Life Sciences Commons^™

Lyme Disease Cases Dependent On Annual Snowfall, Andrew Jordan

Biology Student Scholarship

Ticks are parasitic arachnids that inhabit every region of the United States. Ticks can spread diseases through feeding on the blood of mammals and birds. Lyme disease is a bacterial infection you can get from the bite of a Blacklegged tick (deer tick), which can lead to long term health effects and can ultimately lead to fatality. Depending on location, up to 50% of ticks in the given area can carry Lyme disease. Lyme disease is a problem and climate change could make it even worse. Whether or not a tick dies in the winter depends on how deep they …

How Are Changes In Temperature And Salinity Impacting Intertidal Mussels?, Casey A. Martin

Student Research Symposium

Marine organisms living within the intertidal zones, such as mussels, experience a wide range of environmental conditions every day. Due to Climate change, these environments are transforming in such a way that may impact a mussels ability to successfully reproduce, grow, and live. Previous studies have shown that successful gamete development in freshwater mussels has been linked to temperature and species behavior has been observed to be influenced by salinity levels. In order to test the impact of temperature and salinity on mussel physiology, mussels were exposed to several treatments with varying conditions. Those conditions included a combination of a …

Development And Analysis Of Next-Generation Polymeric And Bio-Ceramic Based Orthopedic Scaffolds By Advanced Manufacturing Techniques, Sudeep K. Gummadi

ETD Archive

Gliomas express mutant isocitrate dehydrogenases producing excessive amounts of D 2-hydroxyglutarate (D2HG) and releasing some of it into the environment. The immune surveillance is reduced as a result, however, the mechanisms behind lymphocyte suppression by the D2HG stereoisomer remain unknown. I incubated Jurkat T cells with D2HG at concentrations present within and surrounding gliomas, or its obverse L2HG stereoisomer, and quantified 2HG isomers within washed cells by TSPC derivatization with stable isotope-labeled D2HG and L2HG internal standards, HPLC separation, and mass spectrometry. D2HG was found in quiescent cells in double the amount of L2HG. External D2HG or L2HG increased the …

Assessing The Role Of Biology Undergraduates' Metacognitive Calibration And Neural Activity During Model-Based Reasoning, Mei Grace Behrendt

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Metacognition refers to the critical awareness of or ability to monitor, regulate, control, and sequence of one's thoughts and performance. There is limited research that examines the relationship between metacognition and (a) academic performance and (b) general cognition among undergraduates. Moreover, there is an even greater paucity of literature that focuses more specifically on undergraduate biology students’ neural activity in relation to their metacognition.

This study aimed to examine the relationship between undergraduate life sciences students' metacognitive calibration, i.e., their capacity to self-evaluate their own performance, and their behavioral performance and brain activity during a biological error reasoning task. Thirty-four …

Anxiety And Immunity: Affecting The Body And The Mind, Katelynn Dobbs

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Speculations have been made within the scientific community that there is a link between the underlying mechanisms that impact anxiety disorders and immune system disorders. While many correlations between these disorders have been observed through various immune system disorder studies, this subject is still severely under-explored. In order to examine the potential relationship between anxiety disorders and immune system disorders, a survey was conducted and distributed among the student population at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. This survey collected data by asking a variety of questions that pertained to anxiety and immune system disorders diagnoses within the student population …

Simulating Polistes Dominulus Nest-Building Heuristics With Deterministic And Markovian Properties, Benjamin Pottinger

Undergraduate Honors Theses

European Paper Wasps (Polistes dominula) are social insects that build round, symmetrical nests. Current models indicate that these wasps develop colonies by following simple heuristics based on nest stimuli. Computer simulations can model wasp behavior to imitate natural nest building. This research investigated various building heuristics through a novel Markov-based simulation. The simulation used a hexagonal grid to build cells based on the building rule supplied to the agent. Nest data was compared with natural data and through visual inspection. Larger nests were found to be less compact for the rules simulated.

