A Presentation of Undergraduate Research

Bryan University Center Wednesday, April 18, 2012 11:30 a.m.-2:00 p.m.

Visible Thinking is a Program of The Undergraduate Research Support Office Trinity College of Arts and Sciences Duke University

Ron Grunwald, Director Deborah Wahl, Associate Director

undergraduateresearch.duke.edu

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to our friends and associates who provided generous assistance including: Laura Stein, Janice Daniel The Duke Undergraduate Research Society The Academic Deans of Trinity College of Arts and Sciences Coordinators of Undergraduate Research and Fellowship Programs

Funding Provided by Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

Visible Thinking – A Presentation of Undergraduate Research 1

Undergraduate Research Support at Duke University

Duke undergraduates have received support for their research projects from the following College and University programs in 2011-2012:

All Disciplines Dannenberg Mentorships and Summer Fellowships (Academic Advising Center) Mellon-Mays Undergraduate Fellows Office of Study Abroad Fellowships Office of University Scholars and Fellows Summer Session Fellowships Trinity College Deans' Summer Research Fellowships Undergraduate Research Support (URS) Awards

Humanities and Social Sciences Asian/Pacific Studies Institute - East Asia Projects Benenson Awards in the Arts Career Center Summer Internship Program Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies Mellon Fellowship Center for Documentary Studies - John Hope Franklin Awards Department of Economics – Davies Fellowships Department of Psychology Vertically Integrated Partners Program Department of Political Science Summer Research Initiative Duke Center for Civic Engagement – Civic Summer Research Fellowships Duke Global Health Institute Duke University Center for International Studies Franklin Humanities Center – Haiti Lab International Comparative Studies Senior Thesis Grants Office of the Vice Provost for the Arts – Creative Arts Grants Research in Practice Program Sanford School of Public Policy Summer Research Fellows Program Schiff Family Foundation Summer Research Fellowships Service Opportunities in Leadership Program Womens’ Studies Program

Natural Sciences and Engineering Department of Chemistry Summer Research Fellows Department of Evolutionary Anthropology Undergraduate Research Program Department of Physics - High Energy Physics Program Duke Marine Lab – Rachel Carson Research Fellows Genome Sciences and Policy Summer Fellowships Goldman Sachs Summer Research Fellowships Trinity College Research Forums in Biological Sciences and Neuroscience Howard Hughes Research Fellows Program in Biological and Biomedical Sciences Howard Hughes Vertically Integrated Partners Program NSF-Mechanisms of Behavior - Undergraduate Neurosciences Program NSF-PRUV - Department of Mathematics Pratt Fellows Program

Visible Thinking – A Presentation of Undergraduate Research 2

Bryan University Center Wednesday, April 18, 2012 A Presentation of Undergraduate Research

11:30 – 12:30 pm Poster Session I

Name Advisor Field of Research Project Title Marissa Mumford Lisa Linnenbrink- Behavioral Sciences A Love Hate Relationship: Exploring the Link Garcia Between Class Preference and Motivational Theory Sicong Zhou Rebecca Shelby Behavioral Sciences How pre-transplant social relationships and support in patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplant is associated with post-transplant physical, functional, and emotional well-being William Zhang Anastasia Litvintseva Biological Sciences Directed evolution of Cryptococcus neoformans in low-nutrient media generates a stable phenotype that differentially interacts with murine macrophages Graham Custar Janine Chalk Biological Sciences An Anthropometric Study of Duke's Human Osteological Material Kemp Knott Amy Schreier Biological Sciences Sibling Effect on Parent-Offspring Relationships in Lemur catta Tun Jan Young David Johnston Biological Sciences Trends in sea ice cover across the North Atlantic: implications for harp and hooded seals Megan Welch Alexander Glass Biological Sciences High Resolution Taphonomic Studies of Ophiuroids Anna Liu Nicole Calakos Biological Sciences Identifying genetic modifiers in DYT1 pathology Johnny Zhao Gayathri Devi Biological Sciences Evaluation of Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) as a Target for Inhibiting Colorectal Cancer Cell Migration: An Immunotherapy Approach Andie MacDonald Cynthia Kuhn Biological Sciences Role of Sex and Estrus cycle in Ethanol CTA Brandon Ruderman Kristin Scott Biological Sciences Epigenetic Maintenance and Inheritance of Heterochromatin in Fission Yeast Emily Chang David Sherwood Biological Sciences Regulation of Basement Membrane Gap Expansion in Anchor Cell Invasion in C. elegans and Related Nematodes Michael Murphey Kathleen Donohue Biological Sciences The –Delay of Germination 1” Gene: a Dormancy Control Mechanism in Arabidopsis thaliana Mediated by Temperature Charmaine Marilyn Telen Biological Sciences Role of Plasma Laminin in SS RBC Adhesion to Mutucumarana Vascular Endothelium Rupen Desai Philip Benfey Biological Sciences Uncovering a Gene Regulatory Network in Arabidopsis Ground Tissue Kathie Sun William Copeland Biological Sciences Analysis of the subcellular localization of GFP-tagged accessory subunit variants of DNA polymerase γ associated with mitochondrial disease Allyson Morton Gerard Blobe Biological Sciences Novel interactions between the type III TGF-beta receptor and noncanonical pathways in breast cancer Annie Chen Chris Wall Biological Sciences Effects of AMELX and AMELY on the Evolution of Dental Sexual Dimorphism in Primate Species Tian Yuan Andrea Taylor Biological Sciences Scaling of Jaw-Muscle Architecture in New World Monkeys

Visible Thinking – A Presentation of Undergraduate Research 3

Joel Bray Brian Hare Biological Sciences Are lemurs sensitive to the visual perception of others? Alexandra Shams Christine Drea Biological Sciences Cross-species Comparison of Scent Marking Behavior in the genus Eulemur Molly Grace Stephen Nowicki Biological Sciences Songbird communication in a noisy world: potential benefits of complex notes Eddie Wu William Noland Creative Arts Pictures of Mesha Sloss Sheila Dillon Humanities Out of Egypt: Egyptian Influences in Greek Art of the Middle Bronze Age and Early Archaic Period Tracie Canada Orin Starn Humanities Racial Politics in College Athletics through the Lens of Duke University Football Julius Jones Raymond Gavins Humanities The African-American Community in post-World War II Portland, Oregon, 1941-1962 Claire Lockerby Sally Deutsch Owning the Intangible: A Historical Study of Euro- American Commodification of Hopi Culture and Theft of Intellectual Property Emmanuel Lim Nico Hotz Physical Science Comparing Micro- and Nano-scale CuO/ZnO/Al2O3 Catalysts For Methanol Steam Reforming. Yu-Po Wong Daniel Gauthier Physical Sciences Building a Quantum Key Distribution System Nada Baalbaki George Dubay Physical Sciences Analytical Methods for the Validation of the Inorganic Complexes of Trace Minerals in Nutritional Supplements Grace Zhou Sumi Ariely Service Opportunities Understanding and Evaluation of the Mental and in Leadership Physical Well-Being of Orphaned and Vulnerable (OVC) in Naama, Uganda Jacob Tobia Robert Korstad Service Opportunities Somewhere Down the Way: The Marion County Oral in Leadership History Project Sharon Pomranky Alma Blount Service Opportunities Rejuvenating Geriatrics: Rethinking the American in Leadership Geriatrics Society’s Approach to Advocacy for Geriatric Medicine Hyejin Sul Christina Gibson- Service Opportunities How can DPFC employ social media to inform and Davis in Leadership motivate early childhood stakeholders to become active advocates of early childhood? Sanjana Marpadga Julie Reynolds Service Opportunities Knowledge of Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus Among in Leadership Caretakers of Type 1 Diabetic Children at Regional Clinics Within Tanzania Caitlin Johnson Alex Harris Service Opportunities Beyond the Girl Effect: WISER Students' Needs in Leadership Assessment Lizzeth Alarcon Jason Cross Social Science Teenage Reproductive Health in a Migrant Community of San Jose, Costa Rica Alice Zhang Suzanne Shanahan Social Sciences Nutrition of Resettled Bhutanese Refugee Children in North Carolina Lucy Ma Rebecca Bach Social Sciences True or False? Rape Myth Acceptance at Duke University Nusaibah Kofar- Bruce Hall Social Sciences The Demolition of the Kofar Na Isa Gate Naisa

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Bryan University Center Wednesday, April 18, 2012 A Presentation of Undergraduate Research

12:00 – 1:00 pm Poster Session II

Name Advisor Field of Research Project Title Sumana Kommana Nancy Zucker Behavioral Science Investigating Attention Networks Efficiency in Adolescents with Anorexia Nervosa Andrea Green David Rabiner Behavioral Sciences ADHD in College Students Emily Bray Stephen Mitroff Behavioral Sciences Factors Affecting Inhibitory Control in Dogs Hannah Fisher Frank Keefe Behavioral Sciences Mindfulness in Patients who have Persistent Low Back Pain: Relationship to Pain Intensity and Interference, Mood, and Self-Efficacy Leigh Spivey Amy Joh Behavioral Sciences Wait a Minute! Exploring The Relationship Between Spatial Reasoning and Inhibitory Control in Preschool- Age Children Hannah Honey Gavan Fitzsimons Behavioral Sciences Partner versus Product: Examining the Use of Consumption versus Support from a Romantic Partner in Emotion Regulation

Amberly Tenney Elizabeth Marsh Behavioral Sciences The Effect of Prior Knowledge on the Acquisition and Retention of Misinformation from Popular History Films Jenny Wang Makeba Wilbourn Behavioral Sciences Emerging Bilinguals and Executive Function Lindsay Michalski Ahmad Hariri Behavioral Sciences Genetic Contributions to Bipolar Disorder: Clinical Implications of a CACNA1C Polymorphism Ania Oddone Ruth Day Behavioral Sciences Reducing Drug-Name Confusions: Auditory Implications of "Tallman" Lettering Allison Damon Robert Thompson Behavioral Sciences Enhancing Prevention, Intervention, and Treatment for Athletes at Risk for Eating Disorders Ujjayini Bose Mark Leary Behavioral Sciences The Egoic Mindset: An Exploration into Induction Techniques Lucy Andrzejewski Melanie Bonner Behavioral Sciences A Novel Test of Facial Expression Recognition for Children with Sickle Cell Disease Dana Rosen Kevin LaBar Behavioral Sciences Affective Influences On Forgetting Stevan Budi Scott Huettel Behavioral Sciences An electrophysiological analysis of the stimulus-locked response in a reinforcement learning task Arianna Uhalde Gavan Fitzsimons Behavioral Sciences Empathy, Sympathy, and Donation Behavior Over Time Audrey Hu Amy Joh Behavioral Sciences Going through the Motions: Preschool Children's Use of a Motor Strategy on a Spatial Reasoning Task Ashton Massey Christina Grimes Behavioral Sciences Women and Social Compensation on Facebook Will Hyung Grainne Behavioral Sciences Evaluating Self-Control in Social Settings: Actor- Fitzsimons observer Biases and their Implications in Relationships Shalin Sheth Katie Rosanbalm Behavioral Sciences Cohesion and Individuals: The relationship between social cohesion and individual achievement. Jane Meyerson Ahmad Hariri Behavioral Sciences The Effect of Functional Connectivity Between the Amygdala and the Insula on Anxiety

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Fiona Cary Lisa Linnenbrink- Behavioral Sciences Evaluating the Effect of Gender Stereotype Threat and Garcia Women’s Intent to Pursue Science-Related Careers Timothy Fleschner Gavan Fitzsimons Behavioral Sciences Lights, Camera, Product Placement! The Effect of Placement and Audience Characteristics on Brand Recall Lena Sharma Amy Schreier Behavioral Sciences Can the need to learn sex-specific behavior patterns explain the extended juvenility in Propithecus coquereli and Lemur catta? Brett Schroeder Harris Cooper Behavioral Sciences The Effects of Grading on Student Achievement and Motivation: A Systematic Review Jaehyuk Lee Philip Costanzo Behavioral Sciences Racial Differences in Self-Presentation

Aubrey Frazzitta John Perfect Biological Sciences Urea regulates capsule production in Cryptococcus neoformans and Cryptococcus gattii Shikha Nayar Elizabeth Godin Biological Sciences The use of Pramipexole to reduce motor problems and eventually treat zebrafish induced with a Parkinson's Disease model Amy Xu Jonathan Stiber Biological Sciences The Role of Drebrin in Skeletal Muscle Regeneration and Repair Agata Dana Hunt Biological Sciences Seasonal Cycling of Opportunistic Pathogens in the Kantorowska Ocean Diana Xie Mohamed Abou- Biological Sciences Activation of CAMKII during DFP toxicity mediates Donia cell death in human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells Adrienne Cohen Janine Chalk Biological Sciences Variation in Mastication Rates between Adult and Juvenile Propithecus coquereli Evan Schwartz Rahima Zennadi Biological Sciences The Effect of MEK Inhibitors on Sickle Cell Disease

Leah Croll Nina Sherwood Biological Sciences Mi-2: A possible regulator of Kat60-L1, Katanin60, and Spastin Bowen Niu Brian Coggins Biological Sciences Progress towards NMR Characterization of Oxidized Human Superoxide Dismutase1 Adam Gross Christine Drea Biological Sciences Making Scents: Endocrine Correlates of Olfactory Communication in Hormonally Suppressed Ring- Tailed Lemurs Alexander Advani Gregory Wray Biological Sciences Fibroblast differences between humans and chimpanzees

Conrad Chou Meng Chen Biological Sciences Characterization of HEMERA through Overexpression in Arabidopsis thaliana Jonathan Haskel Meng Chen Biological Sciences HEMERA and HFR1 act in parallel pathways to regulate photomorphogenesis in Arabidopsis thaliana Jennifer An Chris Wall Biological Sciences Search for Positive Selection in AMELX across the Primate Species Monica Hogan Tyler Walters Creative Arts Heartwork: Triptych Concluded - A Convergence of Dance and Technology Ibrahim Maali William Chafe Humanities Hands Off District Six: Preserving Community through Militant Nonviolence Daniella Schocken Naomi Quinn Humanities Sickness and Self-Diagnosis in the Emergency Department Alejandro Cortese Mark Kruse Physical Sciences Technique for Long-Lived Anomalously Charged Particle Searches at ATLAS Nicholas Shelburne Qiu Wang Physical Sciences Exploring the Reactivity of Electrophilic Amines and Amides Aisha Hilliard Todd Woerner Physical Sciences Determining Complexation Constants using Capillary Electrophoresis in Undergraduate Labs

