asia: To Free Captives, James D. Langteau, Timothy D. Dunham

Liberty University Journal of Statesmanship & Public Policy

Millions of people derive income from the sex industry in Thailand. Some claims estimate that the sex industry accounts for 10% of all tourist money spent in Thailand. All sex trafficked people are at high risk of both mistreatment and disease. While not all sex workers are victims of human trafficking, the sex industry is deeply involved in the practice. Sex trafficking is defined as deceiving, coercing or forcing someone to take part in sexual activity. Sex trafficking can take various forms, sometimes by the use of force but often by deception. As those commanded to "go and make disciples," …

The Veiled Lady Fungus, Nick Parbhoo

Symposium of Student Scholars

This semester I studied the Stinkhorn mushroom Phallus Indusiatus. The plan of this research is to develop a protocol for growing this fungus and using it in collaboration with research on it’s web-like properties of the unique veil produced by the fruiting body. This will be distributed to teams of engineers as well as NASA for Dr. Penick’s research. Due to logistics of receiving spores from across the world, we still have not been able to begin growing these mushrooms. However, I have described a protocol that we will follow in order to grow. The protocol contains detailed descriptions …

The Phoenix Sign: Is It Due To Vasodilation? Blinded Prospective Comparing The Effects Of Papaverine To Lidocaine Without Epinephrine, Julia Aguirre

Symposium of Student Scholars

A neurological phenomenon has been observed clinically that when after a small amount of 1% lidocaine (usually less than .5cc’s) has been infiltrated adjacent to the Common Fibular (Peroneal) nerve under sonographic guidance, in patients with drop foot, or significantly weakened motor potentials of the lower extremity dorsiflexors (Extensor Hallucis Longus (EHL), Tibialis Anterior (TA), and Extensor Digitorum Longus (EDL)), the patient will regain partial or full dorsiflexion temporarily during the effect of this nerve block. This has been named the Phoenix Sign, in reference to ancient Greek folklore, as the non-functioning nerve (like the bird) becomes functional due to …

Biocontrol Of Foodborne Pathogens Using Bacteriophages, Dzhuliya Ignatova, Erion Hogan, Simone Dakare, Jean Lu

Symposium of Student Scholars

Biocontrol of Foodborne Pathogens Using Bacteriophages

Dzhuliya Ignatova, Erion Hogan, Simone Dakare, and Jean Lu

Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology

Abstract

Salmonella and Shigella are two important groups of foodborne bacterial pathogens. Salmonella cause an illness called salmonellosis while Shigella cause shigellosis (bacillary dysentery). The most common symptoms of these illnesses are abdominal cramps, diarrhea, and fever. Shigella can also cause bloody diarrhea. It was estimated that each year Salmonella cause 93.8 million cases of gastroenteritis and 155,000 deaths globally. Shigella causes 164.7 million cases and 1.1 million deaths throughout the world yearly. People get these illnesses mainly by …

Investigating The Proton Transfer Dynamics And Vibrational Spectrum Of Hydrogen Oxalate Using Driven Molecular Dynamics Simulations, Martina Kaledin, Dominick Pierre-Jacques, Olivia Cochran, Dayana Salazar, Dalton Boutwell, Martina Kaledin

Symposium of Student Scholars

In this computational chemistry work, we describe ab initio calculations and assignment of infrared (IR) spectra of an intramolecular H-bonding system hydrogen oxalate, C₂O₄H^–. The mechanism and dynamics of proton transfer are of fundamental importance in chemistry and biology. In C₂O₄H^–, proton transfer occurs along the non-linear path. Previous experimental studies are signaling very strong coupling between OH stretch mode and low frequency motions. We calculated IR spectra at 300 K using the direct molecular dynamics (MD) method at the MP2/ aug-cc-pVDZ level of theory and assigned the …

Neurological Gene Jus Is Associated With Aging-Related Muscle Loss In The Fly Model Of Sarcopenia., Soobin An

Symposium of Student Scholars

Sarcopenia is a health condition in the elderly that is associated with degradation of muscle size, mass, and function. It can cause physical disability and, in extreme cases, death. The genetic aspect of sarcopenia is still not well understood. To shed light on sarcopenia mechanisms, we investigated muscle loss in aging fruit flies, Drosophila melanogaster. Our hypothesis was that aging-dependent muscle degradation can be affected by suboptimal functioning of the central nervous system (CNS). We used RNA interference and tissue-specific genetic drivers to induce a selective knockdown (KD) of the julius seizure gene (jus), which is associated …