Computational Investigations Into Binding Dynamics Of Tau Protein Antibodies: Using Machine Learning And Biophysical Models To Build A Better Reality, Katherine Lee

University Scholar Projects

Misregulation of post-translational modifications of microtubule-associated protein tau is implicated in several neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s disease. Hyperphosphorylation of tau promotes aggregation of tau monomers into filaments which are common in tau-associated pathologies. Therefore, tau is a promising target for therapeutics and diagnostics. Recently, high-affinity, high-specificity single-chain variable fragment (scFv) antibodies against pThr-231 tau were generated and the most promising variant (scFv 3.24) displayed 20-fold increased binding affinity to pThr-231 tau compared to the wild-type. The scFv 3.24 variant contained five point mutations, and intriguingly none were in the tau binding site. The increased affinity was hypothesized to occur due …

Topological Data Analysis And Ant Interaction Networks, Adam Banatwala, Esther Rønn

Mathematics & Computer Science Student Scholarship

Adam Banatwala ’22, Majors: Mathematics and Finance
Esther Rønn ’23, Majors: Physics and Mathematics
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Laura Murray, Mathematics and Computer Science

Our research group used topological data analysis (TDA) to quantify the movement and behavior of ants in a colony.

We extracted higher dimensional networks from point cloud data collected from Dr. James Waters’ lab. Varying the proximity parameter in this construction gives a sequence of networks. We analyzed the enduring topological features of these networks, and how these features evolve over time as the ants move in the colony. Both the experimental and null model simulation data …

Circadian Phase Shifts Effect Of Social Jetlag On Cellular Metabolism And Circadian Genes In Wildtype Flies, Olivia Kozub

Biology Student Scholarship

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

Drosophila, like humans, have circadian clocks which regulate behavioral and physiological systems within the body. This “biological clock” is synchronized to the environment via temperature and/or light cycles. Small fluctuations in day-length trigger a reset of circadian clocks daily. However, large disruptions can cause health and stress issues such as social jetlag. Social jetlag occurs when an individual’s biological clock clashes with the timing of one’s sleep schedule determined by social factors and the demands of the day.

A Patient-Derived Ipsc Model To Study Glutamate Deficiency By Shank-3 Mutation In Autism Spectrum Disorder, Tiffany Berry, Courtney Caccia

Biology Student Scholarship

Tiffany Berry ’22, Majors: Biology and Psychology

Courtney Caccia ’22, Majors: Biology and Psychology

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Charles Toth, Biology

The use of human stem cell lines derived from persons with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) provides a unique opportunity to model brain growth and potential to regain brain activity for treatment. Our lab has previously used stem cells to derive 3D cardiomyocytes to examine cardiovascular disease as well as kidney organoids and macrophages to study kidney disease. Using techniques our lab has learned using these stem cell models have prepared us to examine cell communication in mutated neurons. We will …

Rare Elfin Abundance Correlates With Host Plant Density, Matthew Look

Biology Student Scholarship

Matthew Look ’22
Major: Environmental Biology
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Rachael Bonoan, Biology

The rare frosted elfin butterfly (Callophrys irus) is a host plant specialist; it lays eggs on only two plant species, including small yellow indigo (Baptisia tinctoria). This makes the butterfly especially vulnerable to habitat fragmentation. Using indigo samples and butterfly survey data, we examined the effect of indigo quantity and quality on elfin abundance at Gavins Pond (Sharon/Foxboro, MA). Indigo density significantly affected butterfly count—frosted elfins were more likely to be spotted in patches with high indigo density. While nutritional analysis is ongoing, current findings suggest that augmenting …

Validation Of Rotoscoping Method For Two-Marker Bones In The Alligator Forearm, Nina Pitre

Biology Student Scholarship

Nina Pitre ’22
Majors: Biology and Psychology
Faculty Mentor: Dr. David Baier, Biology

XROMM methods "re-animate" 3D skeletal motion of living animals by aligning digital bone models to X-ray videos. Surgically implanted markers permit automatic alignment of bone models if three or more markers are used. However, one of our specimens only had two markers implanted. These bones could be automatically positioned and partially oriented using the two markers, but then required manual alignment to the X-ray images to orient about the axis passing between the two markers. Here, we validated the method by digitally removing a marker from a …