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Angela Jiang Rochelle Service Learning FEMMES: A STEM program for girls that fosters Schwartz-Bloom hands-on learning and female-to-female mentorship Melanie Sperling Leslie Babinski Service Opportunities Getting Involved in Leadership Alyssa Forman Alma Blount Service Opportunities Reaching for College Success in Leadership Elisabeth Michel David Walmer Service Opportunities A Community Perspective: Haitian Women’s in Leadership Opinions on Health and Health Services in Léogâne, Haiti Ryan Lipes David Malone Social Sciences Transitioning Students to High School: Freshman Academies in Durham Public Schools Taylor Cater Erin Callahan- Social Sciences Discourse Analysis and Videogame Speech Price Uche Anigbogu Charlie Piot Social Sciences Disease Etiology and Cultural Collaboration : The Impact of Foreign Medical Ideas on Igbo Culture

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Bryan University Center Wednesday, April 18, 2012 A Presentation of Undergraduate Research

12:30 – 1:30 pm Poster Session III

Name Advisor Field of Research Project Title Jocelyn Antonio Amy Schreier Behavioral Sciences The Use of the Prehensile Tail in Alouatta palliata (mantled howler monkey) Jordan Miller Anne Pusey Behavioral Sciences Aggression and Resource Defense in the Female Chimpanzees of Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania Rachna Reddy Brian Hare Behavioral Sciences Do red ruffed lemurs yawn contagiously? Abhinav Ettyreddy Mariano Garcia Biological Sciences Prognostic and therapeutic antibodies against the Blanco alternatively spliced fibroblast growth factor receptor 2 (FGFR2) Tony Chen Daniel Laskowitz Biological Sciences Neuroprotection by ApoE-Mimetic Peptides Following Traumatic Brain Injury Fontasha Powell Karli Watson Biological Sciences Altered Disgust Response to Visual Stimuli in Anorexia Nervosa Natalie Miller Ornit Chiba-Falek Biological Sciences The Relationship between SNCA SNP Allele Frequencies and the Development of Lewy Bodies Stephanie Patterson Nicole Biological Sciences The Role of Adolescent vs. Adult Exposure to Schramm-Sapyta Binge Ethanol in Delay Discounting Behavior Christine Tsai Michel Bagnat Biological Sciences Generating a fluorescently tagged Cd36 protein in zebrafish using BAC recombineering Mengyou Wu Cindy Van Dover Biological Sciences Genetic Diversity of Branchipolynoe pettiboneae in Manus Basin Hydrothermal Vents Arun Sharma Gerard Blobe Biological Sciences A Novel Interaction between Endoglin and p38 MAPK Regulates Endothelial Cell Migration during Angiogenesis Kristie Vu Gerard Blobe Biological Sciences The Role of T-beta-RIII Ectodomain Shedding in Regulating TGF-beta Signaling in Breast Cancer Cells Nari Sohn Dan Rittschof Biological Sciences Are Oysters and Blue Crabs from North Carolina Safe to Eat? Kelly Ostrofsky Steven Churchill Biological Sciences Sexual dimorphism in the lumbar vertebrae: Application to Australopithecus sediba Tawnee Sparling Steven Churchill Biological Sciences The Shoulder of Australopithecus sediba

Ryan Gimple Nina Sherwood Biological Sciences Katanin-p60: How a Microtubule Severing Protein Impacts the Development of the Nervous System in Drosophila melanogaster Jenny Li David Cory Adamson Biological Sciences Identification of OTX2 as a novel therapeutic target in the malignant childhood tumor retinoblastoma Mengya Wu Cindy Van Dover Biological Sciences Genetic Diversity of Branchipolynoe pettiboneae in Manus Basin Hydrothermal Vents Paul Salem Steven Churchill Biological Sciences Penetration, Tissue Damage, and Lethality of Wood- Versus Stone-Tipped Projectiles

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Edward Chiou Rahima Zennadi Biological Sciences The effect of p60src and Piceatannol-Sensitive p72syk Tyrosine Kinases on LW and CD44 activation of Sickle Cell Adhesion to the Endothelium Rong En Tay Steve Haase Biological Sciences Positive Feedback – A Means Of Maintaining The Robustness Of Cell-cycle Oscillations? Gwendolyn Christine Drea Biological Sciences Ring-tailed Lemur Susceptibility to Human McGinnis Diseases as Reflected by MHC Divergence David Lung Matthias Gromeier Biological Sciences MAP Kinase Signaling as an Intracellular Determinant for an Oncolytic Virus Yi Dong Hiroaki Matsunami Biological Sciences In vitro and in vivo approaches for correlating odorant receptor selectivity to axon guidance in mice Lucy Zhang Claudia Gunsch Biological Sciences Bacteriophage as a Novel Disinfection Technology Sunny Qiu Nicole Calakos Biological Sciences Characterization of Motor Impairment in Mouse Models of Dystonia Victoria Arendt Philip Benfey Biological Sciences Automatic detection of crown roots in Zea mays root system models using logistic regression Margaret Cinderella H. Nijhout Biological Sciences Size and Shape Development in Lepidoptera

Carrie Ho Sallie Permar Biological Sciences Origin and evolution of simian immunodeficiency virus in the breast milk compartment of African green monkeys Katherine Soltis John French Humanities "Biting the Bullet” and Banning Guns: The Brazilian National Referendum of 2005 and Its Defeat at the Polls Diana Ruiz Kimberly Lamm Humanities Transgressing the Confines of Victim-Centered Cinematic Narratives: Thomas Allen Harris' Vintage: Families of Value Laura Dodd Ayana Arce Physical Sciences Can color-connection be observed in top quark events at ATLAS? Arjun Khanna Warren Warren Physical Sciences Brown Adipose Tissue Detection with MRI: Novel Applications of BOLD and Hyperpolarized Xenon Imaging Tim Zhang Benjamin Wiley Physical Sciences Silver-Coated Copper Nanowires for Transparent, Flexible Electrodes Christian James Jeffrey Forbes Physical Sciences Automatic Tuning of PID Controllers for LEGO Mindstorms Robotics Katelyn Donaldson David Malone Service Learning Partners for Success: A Critical Examination of the Duke Tutoring Program Max Liu Susan Wynn Service Learning Sustainability in Educational Administration Sunhay You Alma Blount Service Opportunities The Invisibility of Caregiving Work and its in Leadership Adverse Impacts on Women Lauren Zalla Alma Blount Service Opportunities Embodied History: Breastfeeding Beliefs and in Leadership Practices in Haiti Sarah Nolan Anirudh Krishna Social Sciences What Determines Aspirations and University Attendance in Rural India? Divya Taneja James Shah Social Sciences How do People Exercise Influence over their Own Implicit Motivations? Lillian Carroll Diane Nelson Social Sciences Enjoy/meant: Couples, Dancers, and Gender, Sex and Power in a Strip Club Jinyuan Li Anirudh Krishna Social Sciences Impact of Rural-to-Urban Male Migration on Women's Seeking of, Access to, and Financing of Healthcare and of Women's Health among Different Geographies, Caste, and Income Groups and the Perception of Migration by Migrant Men

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Bryan University Center Wednesday, April 18, 2012 A Presentation of Undergraduate Research

Oral Presentations Meeting Room A

11:30-11:50 Braxton Shelley Anthony Kelley Humanities A Preacher's Chord: Richard Smallwood's "Hammer" Six-Four 11:50-12:10 Kadeisha Kilgore Charles Piot Humanities Why Do They Have to Pray All-Night?: Ghanaian Charismatic Christianity and Its Influences in the Diaspora 12:10-12:30 Michael Habashi Rebecca Bach Social Sciences Living in Hell in the City of Angels: A Study of Homeless Men on Skid Row 12:30-12:50 Mandy Lowell Sarah Beckwith Humanities To Our Lady We Sing: The History and Style of the N-Town Mary Play 12:50-1:10 Laura Hubbard Sonke Johnsen Biological Sciences Evolutionary dynamics between plant secondary compounds and the reproductive success of a salticid predator 1:10-1:30 Rui Dai Erich Jarvis Biological Sciences Differentiation of stem cells into neurons and cardiomyocytes 1:30-1:50 Christopher David Boyd Social Sciences Healer shopping and communication among Clayton patients of La Clinica Boliviana Americana

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Bryan University Center Wednesday, April 18, 2012 A Presentation of Undergraduate Research

Oral Presentations Meeting Room B

11:30-11:50 Jianing Xie John French Humanities Two and Two: An Anthropological Study of Protestant Conversion in Guatemala from 1930- 1960 11:50-12:30 Allison Denburg Joseph Grieco Social Sciences The Dutch Perspective on the European Union: An Analysis Through Documentary 12:30-12:50 Layla Quran Robin Kirk Social Sciences Division or Development? : Iraq under US Occupation 1:10-1:30 Kathy Chu Joshua Sosin Humanities The Liturgical System in Classical Athens: Contesting Incentive, Reward, and Citizen Rights 1:30-1:50 Nathaniel Hill Claire Creative Arts Producing Ragtime at Duke University as an Conceison Exercise in Collaboration, Adaptation, and Personal Professional Development

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VISIBLE THINKING 2012 – Abstracts in Alphabetical Order

Alexander Advani reproductive health of the population was also Fibroblast differences between humans and studied. In collaboration with Children without chimpanzees Borders, a non-profit organization in the area, Research Advisor: Gregory Wray door-to-door interviews were conducted. Biology Qualitative data was gathered using structured questionnaires that provided insight into sources of Focal adhesions are large complexes of proteins sexual education in the community, the prevalence which are usually found at the periphery of cells. of sexually transmitted diseases, and access to They facilitate cell attachment to the extra-cellular resources such as contraception. Men, women, and matrix, cell-cell signaling, detection of the extra- teenagers of both Nicaraguan and Costa Rican cellular matrix and cell movement. A phenotypic nationalities were interviewed. In conducting our change that affects focal adhesions could hinder a research, we found that sex is a very sensitive topic cell’s ability to perform basic cellular functions that it is not generally discussed at home. Instead, even to the point of cell death. Focal adhesions are most of the information girls receive about sex was composed of several proteins and compounds, one learned in primary school, where the focus is of which is vinculin. Vinculin is a focal adhesion- mostly on anatomy and safe sex practices are only specific protein that is critical to the structure of briefly mentioned. Because of the strong presence focal adhesions. The driving question behind this of religious institutions, premarital sex and project is: to what extent do human and contraception are highly controversial subjects. chimpanzee cells differ in terms of focal Furthermore, because many uninsured Nicaraguan adhesions? This study used vinculin as a proxy for immigrants are not aware of the health benefits focal adhesions and imaged it using fluorescent available for their children, medical consultations microscopy to establish the number and size of are seen as an expense only necessary for focal adhesions within a cell. These were then emergency cases and not for preventive purposes, compared between human and chimpanzee skin which poses yet another barrier to reproductive fibroblasts in order to determine whether or not health. Based on the research results, health there is an inter-species difference. The results education workshops were designed and indicate that chimpanzees have more and larger implemented for teenage girls in this community. focal adhesions than humans. In addition this study indicated the existence of a previously Jennifer An unknown, chimpanzee fibroblast shape found by Search for Positive Selection in AMELX across examining the actin structures of the cells. This the Primate Species shape is never observed in humans. These results Research Advisor: Chris Wall have the potential to change our understanding of Evolutionary Anthropology cell movement and cell signaling as well as our understanding of human and chimpanzee cell Amelogenin is a major extracellular matrix protein differences. in developing enamel, and it is important for the formation and maturation of enamel. Previous Lizzeth Alarcon studies indicate that AMELX, a gene that codes for Teenage Reproductive Health in a Migrant amelogenin, might influence enamel thickness in Community of San Jose, Costa Rica humans. The central region (exon 6) of amelogenin Research Advisor: Jason Cross is highly variable among mammals due to Global Health numerous insertions and deletions of polyproline repeats. Jin et al. (2009) found that there is a direct Teenage pregnancy is a major public health issue relationship between the length of the polyproline in San José. Existent sexual and reproductive repeat region and the enamel thickness phenotype. health practices among teenage girls living in Bajo This study aims to determine whether there is los Anonos, one of the city’s most underprivileged evidence for positive selection in the exons of communities, were assessed. Given the large AMELX, and whether this is linked to variation in presence of Nicaraguan immigrants in the area, the enamel thickness in humans as compared to thin- extent to which this background influenced the enameled apes. Microcebus murinus, with thin

