Digital Commons Network^™

Understanding The Expression And Role Of Pros-1 In The Male Gonad Of C. Elegans, Jack Bozik

Undergraduate Theses

The gene pros-1 is a transcription factor that is highly expressed within neuronal sheath cells, glial cells, and excretory canal cells. pros-1 plays a role in cell determination of those cell types in the nematode C. elegans, which promotes organismal development. But the degree to which pros-1 presence is important is still not fully understood, because there are many genes involved in development that when mutated or damaged can result in unexpected phenotypes or even total loss of function to a certain developmental mechanism. What makes pros-1 valuable to research is that it is a functional homologue to a …

Microplastics’ Effects On Painted Lady Butterfly Survivorship, Migratory Behavior, And Fecundity, Kaelin Ferland

Biology Student Scholarship

Kaelin Ferland ’23
Major: Environmental Biology
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Rachael Bonoan, Biology

Human activity is affecting our planet at a microscopic level. In 2021, scientists first discovered microplastics in honeybees. Subsequent research has found that honeybee gut bacteria concentrations decrease because of microplastic ingestion, decreasing honeybee survivorship. The same might be true for other insect pollinators including butterflies. When butterflies visit flowers to feed, they simultaneously collect pollen on their wings. Due to the similar particulate structure of pollen and microplastics, it’s possible that butterflies collect microplastics in addition to food. We used painted lady butterflies to investigate if microplastics …

The Predation Resistance Of Squashed E. Coli, Kathryn Mulvey, Caroline Zielinski

Biology Student Scholarship

Kathryn Mulvey ’23, Major: Biology

Caroline Zielinski ’23, Major: Biology

Faculty Mentor, Dr. Laura Williams, Biology

Predatory bacteria hunt and kill other bacteria, including pathogens that cause disease in humans, which makes them a promising alternative for treating antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections. Currently, it is unknown whether and how pathogens evolve resistance to predation. To investigate this, we are studying interactions between E. coli, which is a model organism for pathogenic bacteria, and predatory Bdellovibrio. When we co-cultured E. coli with a particular strain of predatory Bdellovibrio, we observed the emergence of predation-resistant E. coli that had reduced susceptibility to killing …

See You Later Alligator: Forelimb And Wrist Of Alligators Walking The Treadmill, Erin Trammell, Inthavha Singharaj, Sasha Rudich

Biology Student Scholarship

Erin Trammell ’23, Major: Biology

Inthavha Singharaj ’23, Major: Biology

Sasha Rudich ’23, Major: Biology, Minors: Women and Gender Studies

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Daivd Baier, Biology

We used XROMM, which combines biplanar X-ray video and digital bone models, to measure how the alligator skeleton moves during high walks on a treadmill. The crocodilian high walk and wrist structure are unique compared to other reptiles who walk with a sprawled limb posture. Here, we describe how bones of the forearm, wrist, and hand coordinate during alligator strides. We find that elbow is more than just a simple hinge, the forearm bones …

The Evolution Of Pollution Resistance In The Atlantic Killifish, Matthew Rock

Biology Student Scholarship

Matthew Rock ’23
Major: Environmental Biology
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Jeffrey Markert, Biology

We examined genetic variation in Atlantic Killifish populations to better understand their ability to persist in Superfund sites like New Bedford Harbor, which is polluted with a mix of organic toxicants and heavy metals. As predicted, loci associated with the Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor (AHR) Detoxification Pathway show large differences in allele frequencies between polluted and non-polluted sites.

The Evolution Of Science Education In High School And Undergraduate Institutions, Sanda Lalicic

All HCAS Student Capstones, Theses, and Dissertations

This literature review paper discusses the history, evolution, and current learning trends related to teaching biology in a 9-12 classroom, along with the history and evolution and suggestions for improvement and implementation. Science education has changed rapidly over the past few decades, and with modern technology and research available, the curriculum is ever-changing. With the medical and STEM fields growing at high rates, the focus on student comprehension and retention of science education is at an all-time high. This has caused a shift from a traditional classroom to a more modern, natural learning environment in schools. This paper reviews three …

Genetic Disruption Of Metabolic Balance In Mouse Cerebellar Neurons Causes Deficits In The Postnatal Development Of Their Dendritic Tree And Mouse Motor Skills, Hayden Lens, Mary Boghos