Therapeautic Cerium Oxide Nanoparticles, Angel E. Vasquez

Symposium of Student Scholars

The overall goal of the research project is to create a glass that produces cerium oxide nanoparticles and as an efficient delivery mechanism. Cerium is able to exist as Ce3+ and Ce4+ because it has two partially filled subshells. This coexistence allows cerium oxide to have antioxidant properties that reduce the number of free radicals in that body that are associated with cancer, diabetes, and neurodegenerative diseases. In our laboratory, using a soluble borate glass, cerium oxide nanoparticles are created to coexist in Ce3+ and Ce4+ valences This borate glass composition is doped with different amounts of Cerium(IV) Oxide and …

S-Layer Increases Predation Ability Of Myxococcus Xanthus

Symposium of Student Scholars

Background: Myxococcus xanthus is a gram-negative soil bacterium that exhibits micro-predatory activities. When starved, M. xanthus produces resistant spores within fruiting bodies for survival. The S-layer is a paracrystalline structure intertwined in many different patterns and is composed of proteins or glycoproteins. A species that produces the S-layer is Aeromonas. A. salmonicida is a strain of Aeromonas that infects fish. A. hydrophila is another pathogenic strain that causes a wide range of human diseases. We investigated the ability of the S-layer to protect Aeromonas from predation by Myxobacteria. Methods: Myxococcus and prey Aeromonas cultures were standardized to a concentration …

Analysis And Characterization Of Microplastics In Water Treatment Plants

Symposium of Student Scholars

Plastic pollution is a growing public concern due to its effect on our environment and oceans. Based on the increasing prevalence of microplastics in the environment, they are now present in potable water. Microplastics can be defined as pieces of synthetic polymers that can typically be measured to be smaller than five millimeters. Microplastics can stem from sources such as beauty products containing microbeads, polystyrene foam packaging, and the deterioration of disposable plastic items. Much of this waste enters natural water bodies, which is the source of our drinking water. Little is known about the microplastics contaminating our water treatment …

Bacteriophages Infecting Enterobacter Cloacae To Reduce Bloater Damage In Fermented Cucumbers

Symposium of Student Scholars

Fermented cucumbers are one of the most important fermented vegetables consumed worldwide. During cucumber fermentations, certain undesirable changes may occur. One of such changes is known as bloater defect (hollow cavities in fermented cucumbers), which is primarily caused by gas-producing bacteria including Enterobacter cloacae. Bloater defect lowers product quality and leads to significant economic loss to the pickle industry, and effective preventative methods are needed. Bacteriophages (phages) are highly host-specific bacterial killers. Use of phages to control unwanted bacteria in foods is a promising approach because phages do not change food properties. This research was to isolate, characterize, and …

Does Cortisol Respond To A Social Perturbation In Captive Bonobos?, Tiffany Ly

Symposium of Student Scholars

All animals are influenced by their environment. For social species, this means that changes in group size or composition can have long-lasting effects on survival or reproduction. When these social species are placed in captivity and new individuals are introduced suddenly by zookeepers or researchers, these events can lead to stress by changing established dominance hierarchies. For example, these interactions can cause stress hormones—like cortisol in primates and humans—to be released in response to meeting unfamiliar individuals. We took advantage of an introduction event happening at a captive research and conservation facility to better understand how introducing a new female …

In Silico Identification Of A Streptococcus Phage From An Unpasteurized Dairy Product

Symposium of Student Scholars

This study aimed to identify novel phages from a West African dairy product, nunu, to better understand the uncharacterized virosphere of a food microbiome. Nunu is a yogurt-like product from spontaneous fermentation of unpasteurized cow milk without a standardized starter culture. Phages and their bacterial hosts make up a microbiome, where their collective metagenome can be studied in silico, or computationally, after next generation sequencing (NGS). The targeted dataset for our study can be found in the Sequence Read Archives under the accession number of ERX2041567. This study utilized several bioinformatics software tools with customized settings: Kraken2, MetaVelvet, Edena, NCBI-BLAST, …