Visible Thinking – A Presentation of Undergraduate Research 12 enamel and a divergence time of about 85 million children, and that these deficits will be correlated years, is a critical phylogenetic outgroup for these with neurocognitive outcomes and questionnaire- comparisons. Complete sequence data are not based measure of quality of life and social available for M. murinus. My senior thesis functioning. research is to complete the exonic dataset for AMELX in M. murinus and run tests for positive Uche Anigbogu selection on the exons of this gene across all seven Disease Etiology and Cultural Collaboration : primate species. This semester I have worked to The Impact of Foreign Medical Ideas on Igbo download sequence data for AMELX, and to fill in Culture sequence gaps. After all gaps are filled, I will (1) Research Advisor: Charlie Piot align AMELX and test for positive selection in the Cultural Anthropology exons across hominoids, and (2) provide a fine- grained analysis of variation in the polyproline This paper is concerned with the relationship repeat regions of exon 6 for each species. These between biomedical beliefs and cultural medical analyses will allow an evaluation of an association knowledge, examining the effect of the latter on between positive selection in AMELX and enamel the former, as it plays out in Igbo people, an ethnic thickness. group native to Nigeria. Igbo people are able to adapt borrowed western knowledge of biomedicine Lucy Andrzejewski and weave these ideas with independent A Novel Test of Facial Expression Recognition indigenous medical understandings to create a for Children with Sickle Cell Disease blend of two mindsets. To understand the effects Research Advisor: Melanie Bonner of Igbo adaptation alongside their insularity above, Psychology and Neuroscience I examine the following medical conditions and their causes: diabetes-a disease that suggests the Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a chronic illness that prevalence of western understandings, infertility-a affects 1 in every 400-500 African American disease that implies the pervasiveness of newborns annually in the United States. The illness indigenous understandings and high blood is associated with a number of psychological pressure-a particularly multifaceted disease that sequelae, including decrements in attention, illustrates coexistence between western and memory, executive functioning, as well as overall indigenous medical beliefs. Each of these three intellectual ability. These cognitive deficits have diseases are perceived with a different and distinct been linked to other outcomes, including low level of understanding in regards to causation and academic, social, and emotional functioning. In treatment with each illness possessing biological, light of this, the present study aims to examine this psychological, sociological and cultural connection between neurocognitive functioning, dimensions. After colonial intervention and social functioning, and facial expression western integration, the definitions and recognition in children with SCD, compared to understandings of these diseases, particularly high their typically-developing peers. Children with blood pressure, morphed in interesting ways that SCD (ages 8-16; projected n=35) will be recruited suggest the coexistence of diverse ideas in a single from their regularly scheduled clinic appointments space that may also define something distinctive to and asked to complete a brief neuropsychological Igbo. Understanding the etiology of these disease battery, an assessment of FER, and questionnaires in the Igbo community better enables us to instill regarding social, emotional and behavioral effective and culturally competent education and functioning. Parents of all youth participants will treatment initiatives as well as broaden the scope also be asked to fill out questionnaires regarding of bio-medicine to include indigenous ideas. their child's social, emotional, behavioral and cognitive functioning. The same measures will be Jocelyn Antonio administered to a sample of typically-developing The Use of the Prehensile Tail in Alouatta peers (ages 8-16; projected n=35), who will be palliata recruited from advertisements on a clinical trials Research Advisor: Amy Schreier website. It is expected that children with SCD will Evolutionary Anthropology have, on average, more difficulty appropriately identifying facial expressions than healthy

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In different species of New World Monkeys it has logistic regression to classify roots as crown roots been observed that the prehensile tail serves with 87% accuracy, and extracts important similar functions to those of the arms and legs. As information such as volume, cross sectional area, such, the tail aids monkeys in activities to provide and angle of growth from each of these roots. balance and is often referred to as a fifth limb. Future studies will utilize this program to perform Prehensile tail use was observed in a group of a Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL) analysis and Alouatta palliata (mantled howler monkey) in the identify areas of the corn genome that contribute to Coffee Forest on Isla de Ometepe, Nicaragua in the timing and proliferation of crown root August 2011. Data were recorded on the development. monkeys’ activity, tail use, and the level of the forest using a scan sampling technique. I Nada Baalbaki hypothesized that A. palliata has a prehensile tail Analytical Methods for the Validation of the because it is useful during certain activities and in Inorganic Complexes of Trace Minerals in certain layers of the rainforest. A. palliata used the Nutritional Supplements tail 35.6% of the time throughout all activities. Research Advisor: George Dubay The prehensile tail was used the most during Chemistry sitting (41.5%) followed by resting (36.8%), feeding (10.5%), walking (4.3%), standing (3.2%), Trace mineral supplements are marketed to the climbing (2.5%), jumping (0.7%), and foraging general public without direct government (0.4%). Furthermore, the prehensile tail was used regulation of the content of the products, despite more in the lower level of the rainforest (71.2%) their limited therapeutic ranges and low safe and than in the upper level (28.9%). A. palliata use effective limits. The USDA Dietary Supplement their tail preferentially for stationary activities and Ingredient Database (DSID) has begun preliminary in the lower level of the rainforest. studies investigating the appropriate analytical methods for validating the content of nutritional Victoria Arendt supplements. While they have identified Automatic detection of crown roots in Zea mays chromium, zinc and magnesium as –priority” root system models using logistic regression ingredients for supplement analysis, analysis of Research Advisor: Philip Benfey these compounds has not begun ["Dietary Biology Supplement Ingredient Database: Preliminary USDA Studies on the Composition of Adult Root systems of Zea mays (corn) plants contain Multivitamin/mineral Supplements." Journal of distinct embryonic and postembryonic types, Food Composition and Analysis 21 (2008): S69- which differ in their development and relative 77.]. Using inductively coupled plasma mass importance during the life of the plant. Although spectrometry (ICP-MS), the inorganic elemental the embryonic root systems of corn plants are very concentration of four different products of important in the first few weeks of development, chromium picolinate, magnesium citrate, and zinc postembryonic shoot-borne roots dominate the gluconate was analyzed. Additionally, absorption adult root system. Because crown roots are the first spectrometry (AAS) was performed on the shoot-borne roots to emerge, their timing, magnesium citrate products. The ICP-MS proliferation, and size are very important to the instrument and accompanying sample preparation corn plant’s growth and development. Quantitative met DSID testing standards for acceptable studies of crown root development would allow us precision for 90% of the samples, while the AAS to also investigate which genes control its various method was only adequate for half of the samples characteristics. In order to perform these tested. The ICP-MS data indicated that tablets quantitative studies, however, we must be able to from the same product lack uniformity in size and computationally isolate crown roots from the elemental content, and products of the same trace others in the Z. mays root system. Previous studies mineral type were consistently higher or lower have focused on manually identifying crown roots than their labeled value. Discrepancies between the from root system models, but this technique is labeled and found elemental content in the inefficient. I developed a program that products tested ranged from little or no difference automatically separates the individual roots from a to about 50% error; this variation in product 3D reconstruction of a corn root system, uses elemental content signifies the value and necessity

Visible Thinking – A Presentation of Undergraduate Research 14 of DSID validation of the elemental content of realizable reward. Finally, using a within-subjects trace mineral supplements to ensure the accuracy design, I compared dogs’ abilities to perform a of label claims. second detour task when addressed in a neutral versus excited voice. Inhibitory control scores Ujjayini Bose were not correlated between tasks, suggesting that The Egoic Mindset: An Exploration into context likely plays a large role in effect on Induction Techniques performance. Furthermore, between- and within- Research Advisor: Mark Leary subject variation in inhibitory control was affected Psychology and Neuroscience by the dog’s arousal level and age. Dogs had more difficulty during arousal trials as compared to The study of egoicism—a construct defined by (1) baseline trials. self-relevant thoughts, (2) introspection, (3) future temporal focus, and (4) abstract construal level— Joel Bray has focused mainly on narrative data. There has Are lemurs sensitive to the visual perception of been no previous method by which to induce and others? test the effects of varying levels of egoicism Research Advisor: Brian Hare empirically. This methodological study tested a Evolutionary Anthropology method of inducing levels of egoicism by instructing participants to engage in one of four The social intelligence hypothesis states that large mental tasks while looking at visual stimuli. The group size, and the need to compete and cooperate results, while not conclusive, suggest that this with conspecifics, selected for the evolution of methodology may induce particular aspects of complex cognition in primates. This is supported egoicism, such as allo-inclusivity and self-focus by research showing a positive relationship (demonstrated through a pronoun task), although between group size and relative brain size in the effects were moderated by previous meditation primates; however, there is of yet no experimental experience. Further studies should explore this evidence showing a direct relationship between procedure as basis for future inductions of group size and cognition in primates. In this egoicism, although the specific directions for each project, we used a comparative approach to condition may be questionable. directly test the relationship between group size and performance on a social cognitive task. Six Emily Bray species of lemurs at the Duke Lemur Center were Factors Affecting Inhibitory Control in Dogs tested for their ability to exploit basic cues Research Advisor: Stephen Mitroff indicating a human competitor’s visual perspective Psychology and Neuroscience in order to steal food from them. Overall, four species were above chance in their ability to use Inhibitory control is central to problem solving, social cues to retrieve food, and there were making it informative to examine different species’ significant differences between species. ability to resist impulsive responses in favor of Importantly, species-typical group size had a more difficult, adaptive behaviors. I used four positive relationship with performance on the task, tasks to explore whether a dog’s inhibitory control while brain size had no effect on performance. is stable or varied across contexts. In a detour task, This provides direct support for the social I asked if dogs could suppress a desire to walk intelligence hypothesis but suggests that brain size directly toward food behind a transparent barrier in may not be a valid proxy variable for general favor of a less direct but more fruitful path. In an cognition. A-not-B task, I studied if dogs could inhibit a preference for a place where they had been Stevan Budi previously rewarded after watching food moved to An electrophysiological analysis of the stimulus- a novel location. In a social task, dogs were taught locked response in a reinforcement learning task the reputations of a stingy and generous Research Advisors: Scott Huettel experimenter, and then the stingy experimenter Psychology and Neuroscience offered (but withheld) more food to see whether Marty Woldorff dogs could inhibit the desire to approach a larger, Neuroscience department unobtainable quantity of food for a smaller,

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One critical component of decision making process athletic sphere and at times, change came very late. is the ability to put subjective values on different But what about today? Many declare that race and stimuli and take the appropriate action based on racism no longer represent major problems in those values. For this process to work in a America, but the reality in society in general and constantly changing environment, this system also sports in particular is not so simple. This study has to be able to update the values of these stimuli explores the role of race in one particular college based on previous experience. In this experiment, football program – that at Duke University. we recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) during Fortunately, we have moved beyond the old days a learning-based paradigm task and showed that of outright bigotry and exclusion in college there is a correlation between brain activity around football, but has race really vanished in a society stimulus presentation and subjective value of that appears to be postracial? Are football and the stimulus and betting choice. We found two athletic community as color-blind as some claim it distinct activities related to stimulus-locked to be? My research suggests that race does still response, a parietal and right frontal distributed matter, even in an ostensibly equal program like ERP activities. The parietal distributed ERP that of Duke football, in ways both obvious and activity which occurred ~500ms after stimulus much more subtle. presentation was shown to be primarily modulated by the subjective value of the cues. On the other Lillian Carroll hand, the right frontal distributed ERP activity Enjoy/meant: Couples, Dancers, and Gender, Sex which occurred ~900ms after stimulus presentation and Power in a Strip Club was shown to be influenced mainly by incoming Research Advisor: Diane Nelson betting choice. Across trials, ERPs values for Cultural Anthropology parietal distributed activity diverge based on subjective value, further supporting the idea that I explore feminist understandings of there is correlation between parietal distributed empowerment, the gaze, money, and space through ERP activity and subjective value. This general a case study of a strip club. I focus on couples to trend was not as clear for the right frontal expand on previous studies that concentrate solely distributed ERP activity. Lastly, we discussed on male patrons or female dancers. Ultimately, I how these findings fit the current valuation process argue that male patrons, female patrons, and model; how the values of different stimuli are female dancers adopt mobile identities due to their processed in real time in the brain. shifting levels of power.

Tracie Canada Fiona Cary Racial Politics in College Athletics through the Evaluating the Effect of Gender Stereotype Lens of Duke University Football Threat and Women’s Intent to Pursue Science- Research Advisor: Orin Starn Related Careers Cultural Anthropology Research Advisor: Lisa Linnenbrink-Garcia Psychology and Neuroscience It has often been claimed that sports have led the way in promoting integration in American society. Women discard their pursuit in science, According to this view, whites and blacks had to technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learn to get along in the locker room for the greater at various stages of their education, at a rate much good of the team, and in the process, demonstrated higher than men, thus creating a “leaky pipeline” that different racial groups could get along. With in these fields. This study examined several almost each sport having evidence of close psychological factors influencing this “leaky relationships across racial lines, established pipeline” in undergraduate women. 641 first-year between both players and coaches, there is undergraduate students completed a baseline evidence for a different, more egalitarian America survey examining levels of perceived gender struggling to emerge from the long shadow of the stereotype threat, intent to pursue a research- Jim Crow era. Of course, there was much tension related career in science, and three components of around integration and tolerance in sports. There task value; cost value, attainment value, and are plenty incidents that demonstrate the hesitation intrinsic value. It was initially necessary to assess and sometimes violent opposition to integrating the validity of stereotype threat measures because

Visible Thinking – A Presentation of Undergraduate Research 16 researchers developed the items assessing players transition between talking about the virtual perceived ethnic stereotype threat. Exploratory and world of the videogame to real world conversation. confirmatory factor analyses revealed that Videogame mediated discourse also introduces a adequate measures had been developed. game-specific lexicon in which players utilize Researchers wished to use mediation analysis to functional shift to adapt game words to specific determine if gender stereotype threat was one lexical categories. Conversation within the factor that mediated the relation between cost videogame context functions much the same as value and intent to pursue a research related career non-mediated conversation in that speakers carry in science, but analysis was ultimately similar responsibilities such as having to possess discontinued. In comparing female participants in certain knowledge in order to effectively a summer research experience with those in a participate in the technologically mediated comparison group, it was revealed that those who conversation. participated in the summer program reported higher levels of perceived gender stereotype threat. Emily Chang Post-hoc tests revealed that female students within Regulation of Basement Membrane Gap the summer research experience also reported Expansion in Anchor Cell Invasion in C. elegans higher attainment value. Perhaps then, gender and Related Nematodes stereotype threat doesn’t prevent women from Research Advisor: David Sherwood entering into and staying in the science domain, Biology but rather is a negative side effect of being identified and a minority gender within the Cell invasion through basement membranes (BM) domain. is a complex yet fundamental phenomenon in biological processes occurring during leukocyte Taylor Cater migration, trophoblast invasion of the Discourse Analysis and Videogame Speech endometrium BM, and notably cancer metastasis. Research Advisor: Erin Callahan-Price The Sherwood Lab seeks to better understand the Linguistics mechanisms behind BM invasion by using the transparent nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, Mediated discourse analysis (MDA), unlike other whose vulval development involves BM breaching approaches to discourse analysis, seeks to unite by a specialized somatic gonad cell, anchor cell conversational discourse and social actions (AC). Despite the extensive work on vulval because linguistic variables cannot be wholly development in other nematode species, little is separated from the social factors surrounding the known about how the AC connects the developing speech community. This study discusses MDA in uterine and vulval tissues. My research focuses on the context of videogame speech used among a the extent of evolutionary conservation of AC group of college juniors composed primarily of invasion across nematode species. Thus far, in all male gamers during Call of Duty: Black Ops game the worm species observed, including C. elegans, play. Data was collected by recording the voices of AC invasion seems tightly regulated, with some the speakers in the room, who were watching or differences in the timing of invasion with respect participating in the videogame, while visually to the divisions of the underlying vulval precursor recording the videogame on the television screen cells (VPCs). Additionally, the Sherwood lab has in order to correlate speech acts with actions on the shown that following invasion the expanding BM screen. The data elicits patterns demonstrating the gap stabilizes over the vulD cells on either side of communicative competence necessary for speakers the opening. It has been demonstrated that in all to effectively participate in the speech situation, species examined these vulD cells do not divide, certain lexical items found in the videogame unlike the other VPCs. Currently I am attempting speech environment not used in other to find out whether this mitotic quiescence is environments, and the influence of a technological responsible for the stabilization of the BM gap. I medium on speech. Players’ use of cooperative hypothesize that vulD prevents the BM from discourse can be classified as one of five discourse overexpanding following AC invasion and that its strategies: game strategy, self-evaluation, other- entry into the cell cycle would cause the BM to evaluation, apology, and response cries. Players slip past its normal boundary positions. also demonstrate ‘chronotope switching’ in which