Students Interest And Thoughts On Stem, Chrisitine Girtain

STEM Month

I am Juan Sebastian Bohorquez Mora, I am a sophomore student at Toms River High School North. I am interested in biofuels because I believe they are a good option to replace fossil fuels. I am also interested in duckweed because biofuels are made out of crops, and people need to eat those crops. That’s when duckweed comes in and it can be used as a feedstock for ethanol production which is a biofuel. Bioethanol is a type of biofuel and it is derived from the corn’s starch. Instead of making ethanol from the corn’s starch, we can use duckweed …

Characterization Of Immunity Systems In A Cluster Phages, Katherine Cleary

Chemistry & Biochemistry Student Scholarship

Katherine Cleary ’23
Major: Biochemistry
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Kathleen A. Cornely, Chemistry and Biochemistry

Bacteriophages are viruses that infect bacteria. Bacteriophages may use two different cycles to infect their hosts, which are the lytic cycle and the lysogenic cycle. During the lysogenic cycle, the phage genome integrates into the bacteria chromosome and becomes a part of the host. If a phage remains in the lysogenic cycle, the host is susceptible to infection from other bacteriophages. This process is known as superinfection and it can have a variety of outcomes. Homoimmunity occurs when the phages have similar repressor proteins. Heteroimmunity occurs …

How Social Behavior And Interactions Scale With Group Size In Drosophila Melanogaster, Leigh Paradis

Biology Student Scholarship

Leigh Paradis ’23
Majors: Biology and Neuroscience
Faculty Mentor: Dr. James Waters, Biology

The goal of this research project was to quantify interaction patterns in groups of fruit flies and determine if flies show evidence for a linear or non-linear effect of group size on their behavior. Specifically, I tested whether flies interact with each other at a constant rate, whether this depends on density or group size, and whether their interaction patterns correlate with overall energy use and metabolic rates. This research questions common assumptions about the differences between eusocial societies such as ants and bees and the solitary …

Effect Of Dietary Protein On Honey Bee Pollen Foraging Behavior, Caitlin Mchugh, Gracey Sorensen

Biology Student Scholarship

Caitlin McHugh ’24, Majors: Environmental Biology and Economics

Gracey Sorensen ’23, Major: Biology

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Rachael Bonoan, Biology

Bees obtain nutrients from flowers. Pollen provides proteins and fats; nectar provides carbohydrates. Commercial honey bee colonies pollinate monocultures, which contain one crop type thus, one unbalanced nutritional resource. We examined how a lack of protein diversity affects honey bee pollen foraging behavior. Bees were raised on three diet treatments: no manipulation, all 10 essential amino acids (EAAs, i.e., protein building-blocks), or only 6/10 EAAs. Bee-collected pollen was trapped upon return to the hive and nutritional content was analyzed. We predict …

Aeromonas Phage Research And The Public Health Impact Of Antibiotics In Aquaculture Workers, Madelyn Merchant

Honors Projects

One of the most common fish diseases in aquaculture is Aeromonas infection. The most common way to treat this infection is through antibiotics. The bacteria in the fish can become antibiotic-resistant and perpetuate the disease. The diseases in fish create a huge financial loss and the industry loses $6 billion per year due to diseases in fish. An alternative to antibiotics is bacteriophage which causes less environmental degradation and is better for human gut flora. In aquaculture there have been examples of aquaculture workers becoming sick from the water in aquaculture ponds as well as from people eating the fish. …

Chromatin Architecture: Mechanisms Of Gene Regulation, Logan O'Donnell

Honors Projects in Science and Technology

The rapid growth and division of cells as they proliferate and penetrate to surrounding tissues defines the collection of disease states known as cancer. Abnormal gene expression drives this uncontrollable replication of cells. In recent studies, aberrant HOX gene expression has been noted in a multitude of cancer types such as myeloid leukemia, prostate cancer, and breast cancer [1]. Within cancerous cells with aberrant HOX expression, late expressing HOX genes are suppressed while early expressing HOX genes are reactivated. HOX genes are significant in controlling early phases of organismal development such as cell cycle, cell movement, and gene expression. Likewise, …