Biology Student Scholarship

Hayden Lens ’23, Major: Biology

Mary Boghos ’23, Major: Biology

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Ileana Soto Reyes, Biology

The Npc1nmf164 mutant mouse is an animal model for the human disease Niemann-Pick type C (NPC). NPC is a lysosomal storage disease that is acquired by autosomal recessive inheritance. It is mostly caused by mutations in NPC1, a protein that transports cholesterol out of the lysosomes, therefore abnormal accumulation of cholesterol in lysosomes is a hallmark of NPC. Cerebellar Purkinje cells (PCs) are severely affected by NPC, in fact, PCs degenerate first and to a larger extent at childhood stages. Therefore, we have …

Circadian Rhythm Effects Of Social Jetlag And Exercise On Stress Levels And Weight Change Of Fischer Rats, Brian Schwalm

Biology Student Scholarship

Brian Schwalm ’23
Major: Biology
Minor: Economics
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Pamela Snodgrass, Biology

Diversity Of Bees In Trees On Urban College Campus, Aidan Castricone, Courtney Caccamo

Biology Student Scholarship

Aidan Castricone ’24, Major: Environmental Biology

Courtney Caccamo ’23 Majors: Environmental Biology and Psychology

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Rachael Bonoan, Biology

It is well known that insect pollinator populations are declining and a lack of nutrients (i.e flowering plants) may be contributing to this decline. Insect pollinators forage for pollen and nectar, which provides proteins, fats, and carbohydrates, from flowering plants. Current research on pollinator foraging behavior focuses on pollinators that forage on the ground thus overlooking those that forage in trees. Trees such as Kousa dogwood (Cornus kousa) and crabapple (Malus sp.) bloom in early Spring, even before …

Circadian Rhythms Effect On Brain Metabolism In Mutant Flies, Olivia Kozub

Biology Student Scholarship

Olivia Kozub ’23
Major: Biology
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Pamela Snodgrass, Biology

All organisms have an internal clock that drives physiological processes known as circadian rhythms. Being able to predict the environment and prepare for it, rather than simply react, is so critical to survival that this ability has been conserved from single cell organisms all the way to humans. These rhythms can be measured at the gene level, the protein level, the cellular level, the tissue level, all the way to oscillations in behavior. Measuring the metabolic activity of normal fly brains at different times of day will chart the …

Analyzing Behavior In Flies Modeling Frontotemporal Dementia, Colin Mcnulty, Julia Bonavolonta, Connor Barber

Biology Student Scholarship

Colin McNulty ’24, Major: Biology

Julia Bonavolonta ’24, Majors: Biology and Spanish

Connor Barber ’24, Major: Biology

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Marla Tipping, Biology

In this project, the goal is to be able to study the behavioral differences in Drosophila melanogaster who model the neurological disease frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Flies modeling FTD are placed into multiple different tubes and loaded into an activity monitor; the same is done with control flies who do not model FTD. Over time, this machine tracks sleep cycles, movement, eating habits, and other behaviors. These results are filed into a computer where they then are then …

Be Happy, But Not Too Happy: Taiwanese And American Childrearing Differences In Regulation Of Ideal Affect., Samantha Dietel

Biology Student Scholarship

Samantha Dietel ’23
Majors: Psychology and Elementary/Special Education
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Smaranda Lawrie, Psychology

Comparison Of Globalfiler Pcr Amplification Inhibition Due To Humic Acid And Canine Dna, Mckinzie Bundy

Honors Projects

To obtain a DNA profile from a crime scene sample, the DNA must undergo amplification through the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). The PCR process can be inhibited by factors that increase DNase I activity or by factors that interfere with Taq polymerase binding to the DNA. This study compares inhibition to the PCR process caused by dog DNA with inhibition caused by humic acid. The GlobalFiler PCR Amplification Kit was tested using mixtures of dog DNA and human control DNA and mixtures of humic acid and human control DNA. The profiles obtained from these mixtures were then analyzed for instances …

Lesson Plans In Astronomy, Ecology And Biology, Admin Stem For Success

STEM for Success Showcase

This document contains various lesson plan ideas for concepts within the fields of biology, ecology, astronomy, and geology.