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Tony Chen Phenotypic comparative studies of tooth Neuroprotection by ApoE-Mimetic Peptides morphology in primate species have revealed Following Traumatic Brain Injury sexual dimorphism of tooth size and enamel Research Advisor: Daniel Laskowitz thickness (Clutton-Brock, 1978). Human Neurology chromosomal abnormality studies also demonstrate a positive correlation between an extra Y Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is one of the leading chromosome and thicker enamel in males causes of death and disability in the United States (Schwartz, 2005). An extra X chromosome in and has an estimated annual cost of 60 billion males (Alvesalo, 1991) and females (Schwartz, dollars. To date, no treatments have been 2005) also correlates with thicker enamel. The demonstrated to significantly improve long-term genes hypothesized to cause these phenotypic cognitive health. Recent studies have identified differences are AMELX and AMELY which code important genetic influences on head injury, for the enamel matrix protein amelogenin. suggesting that patients carrying an apoE4 allele Amelogenin comprises about 90% of the enamel are associated with poorer functional outcomes. matrix and plays a crucial role in enamel However, the exact mechanisms by which the formation, which includes the appositional apoE protein affects injury in the central nervous deposition of crystals by ameloblasts (Simmer, system (CNS) remain unknown. There is 2010). Hence, the genetic signals of natural accumulating evidence suggesting a role for apoE selection associated with dental sexual dimorphism in downregulating endogenous brain inflammatory may be similar across primate species. The goal of responses by interacting with specific cell surface this project is to compare sequence divergence in receptors of microglial cells (resident brain the exons of the AMELX and AMELY in Homo immune cells) in an isoform-specific fashion. A sapiens, Pan troglodytes, Gorilla gorilla, Pongo previous peptide derived from the receptor-binding pygmaeus, Macaca mulatta and Microcebus region of apoE improved functional outcomes in murinus. Primer design, polymerase chain preclinical models of TBI, and a smaller peptide reaction, sequencing and sequence alignment are has been developed to more efficiently cross the carried out. Tests for positive selection across blood-brain barrier. This proposal seeks to exons may give insight into the evolution of dental understand how the peptide affects mouse brains at sexual dimorphism in the teeth of primate species. specific intervals post-TBI in order to evaluate whether its administration is a potential, effective Edward Chiou therapeutic strategy. Specifically, our goal will be The effect of p60src and Piceatannol-Sensitive accomplished by examining neurodegeneration p72syk Tyrosine Kinases on LW and CD44 and neuroinflammation, two processes activation of Sickle Cell Adhesion to the characteristic of TBI. Neuroinflammation will be Endothelium assessed by counting activated microglial cells Research Advisor: Rahima Zennadi stained by F4/80 immunohistochemistry in Hematology treated/non-treated mice brains 10 days post-TBI. Neurodegeneration will be assessed by counting Non-receptor tyrosine kinases are involved in cell- degenerating neurons stained by fluoro-jade B in cell interactions. In sickle cell disease, since treated/non-treated mice brains 24h post-TBI. This multiple protein kinases are implicated in the work will contribute to developing the first adhesive nature of sickle erythrocytes to the potentially effective drug for treating closed head endothelium, we predict that activation of non- injury. receptor tyrosine kinases in sickle erythrocytes mediates adhesion to the endothelium. Therefore, we have investigated both whether p60src and Annie Chen piceatannol-sensitive p72syk tyrosine kinases are Effects of AMELX and AMELY on the Evolution active and involved in sickle erythrocyte adhesion of Dental Sexual Dimorphism in Primate Species to the endothelium, and the molecular mechanisms Research Advisor: Chris Wall these two kinases activate. Our results showed that Evolutionary Anthropology inhibition of tyrosine phosphatases with sodium orthovanadate (Na3VO4) up-regulated adherence of sickle erythrocytes to endothelial cells in

Visible Thinking – A Presentation of Undergraduate Research 18 intermittent flow conditions at a shear stress of 2 twofold, indicating that HMR is tightly regulated dynes/cm2 in vitro. The effect of Na3VO4 on at post-transcriptional level. In comparison to sickle erythrocyte adhesion was significantly wildtype seedlings, a moderate increase in HMR inhibited with piceatannol, a potent inhibitor of the protein level in the transgenic lines leads to higher p72syk Tyrosine Kinase, suggesting that chlorophyll content, larger cotyledon area, and piceatannol-sensitive p72syk is involved in sickle impaired fertility. Conversely, low HMR protein erythrocyte adhesion to the endothelium. Tyrosine level is associated with smaller cotyledon area and kinases p72syk and p60src underwent enhanced lower chlorophyll content. The results further phosphorylation with Na3VO4-treatment of sickle confirm the importance of HMR in light signaling erythrocytes, suggesting that increased sickle pathways and regulation of physiological erythrocyte adhesion to the endothelium involves responses. activation of both p72syk and p60src. These data were confirmed using tyrosine phosphatase Kathy Chu inhibitor cocktail, which also showed enhanced The Liturgical System in Classical Athens: phosphorylation of both p72syk and p60src. Contesting Incentive, Reward, and Citizen Rights Furthermore, increased adhesiveness of sickle Research Advisor: Joshua Sosin erythrocytes to the endothelium was mediated via Classical Studies red blood cell adhesion receptors LW/ICAM-4 and CD44. Our data suggests that p72syk and p60src Shortly after the birth of democracy in the late 6th tyrosine kinases may participate in the c. BCE, Athens instituted a new system of pathophysiology of sickle cell disease, and could taxation. Central to the ancient democracy’s be targeted to prevent sickle erythrocyte adhesion, economy, this system was a means of extracting the hallmark of this debilitating disease. resources from the wealthy for public benefit. Athens’ wealthiest citizens were called upon to Conrad Chou make financial contributions, called liturgies, to Characterization of HEMERA through state military or religious expenses. Prior to the Overexpression in Arabidopsis thaliana introduction of the liturgical system, the wealthy Research Advisor: Meng Chen made voluntary donations in exchange for formal Biology ‘gratitude’ from the state in the form of publically decreed honors. By instituting mandatory Light affects every major developmental transition performance, however, Athens restricted the of plants, from germination through flowering. freedom of the wealthy and consequently changed Upon perceiving light, the seedlings switch from the conceptual framework of public benefaction. the dark program, skotomorphogenesis, to the light While it would appear that formalizing the program, photomorphogenesis, where stem growth previously ad hoc system of public benefaction is inhibited and the leaves expand and become ought to have resulted in a more defined system of photosynthetic. The Chen lab recently identified rights and obligations, evidence from Athenian HEMERA (HMR), a nuclear and chloroplast gene forensic oratory suggests the contrary. A century in Arabidopsis thaliana that is required for light and a half later we still find court cases in which signaling and essential for chloroplast the regulations themselves seem to create differentiation. hmr mutants define a unique class conditions that invite the contesting of various of Arabidopsis light-signaling mutants that are aspects of the liturgy process, including incentives both albino and tall under continuous red and far- for undertaking service, due reward for red light, and die at seedling stage. Though it has performance and implications for the rights of the been proposed that HMR functions in protein wealthy and the common citizen. To some this degradation, how HMR mediates phytochrome debate bespeaks a failure of design or signaling to regulate downstream morphological implementation. I suggest that ongoing responses remains unknown. Here, we further negotiation of terms and obligations was an characterize HMR by overexpressing the protein intentional feature of the system. The multiplicity via CaMV 35S promoter in hmr null background. of claims brought to Athens’ courts should not be In the transgenic lines, a maximum of 30-fold seen as a consequence of the failure to legally increase in HMR transcript levels is observed, define benefaction, but as indication of a robust, while the HMR protein levels increase only about functioning system.

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Margaret Cinderella Adrienne Cohen Size and Shape Development in Lepidoptera Variation in Mastication Rates between Adult Research Advisor: H. Frederik Nijhout and Juvenile Propithecus coquereli Biology Research Advisor: Janine Chalk Evolutionary Anthropology Currently, very little is known about the mechanisms that drive size and shape change in Numerous studies have examined various aspects organs. We use Manduca Sexta as a model of the process of mastication in primates, such as organism to investigate this question. We develop differences in mandibular morphology, maximum a method for quantifying growth across larval ingested bite size, bone’s response to forces from imaginal wing discs using thin-plate-spline chewing, or scaling of mastication rates to body analysis. Mitoses are recorded across wing discs size. Unfortunately, the literature is conspicuously during larval development and analyzed with scarce concerning primate mastication rates among respect to both mitotic orientation and density to age classes. The aim of this study was to examine determine the relationship between mitotic events the mastication rates of Propithecus coquereli and future wing growth. We find a strong positive males (n=2), females (n=2), and juveniles (n=3) correlation between mitotic orientation and wing housed at the Duke Lemur Center. Between age growth, proving that directional mitoses are a classes, juveniles were predicted to have similar possible mechanism for driving the shape change mastication rates to adults. Mastication rates were of an organ. calculated as the number of chews per second in a single feeding bout. The subjects were fed carrots, Christopher Clayton peanuts, and sumac leaves, and the toughness of Healer shopping and communication among these foods was collected from literature or patients of La Clinica Boliviana Americana calculated using the Darvell mechanical tester. Research Advisor: David Boyd Data was collected through video recording, and Global Health mastication rates were calculated from these videos. Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to compare Healer shopping, defined as the use of a second mastication rates among age classes. The medical practitioner without referral from the first, mastication rate of juveniles was significantly has become extremely prominent in rural-urban lower than the rate of females (p<0.0001) for all migrant communities throughout the world. foods, but only significantly different from the Patients pull from self-treatment, traditional mastication rate of males eating sumac leaves. healers and multiple biomedical clinics, employing Juveniles followed the same pattern as females, aspects of each type of care in an attempt to cure indicating a higher chewing rate for peanuts than their problems; this is often done without sumac leaves. These results failed to support this communicating their combined treatment plan to study’s hypothesis and suggest an age difference their providers. Patients of La Clínica Boliviana for sumac leaves and potentially the other foods. Americana in Cochabamba, Bolivia were targeted The results also suggest a sex difference for to demonstrate the presence of healer shopping peanuts and carrots. These results could stem from among the patient population and the quality of subjects’ idiosyncracies; further research needs to communication between patient and provider. be conducted with larger sample sizes in order to Results from surveys and focus groups rule out idiosyncracies and create a stronger view demonstrated a high rate of healer shopping among of age and sex differences on mastication rates. the patients and identified many factors that contribute to the lack of communication with Alejandro Cortese providers surrounding the use of other medical Technique for Long-Lived Anomalously Charged resources. The findings from this preliminary Particle Searches at ATLAS study were presented to clinic staff to promote Research Advisor: Mark Kruse discussion of the use of outside medical resources Physics with patients. All free particles predicted by the Standard Model are of charge |q| = 1, but multiple extensions of the Standard Model, postulate fundamental particles of

Visible Thinking – A Presentation of Undergraduate Research 20 anomalous charge. These extensions have have reduced branching and branch complexity motivated multiple group efforts to search for relative to wild type controls. Dendritic branching anomalously charged particles (ACPs) that are affects the ability of a neuron to receive and long-lived enough to be detected within the process signals and the MT cytoskeleton is thought ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider to play a role in branch outgrowth as well as (LHC). If such long-lived, anomalously charged vesicle and signal trafficking. Mi-2, a subunit of a particles exist, the charge profile of events histone deactylase and chromatin remodeling constructed from measurements of time-over- complex, was picked out of an RNAi screen for threshold (TOT) and trailing edge time (TE) from potential genetic interactors with Kat-like. Mi-2 ATLAS's Inner Tracker along with energy loss mutant larvae have decreased levels of Kat-like (dE/dx) from the Pixel Detector and LAr transcript. Reduced levels of mi-2 have been Calorimeters, may offer a powerful discriminating shown to suppress the reduced branching Kat-like tool. The purpose of Technique for Long-Lived mutant phenotype. This suggests that Mi-2 Anomalously Charged Particle Searches at contributes to dendrite morphogenesis by ATLAS is to detail a technique to combine these regulation of Kat-like. Specifically, this project charge measurements to discriminate for ACPs investigates possible interactions between Mi-2 most effectively and assess initial feasibility of and Spastin or Katanin60 and characterizes the Mi- these searches. Using Fisher Linear Discriminant 2 overexpression allele. analysis and a maximum likelihood fitting method to extract limits related to the cross sections of Graham Custar ACP events and SM processes, we carry out our An Anthropometric Study of Duke's Human complete technique with the Monte Carlo datasets Osteological Material utilized by the HIP group for a Doubly Charged Research Advisor: Janine Chalk Particle (DCP) search; Drell-Yan heavy fermion Evolutionary Anthropology pair production of 200 GeV singly charged q-balls serving as background and 200 GeV doubly The Evolutionary Anthropology Department at charged q-balls serving as signal. We set upper Duke University maintains a collection of limits to 95% confidence of the ratio of DCP to osteological material that includes twenty three singly charged events out of 10,000 events using a bone boxes, housing the skeletal remains of an combination of time-over-threshold, trailing edge unknown number of individuals. Currently, the time, energy loss from the Pixel Detector and material is undocumented, so we have little energy loss from the LAr calorimeters. information about the individuals compromising this collection. Leah Croll This study aimed to estimate sex and geographic Mi-2: A possible regulator of Kat60-L1, ancestry of the individuals using anthropometric Katanin60, and Spastin methods found in the literature. These methods Research Advisor: Nina Sherwood included collecting and comparing quantitative Biology measurements and qualitative assessments from the skulls and associated dental remains. Through The process of microtubule (MT) severing, these methods I attempted to answer questions whereby MT polymers are cut internally by about these individuals regarding their sex and specific MT severing proteins, can lead to geographic ancestry. microtubule growth given the presence of Without any working knowledge of the history of nucleating and stabilizing factors. In other cases, the individual, the large amount of unknown MTs may break down very rapidly. The precise variables reduced the power of statistical tools regulation of MT dynamics in neurons and such as FORDISC in estimating geographic dendrites is crucial for proper neuronal ancestry. Additionally, the lack of experience of development. Kataninp60-Like1 (Kat-like), a the researcher in this field produced high putative MT severing protein in Drosophila, intraobserver error. However, of the eleven skulls regulates the development of multi-dendritic and associated dental remains, the sex of five sensory neurons. These sensory neuron dendrites females and three males were confidently are highly branched and completely cover the identified while only three remained ambiguous larval body wall. Kat-like loss of function mutants with regard to that character. Two Hispanic, one