In Silico Isolation Of A Novel Phage For Food Safety Applications Against Pathogenic E. Coli, Daisy Mcgrath

Symposium of Student Scholars

With the advent of next-generation sequencing (NGS) on metagenomes, the elucidation of all genetic material from microbiomes has prompted a renewed interest towards uncultivated members of the virosphere. We describe the discovery of a novel phage from a metagenomic dataset on the West African fermented dairy product, nunu, with a custom bioinformatics workflow to potentially serve as a biocontrol agent against pathogenic E. coli. Initial dataset of ERR2014814 from NCBI was first subjected to Kraken2 to extract novel sequencing reads for further de novo assembly into contigs by MetaVelvet. Resultant contigs served as potential partial phage genomes, then searched …

Individual Variation In Behavioral Plasticity In African Starlings, Jasmine Little

Symposium of Student Scholars

Individual variation in behavioral plasticity in African starlings

Authors: Jasmine Little¹, Dustin Rubenstein², Sarah Guindre-Parker¹

¹Kennesaw State University ²Columbia University

Behavioral plasticity allows individuals to respond appropriately to highly variable environmental conditions in order to increase their fitness under different types of environments. Cooperatively breeding superb starlings (Lamprotornis superbus) living in unpredictable Kenyan savannas experience tremendous variation in annual rainfall from year to year. Rainfall is critical for these birds because it shapes the availability of food (insects), but it remains unclear how the parental care behavior of individual starlings is …

The Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Crisis: Overcoming Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (Mrsa) By Myxobacterial Predation, Basirat Olorunlambe

Symposium of Student Scholars

With the growing threat of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, the need for finding new antibiotics is at an all-time high. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there were over 2.8 million cases of antibiotic-resistant infections in the United States in 2019 and over 35,000 individuals have died from them. Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) accounts for 323,700 of these cases, with 10,600 deaths. MRSA is a common cause of nosocomial infections. Although antibiotics are available to treat MRSA, such as Vancomycin, the possibility remains that these strains are likely to develop a resistance to these compounds as it has …

Effectiveness Of Bacteriophages Against Bloater-Causing Bacteria Enterobacter Cloacae In A Model Food System, Ashley Reed, Dzhuliya Ignatova, Sandra Kopic, Unique Sardeneta

Symposium of Student Scholars

Effectiveness of bacteriophages against bloater-causing bacteria Enterobacter cloacae in a model food system

Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology

Ashley Reed, Dzhuliya Ignatova, Sandra Kopic, Unique Sardeneta, and Jean Lu

Abstract

Cucumber fermentation is one of the most important vegetable fermentations in the United States and Europe. Enterobacter cloacae and other gas-producing bacteria can cause bloater defect (the gas pockets or hollow cavities formed in fermented cucumbers) which lowers the quality and the yield of fermented cucumbers, thereby resulting in significant economic losses to the pickling industry. Cost-effective strategies to control E. cloacae and other microbiota need to be …

Security And Privacy Analysis Of Wearable Health Device, Abm Kamrul Islam Riad

Symposium of Student Scholars

Wearable technology allows for consumers to record their healthcare data for either personal or clinical use via portable devices. As advancements in this technology continue to rise, the use of these devices has become more widespread. In this paper, we examine the significant security and privacy features of three health tracker devices: Fitbit, Jawbone and Google Glass. We also analyze the devices' strength and how the devices communicate via its Bluetooth pairing process with mobile devices. We explore possible malicious attacks through Bluetooth networking. The outcomes of this analysis illustrate how these devices allow third parties to access sensitive information, …

Make Your Wishes Known: Understanding The Challenges And Barriers For Providing Effective Ethics Consults To Low-Income African American Men, Ruth Nwefo

Symposium of Student Scholars

The distrust of the U.S. health care system is prevalent, especially within the African American (AA) community. This distrust is largely based on infamous cases such as the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment and experiments conducted by James Marion Sims on slave women without anesthesia. While these experiments along with many others further advanced medicine, they severed trust between health care institutions and the African American community, bringing upon repercussions still felt today. Although many steps have been taken to rebuild trust in the health care system by establishing effective ethical guidelines, more needs to be done in terms of rebuilding the …

Identification Of Phenotypic Defects In The Zinc Finger Transcription Factor Ztf-29, Trae Dunn

Symposium of Student Scholars

Aging and many aging-associated diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and cancer are characterized by a progressive decline in physiological functions and a decline in the ability to respond to stress. The underlying causes for many aging-associated diseases are unknown. Identifying genes that control normal aging will advance our understanding of the molecular changes that underlie the aging process and might help treat age-associated diseases. In order to get a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms behind these diseases, we utilize the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans as a model organism to examine defects in physiology and aging.