Food For Thought: The Relationship Between Nutrition And Academic Performance, Sarah Freeman

Honors Projects in Science and Technology

Nutrition has been shown to impact the level of cognitive function in individuals. Through the analysis of nutritional diets, this new research will aim to uncover the impact that diet has on cognitive function of Bryant University students by analyzing their ability to perform on a variety of cognitive assessments. This study will provide recommendations to students at Bryant University on what they should eat so they can perform their best academically. This research will also investigate whether Bryant University is offering the best food for students to eat setting them up for success.

Laurier Biology Departmental Seminars Poster Colouring Book (Vol 1), Tristan A.F. Long

Biology Faculty Publications

Departmental seminar posters are largely utilitarian affairs – who is talking?, when are they speaking?, where is the seminar? (and maybe will there will be refreshments served?). While functional, they often fail to capture the beauty and excitement of their subject matter, and may fail to engage a wider audience. As the organizer of the Wilfrid Laurier University Department of Biology seminar series in 2014, on a lark, I started drawing posters that tried to illustrate our speaker’s research in a non-conventional manner, and hopefully appeal to those that might otherwise find attending a departmental seminar intimidating. Little did I …

Bci Validation: Yfiler Plus Kit Validation, Chloe Koon

Honors Projects

In order to have access and use the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), it is required by the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Quality Assurance Standards (FBI-QAS) for Forensic DNA Units to complete comprehensive validation studies on all equipment, materials, and methods used in the process of DNA analysis. This study continues validation previous done within the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI). YFiler Plus is a DNA amplification kit that is used in cases where it is most useful to examine only male DNA profile(s) within a sample by amplifying loci only on the Y-Chromosome. Components of this study include …

A Multi-Spatial Analysis Of Land Use Effects On Freshwater Mussels In The Upper Cuyahoga River And Tinkers Creek, Tamar Atwell

ETD Archive

Mussels are considered one indicator of good water quality in rivers, but over the past 20 years mussel populations have continued to decline, while water quality improves. According to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA), water quality in the Cuyahoga River is now within safe levels for all parameters. However, what are safe levels for humans may not be safe for mussels. An analysis of freshwater mussel populations in two similarly sized watersheds, the Upper Cuyahoga River and Tinkers Creek was conducted. Correlations of mussel abundance and diversity were assessed by multivariate GIS/remote sensing tools to contrast water flow rates, …

Analysis Of Invasive Aedes Japonicus Populations And Bloodmeals In Rural, Suburban, And Urban Land-Use Conditions, Matthew Oberholtzer Ms

Student Scholarship

Adult female mosquitoes were collected at six sites with differing land-use and

livestock characteristics to characterize populations and bloodmeal habits of the invasive

vector mosquito species, Aedes japonicus in Southern Maine. Mosquitoes were collected

and DNA was extracted for PCR amplification of cytochrome C oxidase I (COi)

mitochondrial DNA for barcoding analysis of vertebrate bloodmeals. A total of 7460

adult female mosquitoes were collected, with 444 being Ae. japonicus (5.6%). This

indicates an established breeding population of Ae. japonicus in Southern Maine. The

rural site adjacent to livestock had the highest yield of total mosquitoes as well as the

catch …

Alewife (Alosa Pseudoharengus) Contributions To Lake Phosphorus Budgets: Implications For Management, Meg "Rue" Farley Thurrell Ms

Student Scholarship

As human-made dams are removed and fish passage at dams is improved in

support of restoration efforts, anadromous alewives (Alosa pseudoharengus) gain

access to historic spawning grounds. As they migrate to spawn, adult alewives import

marine derived nutrients to lakes and impoundments. Young of year alewives (juveniles)

export nutrients as they emigrate to the sea. These nutrients support primary

production and are incorporated into freshwater food webs. However, many lakes in