Visible Thinking – A Presentation of Undergraduate Research 21

European, and two Guatemalan skulls had 50,000 women presently suffering from an eating statistically significant quantitative analyses that disorder will ultimately die because of it. Elite supported qualitative assessments of geographic athletes, in particular, have been shown to live at ancestry, while six had metric and nonmetric even greater risk for the development of an eating results that conflicted. disorder. Thus, the aim of my thesis is to review Obtaining information about geographic origin, the research literature to integrate the findings sex, and stature is the first step to curating human regarding 1) the factors that predispose and remains. Results from this study provide valuable perpetuate eating disorders in female athletes and information on the sex and geographic ancestry of 2) the effectiveness of current treatment the human osteological material maintained at approaches to improve treatment and recovery Duke University, can assist future studies in strategies. One body of research still in its infancy osteological material of modern humans, and has suggests that it might be the mismatch between a begun to establish an initial identity for these patient’s state of motivation to recover and the individuals. specific treatment approach that is used which leads to poor treatment outcomes and high relapse Rui Dai rates. Motivational Interviewing, a new type of Differentiation of stem cells into neurons and motivational therapy shown to facilitate treatment cardiomyocytes for other types of addictive disorders, proposes to Research Advisor: Erich Jarvis target something that none of the existing eating Neurobiology disorder treatments do –the patient’s motivation to change. I thus conclude my thesis with a proposed One purpose of stem cell therapy is to introduce study to test the efficacy of Motivational pluripotent stem cells to damaged tissues for Interviewing as a precursor to any existing form of treating disease or injury. However there are many psychotherapy as a means to enhance eating risks to directly injecting stem cells into patients. disorder treatment and recovery success. The stem cells can differentiate into undesirable tissues, form teratomas or become cancerous. Allison Denburg Using partially differentiated stem cells is one The Dutch Perspective on the European Union: possible solution to this problem, and is currently An Analysis Through Documentary being conducted in mice and a few humans Research Advisor: Joseph Grieco patients. There are however many disorders that Political Science cannot be modeled in mice and are not life- threatening enough to be experimented on humans. This study examines the Dutch perspective on the These disorders, such as vocal learning disabilities European Union as a political institution. and cardiac infarctions, are nevertheless Particularly, it addresses whether the general debilitating and should be addressed. The purpose apathy towards the EU that was observed by of this project is therefore to explore the neuronal Eurobarometer among Dutch citizens in 2001 has and cardiac differentiation of non-mammalian persisted in light of the many institutional changes species stem cells, specifically that of chicken and in the EU, and whether and how Dutch opinions on rat respectively. issues such as immigration and the strength of the Euro have changed over the past decade. Data was Allison Damon collected in the form of interviews with Dutch Enhancing Prevention, Intervention, and respondents from across the socioeconomic Treatment for Athletes at Risk for Eating spectrum; the interviews were then compiled into a Disorders documentary film. The results reveal that while the Research Advisor: Robert Thompson Dutch population is supportive of the EU as a Psychology and Neuroscience theoretical entity, it remains weary of its actual implementation due to a widely perceived lack of Despite the great strides that have been made in transparency in the European Parliament and the identification of causal risk factors for eating economic system. However, moving from the disorders and in their mechanisms of effect, lower to the higher end of the Dutch recovery rates remain at less than 50%, and death socioeconomic spectrum, responses become more tolls remain unacceptably high, with estimates that affirmative. Those who are less educated and/or

Visible Thinking – A Presentation of Undergraduate Research 22 have lower incomes display a greater distrust for Laura Dodd the EU in that institutional policies neglect the Can color-connection be observed in top quark “common man.” On the other hand, more highly events at ATLAS? educated and/or higher-earning respondents Research Advisor: Ayana Arce account for the broader implications of the EU, Physics citing the importance of the international union as an outlet for trade, facilitator of regional peace, In this study a recently suggested observable, jet and assistor in competition with major world pull, will be used to measure color flow in powers. semileptonic ttbar events at the ATLAS detector at CERN. I will measure the color flow of hadronic Rupen Desai W boson decays, using advanced statistical Uncovering a Gene Regulatory Network in methods to separate the distribution of the relative Arabidopsis Ground Tissue pull angle, the relative angle between two jet pull Research Advisor: Philip Benfey vectors. Biology Katelyn Donaldson In the model organism Arabidopsis, the Partners for Success: A Critical Examination of development of the root ground tissue, comprised the Duke Tutoring Program of the endodermis and cortex, is controlled by a Research Advisor: David Malone series of well-studied interactions between the Education transcription factors SCARECROW (SCR) and SHORTROOT (SHR). These transcription factors Established in 1998, Partners for Success connects control the asymmetric cell divisions leading to the Duke University students enrolled in education formation of the root ground tissue through a series service-learning courses to students in the Durham of well-studied interactions. However, a Gene Public School system, engaging in a tutoring Regulatory Network (GRN), or comprehensive program that focuses upon a reciprocal relationship pathway of the expression and activity of these between Duke and the community partners. The transcription factors, has not been established, intent of this project is to evaluate the strengths limiting current understanding of the asymmetric and benefits of Partners for Success as well as to cell division. The purpose of this study was to examine and to address the weaknesses in order to develop a GRN upstream of several key best serve the needs of the community and the transcription factors in root ground tissue students that tutors work with. The primary development (including SHR and SCR) by using research methods employed focus on interviews yeast one-hybrid (Y1H) assays. Previous and feedback from the major parties involved in microarray data revealed 150 candidate regulatory the program: the Duke tutors, tutor coordinators, genes, enriched in the root ground tissue as education professors, the DPS teachers, afterschool compared to other Arabidopsis tissues. The coordinators, and the DPS students tutored. The regulatory elements upstream of the SCR-SHR aim of the project is to utilize this diversity of interaction of interest are 150 TFs found to be perspectives on Partners for Success to understand enriched in ground tissue by previous microarray the impact of the program on these parties and studies. 49 of these TFs were successfully cloned shape reform efforts for the future. These research into the yeast DESTINATION vector, pDESTAD- efforts have highlighted the evident disconnect 2μ, with a fully verified sequence; 5 promoter between the groups involved in the program and regions were cloned into the yeast ENTRY vector, offers a challenge to address it through a myriad of pGEM. Decreased protocol efficiency, caused by interactions to enhance communication. intrinsic alternative splicing of RNA by Arabidopsis and tautomeric shifts in nucleotide Yi Dong structure during the cloning procedure, need to be In vitro and in vivo approaches for correlating solved before completing the Y1H assay. The odorant receptor selectivity to axon guidance in yeast assays can later be verified with RT-qPCR of mice mutant plants. The data from this GRN can then be Research Advisor: Hiroaki Matsunami applied to asymmetric cell divisions of other Molecular Genetics & Microbiology eukaryotic organisms.

Visible Thinking – A Presentation of Undergraduate Research 23

Mammalian olfaction is mediated through the splicing on tumor metastasis, we utilized the binding of odorants to odorant receptors (ORs) following techniques to develop isoform-specific located in the olfactory epithelium. These ORs are antibodies against the receptor: 1) traditional rabbit in olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs), which have immunizations and 2) phage display technology. axons that project to the olfactory bulb and Through western blotting, immunofluorescence coalesce into bundles of axon termini called (IF) staining, and ELISA’s, we demonstrated that glomeruli, where they synapse with downstream the rabbit anti-FGFR2-IIIb antibodies bind neurons. It is believed that along with the OR, specifically to the IIIb isoform while exhibiting chemical cues can drive the development and minimal cross-reactivity to FGFR2-IIIc. positioning of glomeruli, but the role of differential Furthermore, receptor inhibition assays on mouse odorant stimulation in this process is unknown. explants clearly demonstrated that the antibodies Because all ORs are activated by different sets of have the ability to down-regulate FGFR2-IIIb odorants, we proposed a new model for glomerular signaling and to potently inhibit fibroblast development: that overexposing ORs with specific proliferation. Taken together, our data suggests activating odorants can also influence the that these antibodies may be sufficient to inhibit formation of the associated glomeruli. We the progression of highly malignant cancers that employed both in vitro and in vivo methods to test possess aberrant FGFR2-IIIb signaling. this hypothesis, using a luciferase assay for ORs Furthermore, through high-throughput IF assays, expressed in heterologous cells, and fluorescently clinicians can utilize these antibodies to identify labeled OSNs in mice, respectively. We first both patients who are at risk for developing expressed M71, M72, and chimeric ORs in HEK- malignant metastases (prognostic biomarker) and 293T cells, measured their response to different those that will most effectively respond to FGFR2 activating odorants at multiple concentrations, and signaling disruption (predictive biomarker). Based compared them to previously published axon upon this data, we are confident that FGFR2 coalescence data that involved the same ORs. We monoclonal antibody therapies can have a found that certain chimeras had unique odor profound impact on the treatment of a wide range response profiles that correlated with unique of cancers. patterns of axon guidance. We then exposed mice with different labeled OSNs to multiple activating Hannah Fisher odorants and analyzed their glomeruli formation Mindfulness in Patients who have Persistent Low patterns. We were unable to find any significant Back Pain: Relationship to Pain Intensity and correlation between odor exposure and mode of Interference, Mood, and Self-Efficacy glomerular development, thus indicating that Research Advisor: Frank Keefe differing odorants are not sufficient to drive the Psychology and Neuroscience expression of unique patterns of axon coalescence. Mindfulness entails qualities such as observing, Abhinav Ettyreddy describing, acting with awareness, non-judging, Prognostic and therapeutic antibodies against the and non-reacting to inner experience. Acting with alternatively spliced fibroblast growth factor awareness, non-judging of inner experience, and receptor 2 (FGFR2) non-reacting to inner experience are particularly Research Advisor: Mariano Garcia Blanco likely to be salient in coping with persistent low Molecular Genetics & Microbiology back pain. The purpose of the current study was to examine the relationship of mindfulness, Metastasis, the process through which cancer cells specifically acting with awareness, non-judging, invade secondary organs, is thought to occur and non-reacting to the report of pain intensity, through aberrant induction of the epithelial to pain interference, mood, and chronic pain self- mesenchymal transition (EMT) cascade. Although efficacy among patients who have persistent low the EMT process involves a complex set of cellular back pain. 28 patients with persistent low back changes, the alternative splicing of the fibroblast pain completed a battery of self-report growth factor receptor 2 (FGFR2) between its questionnaires. Correlational analyses FGFR2-IIIb and FGFR2-IIIc isoforms has been demonstrated that individuals who scored high on shown to play a fundamental role in this dramatic acting with awareness were significantly more event. In order to elucidate the role of FGFR2 likely to report higher self-efficacy for pain

Visible Thinking – A Presentation of Undergraduate Research 24 management, self-efficacy for physical function, significant effect of self-reported vigilance on and self-efficacy for coping with symptoms. brand awareness, which suggests that subjects Individuals who scored high on non-judging of overestimate their ability to cope with the inner experience and total mindfulness were persuasion tactics of product placement. significantly more likely to report higher self- efficacy for pain management, and self-efficacy Alyssa Forman for coping with symptoms. Those who reported Reaching for College Success: high levels of acting with awareness, non-judging Research Advisor: Alma Blount of inner experience, and total mindfulness were Public Policy also significantly more likely to report higher positive affect, while those with higher levels of Conducted research to determine the best way to non-judging of inner experience and total develop a curriculum for a four-week summer mindfulness were significantly more likely to research initiative at the Urban Assembly School report lower negative affect. Lastly, those who for Criminal Justice, a multi-cultural all-girls reported high levels of non-judging of inner school. The students conducted academic research experience were significantly more likely to report projects related to a community or social issue. lower pain intensity. Non-reacting to inner Each student selected a topic of interest, experience was not observed to be related to any of researched relevant events and information, and the outcome variables. The results of this study gathered and analyzed data. The program indicate that clinicians would benefit from culminated in a paper and presentation of their attending to patients’ levels of mindfulness and findings to the school's board. that patients might benefit from outpatient pain management programs in which a mindfulness Aubrey Frazzitta intervention is a component. Urea regulates capsule production in Cryptococcus neoformans and Cryptococcus Timothy Fleschner gattii Lights, Camera, Product Placement! The Effect Research Advisor: John Perfect of Placement and Audience Characteristics on Molecular Genetics & Microbiology Brand Recall Cryptococcus neoformans causes Research Advisor: Gavan Fitzsimons meningoencephalitis and is an increasing human Fuqua School of Business health threat. C. neoformans is neurotropic and persists in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of the Product placement is the inclusion of branded mammalian host during infection. In order to products or identifiers within filmed entertainment. survive, pathogenic fungi must procure nutrients Marketers are increasingly turning to product including carbon and nitrogen. To enhance placement, as media streaming websites and digital understanding of nutrient acquisition during video recorders (DVRs) have diminished the infection by Cryptococcus sp., we examined effectiveness of broadcast advertising. While utilization of nitrogen sources available in CSF. product placement has been frequently associated We screened for growth and capsule production of with improved brand awareness, the factors 817 global environmental and clinical isolates on moderating this outcome remain an empirical various nitrogen sources. Capsule production was question. The current study investigates the effects assessed using ammonium and urea with benomyl of two levels of product placement: in the to determine the relationship of urea exposure to foreground (prominent) or in the background capsule production. Since urea is metabolized to (subtle). The stimulus, an original screenplay ammonia and CO2 (a known signal for capsule filmed in two conditions, allowed for the induction), we examined urea metabolism mutants. manipulation of different visual placements for Non-preferred nitrogen sources were found to Apple and Coca-Cola products. Seventy greatly affect capsule production in pathogenic undergraduate and graduate students (54% female) species. Urea induced the greatest magnitude of viewed the film and responded to a questionnaire. capsule production and was greater in C. gattii We find that participants’ attitude toward the strains than in C. neoformans strains. In addition, sitcom had a significant effect on brand awareness both environmental and clinical strains grew of Apple product placements. There was not a robustly on uric acid, casamino acids, creatinine,