The human PRDM genes code …

Temperature Changes Seen In Lower Extremities After Cpn Local Anesthetic Block, Lora Asberry

Symposium of Student Scholars

Many older patients often suffer from walking issues such as Drop Foot. Drop Foot is caused by the malfunction of nerves in the foot, resulting in the loss of control of the front foot muscle. Within all of our patients, there has been a common fibular palsy, caused by the entrapment of the peroneal nerve. Due to this, they cannot lift up their foot. Some cases are permanent, while others are temporary. In the temporary cases, we have indicated a Phoenix Sign. The Phoenix Sign indicates that a nerve, presumed to be dead, has the capability to be recessed back …

Examining Effects Of The Dna Regulator Lrp On Quorum Sensing Gene Expression In Pseudomonas Aeruginosa, Bradley Lumsden

Symposium of Student Scholars

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic human pathogen that has the capacity to express multiple virulence factors that are regulated through an extensive quorum sensing network. Three major quorum sensing systems have been identified in Pseudomonas species: the acyl homoserine lactones of las and rhl, and the Pseudomonas Quinolone Signal (PQS). We seek to investigate the involvement of a global regulator, Lrp with the expression of these three networks. Specifically, we will compare expression levels of las, rhl, and pqs in wild type P. aeruginosa (MPAO1) with an lrp transposon insertion mutant using quantitative PCR. Through this comparative …

Complimenting A Chlamydomonas Reinhardtii Mutation Using Cell Penetrating Peptides, Matthew Mckenzie

Symposium of Student Scholars

Complimenting a Chlamydomonas reinhardtii Mutation Using Cell Penetrating Peptides

Matthew McKenzie and Jennifer L. Cooper

Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is a photosynthetic model organism most notable for its easily manipulatable genetics. C. reinhardtii uses flagella to swim and optimize its growth conditions in the light. We plan to use cell penetrating peptides (CPPs) to compliment C. reinhardtii that is affected with the IFT46 mutation. Cell penetrating peptides are short peptides that can move across a cell membrane. The novel CPP that we are using is called TaT-CaM. It consists of the trans-activator of transcription (TaT) and the calmodulin domain (CaM) that binds …

A Pilot Study Investigating Adopted Children’S Cultural Identity From Adopting Parents’ Perspective, Alyssa Mcveigh

Symposium of Student Scholars

Adopted children are faced with challenges of identity and a sense of belonging within their adopted family and environments. Research regarding adopted children suggests that their cultural identity is developed by the experiences they have within their biological culture such as, participating in holidays, meeting individuals who are from the same background or visiting their biological country. The goal of this pilot study was to explore the perspectives of adopting parents on their adopted children's cultural identity development, laying a foundation for the next study that will examine adopted children’s (college students) perspective. Ten adopting parents from The United States …

Towards The Identification Of The Soil Microbiome Community Associated With Longleaf Pine, Tori Quillen, Brian Sassi, Joshua Inneh, Geoffrey Eger, Sarah Andrews, Lindsey Gard, Sara Grimm, Grace Krueger, Ian Thomasson, Chelsea Nix

Symposium of Student Scholars

This project is part of a larger study looking at the restoration of the Long-leaf Pine ecosystem in certain Wildlife Management Areas (WMA) in Northwest Georgia. As part of this larger study another group of researchers has been looking at changes in the plant community in the same plots used for this soil microbiome research. Our long-term aim is to look for potential associations between the above and below-ground community structures.