Plant Maze, Admin Stem For Success

STEM for Success Showcase

Students plant bean sprouts to observe their growth.

Transcriptional Silencing Of Cdk18 And Its Role In Lung Carcinogenesis Of Brg1-Mutant Lung Cancers, Loryn M. Phillips

Biology ETDs

BRG1 is mutated in 10% of lung cancers, making this mutation clinically relevant. The downstream effects of BRG1 included significantly affecting the cell cycle control and chromosomal replication pathway. CDK18, a cyclin-dependent kinase, was determined to be the gene with significantly decreased expression (p < 0.0001) in the cell cycle control and chromosomal replication pathway. CDK18 is active during the S-phase of the cell cycle and required for genomic stability. Studies were conducted to determine the epigenetic mechanisms that contributed to the repression of CDK18. Histone methylation contributes to the repression of CDK18, and histone deacetylation globally regulates expression of CDK18, while cytosine methylation was found to not contribute to CDK18 expression. Studies were performed to elucidate CDK18 functional role lung carcinogenesis and the genome-wide impact of CDK18 repression. Repression of CDK18 affects cell migration, proliferation, cell-cell signaling, and anchorage-independent growth that contribute to cancer initiation and progression.

The Science Of Baking Bread, Admin Stem For Success

STEM for Success Showcase

Activity plan to teach biology and chemistry using a lesson on the baking of bread.

From Creek To Cliff – Salamander Abundance In Wayne National Forest, Era Bakia

Student Research and Creative Activity Expo

Salamanders are indicator species; by analyzing trends in populations over time, managers can improve the health of ecosystems.

Effects Of Environment On The Sonoran Desert Toad In A Changing Climate, Emma Stefanick

Student Research and Creative Activity Expo

Environmental conditions from the past, present, and future lend a clue to the status of the Sonoran Desert toad.

Locomotor Biomechanics In Stream Gobies, Rhinogobius Sp.: Functional Performance Of Waterfall-Climbing Behavior, Ernest W. Murphy

Student Scholar Showcase

Gobiidae is the taxonomic classification of a large fish family comprising over 2,000 species. A few goby species have the unique ability of scaling waterfalls using pelvic fins that are fused into a suction disc (pelvic sucker) located on the ventral side of the body, aiding them in upstream migration to freshwater feeding and reproduction locations. This study aimed to investigate the locomotor biomechanics of Rhinogobius goby fish due to the lack of literature in the area. In particular, climbing performance variables (pressure differential, force, endurance, and kinematics of attachment), pelvic sucker fatigability, and ontogenetic patterns of physical development and …

Lifelines Spring 2023, Southern Adventist University

Lifelines - Biology Department Newsletter

The Spring 2023 issue of Lifelines contains articles on two professor's journey to Southern, biology and allied health graduates, and a student missionary.

Apoptosis Recognition Receptors Regulate Skin Tissue Repair In Mice, Olivia Justynski

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

The skin is an essential barrier against the outside world, and must withstand constant exposure to damage from the environment. When this barrier is broken, it must be repaired quickly and effectively in order to prevent infection and restore function. The skin’s ability to heal wounds is vital for human health, and insufficient wound treatment is a major clinical problem, contributing to decreased quality of life and increased healthcare costs for many patients due to chronic or non-healing wounds. The complex process of wound healing involves the coordination of many cell types and signals, which were here investigated using single-cell …

Environmental Exposures From The Local To The Global: A Comparison Of The Experiences And Consequences Of Exposure Among The Qom Of Formosa, Argentina, And Residents Of New Haven, Connecticut, Carlye Chaney

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals and other environmental contaminants is globally ubiquitous and can have adverse consequences on health throughout the lifespan. In this project, I investigated the experiences and consequences of environmental contaminant exposure for maternal and infant health in two places that differ environmentally, politically, and socioeconomically –Namqom in Formosa, Argentina, and New Haven, Connecticut. Specifically, I hypothesized that environmental contaminant exposure influences human well-being and physiology, as assessed from the human milk and urine metabolome, through changes in the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis in both infancy and adulthood.I first investigated the local context, both historical and present, that …