Visible Thinking – A Presentation of Undergraduate Research 25 and asparagine as sole nitrogen sources. Molly Grace Substantial growth on nitrate was apparent by day Songbird communication in a noisy world: 6 for all serotypes. These findings linking potential benefits of complex notes cryptococcal pathogenicity through growth and Research Advisor: Stephen Nowicki capsule production to nitrogen utilization provide Biology an important advance in our knowledge of nitrogen metabolism in fungi. The abundant amino acids in Loud, low-frequency traffic noise can mask the the CSF may be excellent sources of nitrogen for vocalizations of songbirds, and in response some growth, and the copious amount of urea may be an songbird populations living near roads shift the important capsule induction signal in the host at minimum frequency of their vocalizations upward the site of infection. above the masking range. However, certain songbird note types- complex notes- possess a Ryan Gimple unique frequency structure which may make them Katanin-p60: How a Microtubule Severing resistant to masking, suggesting that species that Protein Impacts the Development of the Nervous use them may be less affected by the problems of System in Drosophila melanogaster traffic noise. Therefore, I predicted that the Research Advisor: Nina Sherwood minimum frequency of complex notes should not Biology increase in response to traffic noise. To test this hypothesis, I recorded wild Carolina chickadee Microtubules are an important element of (Poecile carolinensis) calls, which feature complex cytoskeleton and are critical for cellular processes “D notes,” in varying proximity to roads in including mitosis, meiosis, cellular transport, and Durham, North Carolina, USA, and measured the cellular structure. In neurons, microtubules play amplitude of ambient noise at the time of each crucial roles in the development, stability, and recording. Despite their complex structure, the function of dendrites as well as in axon guidance measured minimum frequency of D notes and synapse formation. Katanin-p60 (Kat60), the increased with traffic noise amplitude. canonical member of the microtubule severing Anticipating that the unique structure of complex protein family, interacts with and shapes the notes might make it difficult to measure minimum structure of microtubules. While some work has frequency using standard methods, I also been done to describe the function of Kat60 in conducted a playback and re-recording experiment vitro, a complete model of the in vivo effects has to determine if accurate measurements could be yet to be developed. To address this issue, I made in noise. This experiment showed that as investigated how Kat60 functions in Drosophila noise level increases, the ability to make accurate embryonic development, larval nociception, larval measurements is greatly reduced, throwing the synapse morphology at the neuromuscular above result into question. This study highlights junction, as well as the neuronal pruning and brain the difficulties of measuring complex notes in remodeling that occurs during metamorphosis. I noise, and I offer suggestions for laboratory found that Kat60 nulls hatched significantly less experiments that could eliminate the problems than wild types, suggesting that Kat60 is important faced in my field study. Understanding how for embryonic development. I used RNAi to complex notes are affected by traffic noise will selectively knock down Kat60 in certain cell types increase biologists’ ability to predict how the to investigate its role in nociception response and ongoing expansion of noisy areas may affect synapse structure. These results were somewhat songbird species composition in the future. inconclusive as the phenotypes were variable. Finally, I found that Kat60 nulls show pruning Andrea Green defects and structural abnormalities in the ADHD in College Students mushroom bodies and ventral nerve cord during Research Advisor: David Rabiner the grand scale nervous system reorganization that Psychology and Neuroscience accompanies metamorphosis. Together, my studies contribute to a comprehensive model for the in Although Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder vivo function of Kat60 in the Drosophila nervous (ADHD) was once viewed as a disorder of system and suggest that this protein is critical for childhood that most individuals ‘outgrew’ as they development. moved into adolescence and beyond, research has

Visible Thinking – A Presentation of Undergraduate Research 26 indicated that ADHD frequently persists into experimental behavior were collected before, adulthood. Since this discovery, several studies during, and after Antide treatment. The behavioral have emerged on ADHD in adults and in college response of the subjects to the treatment was students more specifically. However, researchers assessed by a series of behavioral bioassays, have utilized a variety of techniques—including testing the response of the subject to conspecific asking students about their diagnostic status and odors. The results were statistically inconclusive requiring students to endorse DSM symptoms, due to small sample size (3 subjects), but among others—to create their ADHD groups. interesting trends demonstrated variation in overall ADHD groups have therefore included female response to odors, including genital inconsistent populations, precluding comparisons marking, sniffing odor, and licking odor. across studies, as well as confidence in results. Treatment appeared to suppress genital marking, My study of 200 Duke undergraduates compares and sniffing, while it increased the frequency of the utility of three diagnostic methods—the DSM licking. These trends lead us to believe that with an criteria, a new set for developed for adults by increased sample size, we will be able to Barkley et al. (Proposed DSM-V Criteria for demonstrate a significant effect of hormonal ADHD in Adults), and student-reported diagnostic suppression on female ring-tailed lemur behavior. status. I have found that there is surprisingly little overlap among the students identified as having Michael Habashi the disorder based on the three methodologies. I Living in Hell in the City of Angels: A Mixed have also found that relative to the DSM criteria, Methods Study of Homeless Men on Skid Row the Barkley et al. criteria identify approximately Research Advisor: Rebecca Bach twice as many students experiencing ADHD- Sociology related difficulties in daily functioning. These results have implications both for how researchers My research focuses on the nature of homelessness select participants with ADHD for studies, as well amongst men in Los Angeles’ Skid Row, as for how clinicians should attempt to detect the particularly African-Americans, who are disorder in young adult college students. overrepresented in the homeless populations of most urban areas, including Los Angeles. I Adam Gross volunteered at and partnered with The Midnight Making Scents: Endocrine Correlates of Mission, one of the three largest homeless services Olfactory Communication in Hormonally organizations in Skid Row, in order to access its Suppressed Ring-Tailed Lemurs population for my research. Relying on both Research Advisor: Christine Drea convenience and snowball sampling, I interviewed Biology 20 homeless African-American men, 10 of whom lived on the streets or in temporary shelters and 10 Female dominance is rare in mammals; however, of whom were members of The Midnight female dominance is common in strepsirrhine Mission’s drug and alcohol recovery program. The primates and characterizes the social system of questions asked included a wide-range of topics ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta). In other female including, but not limited to, family background, dominant species, e.g. spotted hyena (Crocuta work experience, education, the origin of their crocuta), dominance has been linked to male-like homelessness, substance abuse, trouble with the morphological and behavioral traits, and law, and views of other homeless people. Each masculinized hormonal profiles. Female ring- semi-structured interview lasted approximately one tailed lemurs are masculinized physically, and hour and was recorded and transcribed verbatim. show increased scent marking and aggression. We In addition, I distributed a questionnaire to 120 hypothesized that the typical pattern of scent men of various racial/ethnic identities in The marking behavior demonstrated by female ring- Midnight Mission recovery program; it consisted tailed lemurs is influenced by hormonal state. To of 22 questions regarding drug and alcohol use, test our hypothesis, we treated three female ring- incarceration, family background, and their tailed lemurs with Antide, a GnRH antagonist, evaluation of their current situation, among other suppressing the production of sex hormones such topics. I have found that homelessness is much as testosterone (T), estradiol (E2), and more multi-faceted than has previously been androstenedione (A4). Data on normative and accepted. The stories of those interviewed indicate

Visible Thinking – A Presentation of Undergraduate Research 27 the strong interconnectedness of drug and alcohol I produced Ragtime at Duke University with the use, mental illness, incarceration, low education aim of furthering my experience and knowledge in level, and single parent families. the field of Broadway theater production before entering the industry a professional level. I wanted Jonathan Haskel to continue pushing myself to understand what it is HEMERA and HFR1 act in parallel pathways to that a producer does and where a producer fits in regulate photomorphogenesis in Arabidopsis the collaborative process of bringing a musical to thaliana an audience. Another equally important goal was Research Advisor: Meng Chen to provide an enriching experience for the students Biology and faculty involved, and challenge the Duke arts community to rise to a new level. My experience Light plays a profound role on plant development and research proved that theater producing is a and growth, yet the pathway by which fusion of effective leadership, decisiveness, and photoreceptor activity leads to a plant’s phenotype stepping back at just the right time. The role of a remains elusive. Recent studies suggest that a producer varies by minute, transitioning between group of transcription factors known as marketing, management, accountant, and an phytochrome interacting factors (PIFs) are key infinite list of other duties the given circumstances players in phytochrome-mediated signaling by of the moment may require. Broadway producer negatively regulating plant photomorphogenesis, David Stone states that his job is to –provide an or the cumulative responses that plants have to environment in which artists can do their best light. Another transcription factor known as HFR1 work.” The core responsibilities of a professional is believed to bind to PIFs and regulate their producer are the raise the capital to produce a activity. The recent discovery of HEMERA show, hire the creative team, and manage the (HMR) as a regulator of PIFs prompted people and money for the run of the show. My investigation into the signaling pathways by which work producing Ragtime at Duke centered around both proteins, HMR and HFR1, mediate PIF gathering support for the project, and overseeing function, and consequently, plant communication between the hundreds of photomorphogenesis. Since each is believed to collaborators involved in its production. affect PIF function differently, we asked whether growing a hmr/hfr1 double mutant would result in Aisha Hilliard an additive hypocotyl elongation effect. For this Determining Complexation Constants using project, we generated a signaling model that Capillary Electrophoresis in Undergraduate Labs depicts the relationships between the two Research Advisor: Todd Woerner aforementioned proteins and PIFs. We achieved Chemistry this goal by generating lines of single mutants and a double mutant between HMR and HFR1. We A new experiment was developed for the junior- then analyzed the physiological responses of these level physical chemistry laboratory course using lines by growing them in dark (D), red (R) and far- Capillary Electrophoresis (CE) to study the red (FR) light and measuring their hypocotyl stepwise binding of 1,10-phenanthroline to an lengths in each condition as a readout for PIF aqueous cupric ion (Cu2+). CE is already in use in activity. Through a western blot analysis we also our laboratory curriculum to measure the pka learned that PIF degradation is dependent on values of acids and bases and our new experiment HMR. With this data, we were able to conclude will build upon that work and give students that HMR and HFR1 regulate PIF function through experience with metal-ligand binding interactions. different pathways; HMR regulates PIF Quantitative measurement of bound ligand as a accumulation, and HFR1 regulates PIF activity. function of free ligand concentration using the Hummel-Dreyer method yielded a stepwise Nathaniel Hill binding curve, from which binding constants were Producing Ragtime at Duke University as an determined. Curve fits based on the theory of Exercise in Collaboration, Adaptation, and successive complexation, gave log β1, and log β2. Personal Professional Development as 7.73±0.03 and 14.53±0.03 ,respectively, where Research Advisor: Claire Conceison β1 is in agreement with previously reported values. Theater Studies Although β2 does not fall within the range of

Visible Thinking – A Presentation of Undergraduate Research 28 literature values, we believe the deviation results Monica Hogan from the limited range of the current study. We Heartwork: Triptych Concluded - A Convergence hope to introduce this experiment in Spring 2013 of Dance and Technology second-semester physical chemistry laboratory Research Advisor: Tyler Walters course. Dance

Carrie Ho Technology has significantly broadened the Origin and evolution of simian capabilities of dancers and choreographers in immunodeficiency virus in the breast milk performance work today. Video projection, compartment of African green monkeys interactive sound and lighting, and other dancer- (Chlorocebus sabaeus) technology interfaces have all been a part of Research Advisor: Sallie Permar choreographic experimentation. On April 7th of Pediatrics 2012, I presented a concert of choreographic works that explored numerous approaches to technology Breast milk transmission remains a significant integration with dance performance. One of the mode of infant HIV acquisition, accounting for technologies incorporated in the production was nearly half of the 350,000 new infant infections motion tracking, where movement of the dancers annually. Interestingly, while infants of HIV- controlled interactive lighting in the performance infected women and SIV-infected rhesus monkeys space. Another work utilized online video sharing acquire the virus via breastfeeding at a measurable capabilities to teach choreography and collect rate, infants of natural primate hosts of SIV, such videos from dancers around the country; in the as African green monkeys, largely escape performance, an ensemble of both live and virtual, infection, despite high virus load in milk. The projected dancers performed choreography learned mechanisms mediating protection of the infants of through the same digital platform. Other works natural hosts of SIV are unknown. Studies have involved set design with integrated lighting shown that breast milk virus populations of components, where the dancers themselves postnatal virus-transmitting hosts, humans and interacted with and controlled elements of their rhesus monkeys, are not compartmentalized, stage lighting during performance. One piece indicating that the breast milk compartment is integrated Twitter, an infrared sensor bar, and a continually seeded by the systemic compartment. Wii remote; a dancer interacted with live RSS feed However, the breast milk virus population of non- projections that influenced elements of the transmitting hosts remains unstudied. As breast movement performance. Another piece utilized an milk is the source of virus that is unable to initiate iPad and Skype video chat technology to infection in the infant gastrointestinal tract of incorporate live-feed video projection. Dancers natural hosts of SIV, this project sought to study interacted with each other, the audience, and the the origin and evolution of the breast milk virus camera, changing the perspectives and angles population in the non-transmitting African green through which individuals were seen via a monkeys. Phylogenetic analysis of SIV variants in technological lens. The entire production, titled plasma and breast milk revealed the presence of Heartwork: Triptych Concluded, was a thorough clonal amplification and compartmentalization of artistic research exploration of the integration of the breast milk compartment. However, in order to dance choreography with technology. assess whether this compartmentalization represents transient compartmentalization as a Hannah Honey result of continual seeding and clonal expansion of Partner versus Product: Examining the Use of viruses to the breast milk from the systemic Consumption versus Support from a compartment or whether there is distinct virus Romantic Partner in Emotion Regulation evolution in response to humoral immune pressure Research Advisor: Gavan Fitzsimons in the breast milk compartment, virus variants Fuqua School of Business from the breast milk and plasma will need to be compared longitudinally. In our current study, we compare the role of partner versus product in negative emotion regulation. In two studies, we 1) examine whether individuals choose to turn to their partner versus