Although research has shown that the health and composition of the microbiome surrounding the roots of plants has a significant impact on the ability of plants to fight and …

The Role Of Proneural Transcription Factor Ngn-1/Neurogenin During Caenorhabditis Elegans Embryonic Development, Michaela Diane Crego

Symposium of Student Scholars

Accurate control of neuronal cell identification and movement is crucial to embryonic development. Defects in this process can lead to neurodevelopmental disorders, creating an imperative for further study. The transcription factor neurogenin is required for multiple neurodevelopmental processes during vertebrate embryonic development and mutations in this gene underpin multiple human neurological disorders. Despite this, little is known about how this gene controls nervous system development and function. Neurogenin is deeply conserved across phyla. As such, we can investigate neurogenin function in simple systems such as the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, which has a close ortholog of neurogenin, ngn-1. Previous work in …

Synthesis Of Tert-Butyl(5-(2-Iodoethyl)-2-Methoxyphenoxy)Dimethylsilane; A Side Chain Precursor That Is Required For The Total Synthesis Of The Hancock Alkaloid, Galipeine, Ahnaf Ahmed, Zane Bertoli, Christopher W. Alexander

Symposium of Student Scholars

Tetrahydroquinolines (THQs) are a group biologically active of N-heterocyclic molecules derived from natural sources that have served as the basis for a variety of anti-bacterial, anti-parasitic, and anti-viral drugs. The 1,2,3,4-tetrahydroquinoline alkaloids, (Hancock alkaloids), Angustureine, Cuspareine, Galipeine and Galipinine, isolated from the bark of the Angostura tree found in Venezuela, have demonstrated anti-malaria activity, analgesic properties, and a range of enzyme inhibitory activity. This poster presents the results to synthesize tert-butyl(5-(2-iodoethyl)-2-methoxyphenoxy)dimethylsilane (tBIMDS) from 2-(4-hydroxyphenyl)ethanol (tyrosol). tBIMDS is a non-commercially available starting material that will be coupled with the alpha-amino-cycloalkylcuprate of N-tert-butyl-1-(3,4-dihydroquinolin-1(2H)-yl)methanimine as the key reaction step in our planned total …

Understanding Molecular Mechanisms Controlling Muscle Type Specificity, Geoffrey Andrews

Symposium of Student Scholars

Skeletal muscle is a compound tissue made of individual muscle fibers. To accommodate everyday activities, such as walking, running, jumping, etc., our muscles are composed of several types of fibers, each expressing a unique set of muscle genes. Interestingly, early in development all muscles in the body are made of the same fiber type, but later they acquire different properties. The mechanism of muscle fiber diversity is not clear, although it may be critical in treating muscle-related diseases or enhancing physical performance. The goal of my project is to identify critical genes and possible mechanisms that control the fate of …

Food Deserts: Hungry For Answers, Lawren Cumberbatch

Symposium of Student Scholars

In 2010, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported that 23.5 million people in the United States live in food deserts. As defined by the USDA, a “food desert” is a neighborhood that lacks healthy food sources. This can be measured by distance to a store, number of stores in an area, individual-level resources such as family income or vehicle availability, and neighborhood-level resources such as availability of public transportation. Past research provides evidence that food deserts are especially likely to occur in communities heavily populated by minorities. As a Black Indian pre-med student aiming to join the world …

Determining Malignancy: Can Mammogram Results Help Predict The Diagnosis Of Breast Tumors?, Taylor Behrens

Symposium of Student Scholars

Even with advancements in treatment and preventative care, breast cancer remains an epidemic claiming more than 40,000 American male and female lives each year. The mammogram dataset that I am analyzing was initially complied in the early 1990s by a team from the University of Wisconsin - Madison. Past research diagnoses breast cancer from fine-needle aspirates. My research focuses on predicting whether we can determine breast cancer diagnoses without the use of invasive procedures and, in particular, whether we can predict breast cancer based on mammogram data. Do measures of gray-scale texture, radius, concavity, perimeter, compactness, area, and smoothness of …

Who Is Next? Evaluating Factors That May Contribute To Heart Failure, Davon Broadwater

Symposium of Student Scholars

Cardiovascular diseases are the number one causes of death globally, and for African Americans those risks are even higher. As an African American university student studying Biology, I am passionate about researching the diseases that affect my race. Current research states that behavioral factors such as obesity, tobacco use, unhealthy diet, and harmful use of alcohol should be avoided. I have chosen to research predictors of what helps patients survive if they already have heart failure. Heart failure develops gradually, where the heart becomes weaker over time and has trouble pumping blood to nourish the cells in the body. Data …