Delineating Novel Checkpoints In Metabolic Syndromes, Jonathan Sun

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

The global rise in obesity and overnutrition has rapidly increased diagnosedmetabolic syndromes, including fatty liver disease and hypercholesterolemia. This growing burden of metabolic diseases elicits an immense health and economic burden on society, as metabolic syndromes are significant risk factors for co-morbidities such as cancer and heart failures, leading to an attributable cost of $147 billion in US healthcare spending. Given this, it is of high importance to uncover the dynamic metabolic programs that drive the progression of these metabolic syndromes toward end-stage diseases. Metabolic rewiring during overnutrition can regulate the expression of feedback loops, referred hereupon as metabolic checkpoints, …

Cpg Island Turnover Predicts Evolutionary Change In Enhancer Activity, Acadia Kocher

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Enhancers play a crucial role in specifying when and where genes are expressed, and changes in their function have been shown to influence trait evolution. However, it remains challenging to determine the sequence features that contribute to variation in enhancer function across species. Here I assessed the contribution of orphan CpG islands (oCGIs), which are intronic and intergenic regions enriched in CpG dinucleotides, to enhancer evolution. I identified oCGIs in nine mammalian species and integrated them with maps of enhancer activity-associated histone modifications (H3K27ac, H3K4me3, H3K4me2, and H3K4me1), finding that active enhancers are overrepresented at oCGIs. I found widespread turnover …

Gold & Blue, Spring 2023, St. Mary's University - San Antonio, Texas

Gold & Blue

This is the Spring 2023 edition of Gold & Blue which is St. Mary's University's official school publication.

Human Population Growth And Accessibility From Cities Shape Rangeland Condition In The American West, Juan M. Requena-Mullor, Jodi Brandt, Matthew A. Williamson, T. Trevor Caughlin

Human-Environment Systems Research Center Faculty Publications and Presentations

Drylands cover 40 % of the global land surface and more than 3 billion people worldwide are dependent on the ecosystem services (ES) that they provide (Hoover et al., 2020). Dryland ecosystems are subject to multiple forces of change, including climate change, invasive plants, and increasing wildfires (Maestre et al., 2016). For example, human pressure and land use intensification can quickly induce changes in healthy drylands that lead to degradation, thus reducing their capacity to recover from extreme climate events (Gunderson, 2000, Sun et al., 2021). We define degradation as a transition from a functional native ecosystem to an undesired …

In Vitro Characterization Of Fluorogenic Chemical Tools To Study Human Carboxylesterases (Cess), Taylor Parish Spidle

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Human carboxylesterases (CESs) are enzymes that are responsible for the metabolism of many important pharmaceuticals. Although CESs are key players in the hydrolysis of many ester-containing drugs, they remain understudied. Our group hypothesizes that this is primarily because there are few methods capable of reporting activity in live cells. Here, I report a new series of fluorogenic chemical tools to study the CES activity of one of the two major CESs in humans, CES1, in live cells. MCP-Me, MCP-Et, and MCP-iPr utilize the same carbonate group of a previously developed chemical tool in our group, FCP-1, and work to mimic …

Life Line Spring 2023, Otterbein Biology And Earth Science Department

Life Line - The Biology Department Newsletter

In this Issue:

Feathered Friends Living on Campus; The Hidden Mussels of the Olentangy River; Early Assurance Program Students Graduate from HCOM; Students Present at American Society for Microbiology Microbe 2022 Meeting; Environmental Science Upgrades Its Remote Monitoring Capabilities; Speed!; UK Students Visit Local Attractions; That's a Lottl Axolotls.

Local Translation And Focal Adhesions Are Dysregulated In Down Syndrome, Ashlyn Gotberg, Nikita Kirkise M.S., Kristy Welshhans Ph.D.

Senior Theses

During cellular migration, fibroblasts sense extracellular cues through membrane complexes at their leading edge and can respond to these cues via local translation. Local translation is the process in which mRNAs are transported to subcellular regions and translated in response to specific cues. There is evidence that local translation may be dysregulated in the neurodevelopmental disorder, Down syndrome, which is caused by the triplication of chromosome 21 and results in genome-wide dysregulation of protein expression. To determine if dysregulated local translation contributes to Down syndrome, we used three sets of primary fibroblasts from individuals with Down syndrome and apparently healthy …