Visible Thinking – A Presentation of Undergraduate Research 29 their favorite product after a negative affect choice in relation to the verbal prompt or tracing. inducing event and 2) compare the effectiveness of While effective for some children, the motor using partner versus product in reducing negative strategy did not appear to be immediately intuitive emotions. For Study 1 we distributed a survey to and teach children a general problem solving 142 adults on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Results strategy for this spatial task. indicate that 84% of individuals choose to turn to their partner over their product to alleviate Laura Hubbard negative emotions. However, individuals Evolutionary dynamics between plant secondary experiencing irritation (as opposed to sadness or compounds and the reproductive success of a anxiety) are significantly more likely to choose salticid predator, Lyssomanes viridis their favorite product. Similarly to Study 1, for Research Advisor: Sonke Johnsen Study 2 we distributed a survey to 131 adults on Biology Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Results indicate that consumption of a favorite product is significantly Unlike other salticids, the eggs of the jumping more effective in reducing feelings or irritation spider L. viridis are not laid within a silken egg than turning to a partner. These results support our sac, but are instead spread flush against the leaves hypotheses that individuals seek out non-social of their host trees, most notably the southern forms of emotion regulation to reduce feelings of magnolia M. grandiflora and sweet gum tree L. irritation and that non-social forms of emotion styracifua. In addition, their eggs will not hatch regulation are more effective in reducing feelings when laid in a laboratory setting, and instead grow of irritation. We are in the process of planning a fungal parasite. We hypothesize that L. viridis Study 3 to further investigate the role of relies on consumption in regulating feelings of irritation. secondary compounds found in both M. grandiflora and L. styracifua as fungicides to Audrey Hu protect their eggs. The project will test this Going through the Motions: Preschool hypothesis by having three groups of female L. Children's Use of a Motor Strategy on a Spatial viridis lay their eggs on leaves of either magnolia, Reasoning Task sweet gum or white oak, a control. In addition to Research Advisor: Amy Joh seeking to isolate Psychology and Neuroscience an antifungal compound within the leaves of both species, which would have practical industrial Spatial reasoning is essential to functioning in applications, this research would be the first to everyday life, as all people and objects have a study direct interactions between a plant's spatial location. Young children who are in the secondary metabolites and arthropod predators. If process of developing spatial cognition can benefit such a relationship exists, it would add a new layer from the use of problem solving skills. The current of understanding and complexity to the study of study tested the utility of a motor strategy in 3- natural ecology. year-old children to problem solve through a spatial reasoning task adapted by Hood (1995). Will Hyung Children observed an experimenter hold a ball Evaluating Self-Control in Social Settings: Actor- over three intertwined tubes, and were instructed to observer Biases and their Implications in trace a tube then place a cup where they thought Relationships the ball would emerge from. Since previous Research Advisor: Grainne Fitzsimons research has shown that young children tend to Psychology and Neuroscience make a perseverative, gravity-driven error on this task, we sought to facilitate learning through a A considerable amount of research has been motor representation of the spatial problem. allocated to the study of self-control: one’s ability Participants made the same number of correct to regulate behavior, affect, and desire during the predictions and gravity bias errors on average, process of goal pursuit. The current thesis despite using the motor strategy on a majority of examines the impact of self-control failures and trials. These findings suggest that the utility of the success in social contexts by analyzing the actor- motor strategy was limited; it was dependent on observer bias between partners of different social which tubes children traced and when they made a relationships. Specifically, how observers and

Visible Thinking – A Presentation of Undergraduate Research 30 actors judge a self-control failure differently and Existing gender disparities in science, technology, its consequences on their evaluation of the actor’s engineering, and math (STEM) fields underscore commitment to goal pursuit and the observer’s the need for outreach programs to engage young willingness to provide social support were women in these subjects. Although many programs examined. In two separate field-studies, romantic exist for high school students, girls may lose partners were compared to friends, using self- interest in STEM subjects at an earlier age. report responses on items measuring social Females Excelling More in Math, Engineering, and support, commitment, and attribution bias. Results Science (FEMMES) hosts an annual, free, one-day indicated that the actor-observer bias occurs more event that provides exciting, hands-on workshops between friends than between romantic partners. for 4th–6th grade girls from Durham, North Self-control failure or success was shown to have Carolina, to encourage them to further explore some effect on social support and evaluation of their potential in these fields. FEMMES also commitment, but within friends only. The provides an after-school outreach curriculum. This significance of the nature and closeness of the study evaluated the effects of the one-day event relationship in how the actor and observer judge (“Capstone”) and the after-school program on the self-control failures is discussed. Finally, future 4th–6th grade girls’ interest in, knowledge of, and directions in this line of research are outlined. confidence in STEM subjects. Assessments (self- reported ratings) were obtained from 319 Christian James participants prior to, immediately after, and again Automatic Tuning of PID Controllers for LEGO three months after the Capstone event. A repeated Mindstorms Robotics measure ANOVA (analysis of variance between Research Advisor: Jeffrey Forbes groups) revealed a significant increase in interest Computer Science in engineering, and confidence and knowledge of math, science, and engineering three months after The Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) the one-day event. A mixed ANOVA revealed a Controller is the most common form of feedback significant increase in the girls’ interest in science controller due to its simplicity and ease of and engineering, knowledge in science, and implementation and is a popular choice in confidence in math and science. Results from this industrial settings. PID control is also flexible study indicate that hands-on workshops and enough to be applied to tasks in the field of mentorship from female faculty, graduate students, robotics. Tuning the gains of the system, though, is and undergraduate students may be important a difficult process. Because of this, control theory factors in inspiring young girls to pursue STEM isn’t normally taught in secondary school, even for fields. problems where an apt control-based solution is available. In this case, the problem is that of wall- Caitlin Johnson following: having a differential drive robot Beyond the Girl Effect: WISER Students' Needs maintains a set distance away from a wall while Assessment driving parallel to it. This routine has applications Research Advisor: Alex Harris in maze-traversal and localization. The PID Public Policy Informer is developed to tune the gains of a controller used for this process, calibrated to The Women’s Institute for Secondary Education accommodate the build of the robot. This set up and Research (WISER) is a girls’ secondary school lends itself well to experimentation; a means to established by the WISER NGO in partnership conduct control systems labs for middle and high with the community in Muhuru Bay, Kenya. Each school students. year a class of thirty students is offered a fully funded education at the WISER school for four Angela Jiang years. In a community where few girls ever make FEMMES: A one-day mentorship and after- it to secondary school and where some girls are school STEM program for girls that fosters forced to engage in transactional sex to pay for hands-on learning and female-to-female school, WISER is hoping to improve the welfare mentorship of the students and the community. Research Advisor: Rochelle Schwartz-Bloom When this community-based research project took Pharmacology & Cancer Biology place, two classes of girls were living at the school

Visible Thinking – A Presentation of Undergraduate Research 31 and none had previously lived in a boarding school late 1950’s and see their small section of the city environment. My project sought to delve into the destroyed. students’ and faculty’s thoughts on the struggles and accomplishments that followed the opening of Agata Kantorowska the school. While quantitative data was available Seasonal Cycling of Opportunistic Pathogens in in the form of exam scores, there was no the Ocean qualitative data to reveal what the students thought Research Advisor: Dana Hunt of WISER and how it impacted them both Biology academically and personally. This research was designed as a students’ needs The marine environment is expected to be assessment to help identify where WISER has significantly affected by climate change– the been successful and what can be improved in order predicted changes for oceans include an increase in to set the students up for success. A final report, both temperature and sea level (Harvell, Mitchell without students names attached, will be used et al. 2002). This will vastly impact all kinds of internally by WISER to make changes and help marine biota. Although the effects of climate improve the functioning of the school. change on plants and animals have been extensively studied, less is known about how they Julius Jones will affect microbial populations (Vezzulli, Brettar The African-American Community in post-World et al. 2010). This study used seasonal temperature War II Portland, Oregon, 1941-1962 variation off the coast of Beaufort, NC as a proxy Research Advisor: Raymond Gavins for climate change in the oceans, specifically History warming waters. The population dynamics of the bacterial genus Vibrio were examined over three The proliferation of defense industries caused by distinct temperature sampling points– spring, the onset of the Second World war led to an in- summer, and fall. Our data supports the migration of thousands of African Americans into hypothesis that bacterial communities change in Portland. African Americans came to Portland response to temperature. Specifically, the data because of the economic opportunities afforded by suggests that the greater the temperature the city’s new shipbuilding industry, but once difference, the greater the difference in bacterial there, new migrants began building more than populations. Warmer ocean waters could lead to ships; they built lives. They demonstrated not only an increase in abundance of pathogenic marine the courage to leave their hometowns, but also the species. tenacity to do hard work and to fight when treated unfairly. Arjun Khanna The end of World War II marked a new era of Brown Adipose Tissue Detection with MRI: possibilities for African Americans, who emerged Novel Applications of BOLD and Hyperpolarized from the conflicted determined to use their near Xenon Imaging universal loyalty and willingness to serve in the Research Advisor: Warren Warren Armed Forces as a means to challenge the nation’s Chemistry racial status-quo. During the war, Portland, Oregon experienced The recent discovery of active brown adipose growth in its African American population on tissue (BAT) in adult humans and the correlation parity with other large urban areas on the West between the activity of this tissue and resting Coast. However, the city’s racial climate metabolic rate suggests that this tissue may play a particularly inhospitable. significant role in human metabolism, as it does in African Americans who stayed in Portland did not rodents. Despite the possible physiological buckle under the pressure of declining importance of this tissue, no safe, non-invasive employment, limited housing options and imaging technique to detect BAT activity in discrimination. Rather, they worked diligently to humans exists. Here, we demonstrate novel build a community for themselves and better lives applications of blood oxygen level-dependent for the posterity. Despite their best efforts, African (BOLD) contrast and hyperpolarized xenon Americans in Portland would soon fall victim to imaging techniques to detect BAT activity in mice urban renewal and the freeway expansion of the using MRI. The results of our BOLD studies show

Visible Thinking – A Presentation of Undergraduate Research 32 that the changes in BAT perfusion that accompany juveniles. The presence of subsequent offspring activation result in attenuation of the MR signal in can have an effect on this relationship. My goal is the tissue by approximately 20%, and this contrast to increase the knowledge of juvenile social can be enhanced by T2*-weighting. Our behavior with specific focus upon the changing hyperpolarized xenon studies show dramatic juvenile-parent relationship and the impact of changes in the xenon spectra of BAT during additional siblings upon these social bonds and activation. We also find that the spectral lines of parental investment. dissolved-phase xenon during BAT activity can give information about the cellular composition of Nusaibah Kofar-Naisa the tissue, since separate peaks for xenon localized The Demolition of the Kofar Na Isa Gate to fat and xenon localized to aqueous cytoplasm Research Advisor: Bruce Hall emerge in the spectra during activity. These History studies demonstrate novel applications of BOLD and hyperpolarized xenon imaging to detect BAT On April 19, 2010 the Kofar Na Isa gate, a activity using MRI. We suggest that these safe and monument believed to be over 500 years old, was non-invasive MR techniques may enable broader demolished in Kano, Nigeria. Kofar Na Isa was future study of BAT activity in humans. one of 15 gates that provide entrance ways into the old walled city. Together, the walls and gates of Kadeisha Kilgore Kano are informally referred to as one of the Why Do They Have to Pray All-Night?: “wonders of Nigeria.” Curious about the wider Ghanaian Charismatic Christianity and Its community’s feelings regarding the demolition, I Influences in the Diaspora traveled to Kano, Nigeria to conduct a series of Research Advisor: Charles Piot interviews about responses to the gate’s Cultural Anthropology destruction. This research paper attempts to tell the story of Kofar Na Isa by approaching the gate from This is a comparative study of Charismatic multiple roads: Part 1 examines the history of class Churches in Ghana and Charismatic Churches in formation in Kano and in so doing, lays the the U.S. Prayer topics and rituals serve as the focal framework for understanding how historical point of this investigation. Here I have sought to processes of social relations have significant examine how locale influences the faith and implications on the frustrations that people practice of Charismatic Christianity, with the continue to feel today. This section focuses mostly ultimate goal of identifying continuity and change on the frustration people feel in their limited in West Africa and the Diaspora, addressing agency to influence their own environment. Part questions pertaining to how Africa has influenced two examines the ways in which the Kano city the practice of religion in the Diaspora and vice- walls and gates have been spoken about in both versa. This study involved in-depth participant history and contemporary times. The goal of this observation and interviews in Accra, Ghana and an section is to introduce the reader to the monuments Atlanta-based sister church of one of the churches as objects closely linked with the narrative of the observed in Ghana. city. Part three contains the interview responses given by Kano citizens. These are structured in a Kemp Knott narrative form so that insight into the multiple Sibling Effect on Parent-Offspring Relationships perspectives can easily be pulled. This section is in Lemur catta intended to be a space through which the opinions Research Advisor: Amy Schreier not often heard can be voiced. Evolutionary Anthropology Sumana Kommana The juvenile period is a critical phase of Investigating Attention Networks Efficiency in development that is especially extended in Adolescents with Anorexia Nervosa primates. Despite this extended period, little is Research Advisor: Nancy Zucker known about the actual development process in Medical Psychology juvenile non-human primates and how they develop socially. The mother-offspring Individuals with Anorexia Nervosa (AN) are relationship is crucial to the social development of characterized by a relentless preoccupation with