New England are mesotrophic or eutrophic. Additional nutrients, specifically

phosphorus (P), may exacerbate water quality issues. To examine these issues, I

compared outputs ofan alewife nutrient and population model …

Ubjective Information And Survival In A Simulated Biological System, Tyler S. Barker, Massimiliano Pierobon, Peter J. Thomas

School of Computing: Faculty Publications

Information transmission and storage have gained traction as unifying concepts to characterize biological systems and their chances of survival and evolution at multiple scales. Despite the potential for an information-based mathematical framework to offer new insights into life processes and ways to interact with and control them, the main legacy is that of Shannon’s, where a purely syntactic characterization of information scores systems on the basis of their maximum information efficiency. The latter metrics seem not entirely suitable for biological systems, where transmission and storage of different pieces of information (carrying different semantics) can result in different chances of survival. …

Ecological Stressors Impact Soil Biodiversity, Kaleb Frierson, John Carlile

Transformations: Presentation Slides

Soil biodiversity serves ecologically important roles like nutrient cycling and is used as an indicator of community disturbance. North American forests host a multitude of ecological stressors, including invasive plants, earth worms, and deer abundance. While relationships between deer and invasive species, as well as relationships between macroinvertebrates and worms have been heavily investigated, the effects of invasive plant species like Pale Swallowwort on soil biodiversity are unknown. To test our hypothesis that Pale Swallowwort affects soil biodiversity, we collected leaf litter from three state parks throughout Central New York at sites with and without the invasive plant. Samples were …

Life Line Spring 2022, Otterbein Biology And Earth Science Department

Life Line - The Biology Department Newsletter

In this Issue:

A CURE for the Typical STEM Classroom; Attracting Cardinals; Svitana Provides Training to IHS; The Cardinal Science Scholar Program; Mornings with Manatees; Viewing the Department from a New Perspective; Science Lecture Series Features Dr. Tyrone Hayes; Internship with Beinhower Brothers Drilling Company; New Student Chapter: The Botanical Society of America; STEM Art Show 2021; Got Bones?; The Robert and Ann Harting Endowed Award; Grossology Returns; Class Flocks to National Aviary

Functional Analysis Of Stn1 Winged-Helix (Wh) Domains, Anna Bazell

Senior Theses

CST (CTC1-STN1-TEN1) is a heterotrimeric RPA-like protein complex that preferentially binds to single-stranded DNA (ssDNA). CST is conserved from yeast to humans and has been found to play a role in telomere maintenance, DNA replication, and DNA repair. Mutations in CST, specifically in the subunits of CTC1 and STN1, have been implicated in the development of the genetic diseases Coats plus and dyskeratosis congenita. Despite the known functions of CST, the mechanistic relationship between its structure and function has yet to be characterized, particularly with respect to its protein-protein interactions and DNA binding. An X-ray crystallography structure of CST revealed …

Socio-Economic Factors Of Environmental Problems, Manzura Kamalova, D. Shakenov

Karakalpak Scientific Journal

People consciously and intensively rebuild their nature according to their own needs, creating rural and urban areas in which they live. People care about the quality of life in the context of the unity of nature and culture. Social is a relatively new discipline that deals with urban space and environmental issues. One way to imagine what is beneficial to people is to find out what is economically best for the person. The article examines the economic factors that form the attitude towards social ecology in Kazakhstan. The article concludes that society should cooperate to achieve common things, both for …

Research On Characteristics, Development Trend And Funding Countermeasures Of Biology, Jie Chen, Jing Qu, Zhiyong Lou, Bing Zhu, Le Kang

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

Strengthening the research in biology aimed at national strategic needs and major scientific frontier issues is conducive to giving full play to the strategic supporting role of biological research for national economic development and the promotion of international competitiveness. This article combs the basic characteristics and development trend of biology, summarizes the practical experience of international biological research funding, and analyzes the outstanding problems in biological research in China, such as incomplete layout, lack of sustainable and stable support, and insufficient funding for top talents and teams. By referring to the international practical experience, it puts forward policy suggestions to …