Visible Thinking – A Presentation of Undergraduate Research 33 body shape and weight and are known to exhibit different races and to examine the adaptive rigid thinking and participate in ritualized consequences of the differences that exist. behaviors related to their eating habits and food Participants completed self-report measures of related activities. These behaviors suggest a psychosocial adjustment, well-being, and relevant decrease in cognitive flexibility, or set-shifting, personality factors. They also rated how they want which refers to the ability to shift the focus of to be perceived on 19 dimensions by each of nine attention from one attribute of a stimulus to different social others in their lives (e.g., mother, another based on changing goals and best friend, romantic partner, coworker). Asians environmental stimuli. Poor set-shifting is an were found to manage a greater number of self- aspect of executive functioning that has been presentational personas than Whites and also implicated as a risk marker and a potential perceived themselves as being less behaviorally maintenance factor of AN. Although specific authentic than Whites and Blacks. In addition, attention deficits have been documented in adults, Asians perceived themselves as receiving less there has been a general failure to define an social support than both of the other two races. The objective pattern of attention deficit in younger correlational patterns between these differences populations. We focus on adolescents as anorexia and measures of psychosocial adjustment were nervosa is characterized by its early onset, arising frequently similar in Whites and Blacks but during adolescence in the majority of those who distinct for Asians. The perceived quality of social have it. In the present study, we assess the support was not associated with depression or any efficiency of the alerting, orienting, and executive other symptoms of maladjustment in Asians. control networks with the Child Attention Network However, the number of self-presentational Test (ANT-C). We compare the performance of 15 personas managed is associated with several females with a current (AN-M) or prior diagnosis measures of psychosocial adjustment for Asians of AN (AN-WT) to 15 age matched healthy while not for Blacks or Whites. The role of controls. Reaction times and accuracy were stereotype vulnerability and cultural differences in collected to obtain the alerting, orienting, and self-construal in the social behavioral patterns conflict scores for each participant. Results exhibited by individuals of different racial groups showed that reaction rates and error rates did not is discussed. significantly differ between the two subject groups, suggesting that attentional deficits related Jenny Li to anorexia nervosa develop after its onset and may Identification of OTX2 as a novel therapeutic be influenced by the duration of the disorder. target in the malignant childhood tumor These results can be very useful for the retinoblastoma advancement of diagnostic and treatment studies in Research Advisor: David Cory Adamson younger individuals with AN. Specifically, early Neurosurgery identification may aid the development of interventions that address and possibly prevent The transcription factor orthodenticle homeobox 2 attention deficits from developing in the future. (OTX2) plays a critical role in very early neurogenesis but can become oncogenic when Jaehyuk Lee aberrantly expressed later in life. Previous work Racial Differences in Self-Presentation has identified OTX2 as an oncogene in Research Advisor: Philip Costanzo medulloblastoma, the most common malignant Psychology and Neuroscience brain tumor in children; however, little is known about the role of OTX2 in retinoblastoma, another Self-presentation refers to the manner in which childhood malignant tumor. To study the individuals behave and portray themselves in oncogenic role of OTX2 in vitro, OTX2 expression social context. This may differ from situation to was disrupted in retinoblastoma cell lines via situation and also from their self-concept. This OTX2-specific siRNAs and all-trans retinoic acid deviation is expected to be especially interesting in (ATRA), and the amount of cell apoptosis and minority racial groups due to prevailing socio- proliferation was assessed after knockdown. To identity pressures. The purpose of the current study examine the oncogenic effects of OTX2 in vivo, is to examine this deviation and look for consistent RNA interference experiments were carried out in differences in self-presentational styles across retinoblastoma mice xenografts, and tumor size

Visible Thinking – A Presentation of Undergraduate Research 34 and tumor growth was recorded after OTX2 because they have to seek approval of transactions. knockdown. Knockdown of OTX2 expression by Half of the men I talked to expressed that they siRNA and pharmacologic inhibition by ATRA wished there could be better opportunities in the both significantly increased apoptosis and Udaipur area so that they could return home. The decreased cell proliferation in vitro. Knockdown of above needs and concerns of the wives of migrant- OTX2 also significantly decreased tumor size and labor families can be addressed with the correct growth in vivo. These studies showed that the interventions and support organizations. medulloblastoma oncogene OTX2 plays an important oncogenic role in retinoblastoma. These Emmanuel Lim studies also showed that ATRA, a drug already Comparing Micro- and Nano-scale used in the treatment of other tumors, could CuO/ZnO/Al2O3 Catalysts For Methanol Steam repress OTX2 expression, which makes OTX2 a Reforming. promising target for future therapy in Research Advisor: Nico Hotz retinoblastoma. Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science

Jinyuan Li Hydrogen could be the fuel of the future. While it Impact of Rural-to-Urban Male Migration on has an exceptional energy density by mass, its low Women's Seeking of, Access to, and Financing of energy density by volume makes it a lackluster Healthcare and of Women's Health among option as a mobile fuel. A liquid fuel from which Different Geographies, Caste, and Income Groups hydrogen could be derived when needed would and the Perception of Migration by Migrant Men provide a solution. Steam reforming of methanol Research Advisor: Anirudh Krishna produces a gas with a high hydrogen composition Public Policy (typically ~70%). This hydrogen can be used in fuel cells to generate electricity. Methanol steam Many people use migration as a means to a reforming is endothermic and can be achieved secondary source of income, while others use it to under temperatures of 180-350 °C and atmospheric improve their economic situation and quality of pressure with a CuO/ZnO catalyst on Al2O3 life. In this study, I investigated the impact of supports. The current project attempts to determine rural-to-urban male migration on women’s seeking whether nano-scale catalyst particles (more surface of, access to, and decision making of financial area per volume; higher residence times; higher resources and healthcare resource/education conversion rates) are advantageous over micro- management and also on the women’s physical scale particles for this purpose. The catalyst and mental wellbeing among different particles were fixed in a packed-bed tubular geographies, caste, and income in rural Southern reactor, and heat was supplied between 220 °C and Rajasthan (India). I also looked at the husband’s 295 °C. An input of water and methanol (steam- perception of how his actions impact her life. methanol ratio of 1.2) was fed to the packed-bed Semi-structured survey questions were carried out reactor at liquid volumetric flow rates between 1 for two sets of individuals—single male migrant’s and 50 microliters/min. The product gases were wives and rural-to-urban male migrant works—to analyzed via gas chromatography. Conversion assess any common themes or patterns present in rates between micro- and nano- reactors are the the following categories of the women’s life: basis for comparison. The end goal of the research Background, Marriage and Living Situation, project is to produce a commercial-ready device Assets, Financial Resources Access, Knowledge of that sources solar thermal energy for heat to power Husbands Address and Mobile, Physical and this reaction, and that can be used in distributed Reproductive Health, and Decision Making & generation. Mobility. It was observed that women in families in which husbands migrate, have to perform Ryan Lipes household and agricultural work mostly without Transitioning Students to High School: help. Women in male-migrant labor families may Freshman Academies in Durham Public Schools face healthcare seeking delay as it is difficult for Research Advisor: David Malone them to contact their husbands in emergency Education situations. In many cases, the wives of migrant- labor families experience more financial stress

Visible Thinking – A Presentation of Undergraduate Research 35

The transition to high school is a critical time in a intrinsic goals such as the desire for self student’s academic development. Students actualization are healthy motivators so long as unsuccessful in the ninth grade are much more there is an understanding of the inherent likely to drop out of high school. Freshman limitations of the administrative role. Additionally, Academies – a type of small learning community – although many administrators do not state are an innovative solution that can help bridge the monetary compensation or work hours as transition to high school. The purpose of my important factors prior to entering administration, research was to determine potential ways these factors, given the harsh demands of the job, Freshman Academies in the Durham Public are the most likely reasons for leaving Schools could be strengthened. Using a administration. These factors need to be addressed framework provided by a review of the literature if school leadership roles are to become more on the effectiveness of small learning attractive and sustainable. communities, the research presents a case study of the four Freshman Academies in the Durham Anna Liu Public Schools. Freshman Academy teachers Identifying genetic modifiers in DYT1 pathology completed a survey designed to reveal the Research Advisor: Nicole Calakos strengths and weaknesses of the Freshman Neurobiology Academies along four components: teacher teams, autonomy in decision making, strength of school Dystonia is a neurological disorder characterized leadership, and professional development. An by involuntary and abnormal postures and examination of the results of the research indicates movements. Although the disease leaves no visible that Durham’s Freshman Academies could sign of neurodegeneration or identifiable lesions, improve through better alignment of outcome we can observe and monitor the cellular pathology goals and evaluation metrics, improved use of of dystonia caused by inherited gene mutations. common planning time, creation of a separate DYT1, the most common of the inherited identify within the schools, and improved dystonias, is the result of a three base pair (GAG) professional development. The researcher then deletion in the TOR1A gene, subsequently causing developed the Freshman Academy Rating Scale, the loss of glutamic acid in the carboxyl terminus an evaluation rubric which can guide further of the corresponding protein TorsinA. assessment of Freshman Academies. Overexpression of deltaGAG-TorsinA produces abnormal intracellular inclusions (including Max Liu proteins and membranous structures) that co- Sustainability in Educational Administration localize with membrane constituents of the nuclear Research Advisor: Susan Wynn envelope; this phenotype is distinct from the Chemistry overexpression of wildtype-TorsinA which does not (or rarely) produce such inclusions. I Retaining quality school leaders is a critical aspect hypothesized that the intracellular inclusions, in improving the education system. However, high whose production is associated with the deltaGAG attrition rates coupled with a lowering appeal to mutation, impair the molecular functions of the enter administration are creating a leadership void TorsinA protein and are the cellular basis for the within schools such that many schools lack the movement problem that is dystonia. A high- necessary leadership for quality reform to take throughput, high-content assay was successfully place. This study attempts to identify common developed to accurately track and monitor the reasons why administrators decide to leave their presence or absence of inclusions through positions and pinpoint healthy motivating factors algorithmically defined parameters (i.e. percentage that can enable administrators to have sustainable of cells with inclusions, fluorescent intensity of careers. In-depth interviews of current or past inclusions, etc.) Utilizing this assay, a whole- administrators in education were conducted. The genome RNAi screen is currently underway to motivating factors for staying or leaving screen and identify potent genetic modifiers of administration cited by these interviewees were DYT1 pathology that may provide critical insights then compared to the factors frequently cited into the functional roles of TorsinA. RNAi within the literature to identify which factors are modifiers initially identified from the whole- more important than others. It was found that genome screen will then be analyzed using in

Visible Thinking – A Presentation of Undergraduate Research 36 silico pathway analysis to characterize gene remember their pasts. Lastly, I describe the active clusters and to select candidates for secondary role that the Hopi are now taking in preserving and screens. protecting their culture. They seek both to protect their heritage from outside abuse and Claire Lockerby misappropriation and to preserve their culture Owning the Intangible: A Historical Study of internally. Through this study, I ultimately find Euro-American Commodification of Hopi that appreciating the value of indigenous cultures, Culture and Theft of Intellectual Property and treating members of these groups with dignity Research Advisor: Sally Deutsch and respect, is a more desirable goal than trying to History define and assign ownership to each aspect of culture. Since the late 1980s, as technological innovations have facilitated the circulation of information and Mandy Lowell exchange of ideas, debates about the ownership of To Our Lady We Sing: The History and Style of indigenous artistic creations and traditional the N-Town Mary Play knowledge have become an important issue on the Research Advisor: Sarah Beckwith international stage. The shift from a former lack of Theater Studies regard for the rights of indigenous peoples to a heightened awareness of the ownership of Of the four major existing collections of late intangible aspects of culture is aptly illustrated in medieval religious (mystery) plays, the most the case of the Hopi Indians, who have inhabited mysterious and least studied is the N-Town play three mesas in Northern Arizona for more than one cycle. The term –cycle” is used by medievalists to thousand years. Beginning in the late nineteenth refer to collections of short plays that were century, interactions with non-Hopis who asserted probably performed together as part of a religious ownership over various aspects of Hopi culture festival. In the case of the N-Town collection, the and used it for their own purposes has shaped the term is probably a misnomer; scholars generally way that the present-day Hopi view and preserve believe that it is rather a collection of independent their heritage, as they seek to regain control over plays that were later compiled into a single extant their culture. Analyzing the impact that specific manuscript. However, within the collection is a historical experiences have had on current Hopi set of pageants that scholars do treat as a complete attitudes about cultural preservation allows us to work. These pageants deal with the conception appreciate the value of Hopi heritage to Hopis and and early life of the Virgin Mary, and are non-Hopis alike, while simultaneously colloquially called the N-Town Mary Play. I will demonstrating the difficulty of defining who expand upon the already existing scholarship on exactly owns culture. Moving from 1870 to the this fascinating cycle by studying the Mary Play as present, I examine seminal periods of Hopi history a piece of theatre. I will examine how and why the that have laid the groundwork for present-day play might have been performed at the time of its disputes. I first explore the beginnings of writing, create my own translation and adaptation American fascination with the Hopi, perceived at of the play designed for performance, and present that time as a primitive culture, in the late my research and translation as a senior distinction nineteenth century. During this time, researchers project. studied and documented aspects of Hopi culture that were intended to be held in secret, and David Lung corporations enticed tourists to visit the Southwest MAP Kinase Signaling as an Intracellular by turning Hopi culture into a commodity. Next I Determinant for an Oncolytic Virus draw upon memoirs written by Hopi authors, who Research Advisor: Matthias Gromeier chronicle their interactions with Americans, Molecular Genetics & Microbiology including government officials and missionaries, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) These accounts demonstrate how experiences with pathways are responsible for fundamental cellular forced schooling, land division, and other processes, including proliferation. Cancer cells assimilation efforts designed to stifle Hopi culture generally have active MAPK signaling. have influenced how the Hopi now view and Picornaviruses target cells with active MAPK

Visible Thinking – A Presentation of Undergraduate Research 37 signaling, therefore, our lab seeks to use a action and education initiatives can be undertaken picornavirus for the treatment of cancer. PVS- and targeted to certain groups to dispel the myths RIPO is moving into clinical trial, however, the to provide awareness, a safer campus, and gender mechanism(s) by which MAPK signaling equality. stimulates viral proliferation has only recently been studied. The goal of this work is to identify Ibrahim Maali this mechanism. Picornaviruses are positive strand Hands Off District Six: Preserving Community RNA viruses that rely on their ability to usurp host through Militant Nonviolence translation machinery to their genomic RNA viral Research Advisor: William Chafe protein synthesis. Their ability to accomplish this History relies on an Internal Ribosomal Entry Site (IRES), which recruits the host translation machinery. The In the mid-1980's the District Six community once key protein involved in this process is eukaryotic again rose up to challenge the apartheid initiation factor (eIF) 4G, the ribosome adapter government. In 1966 their neighborhood had been protein, which binds to the viral IRES and directs declared a white group area and over the next translation. Both eIF4G and the cap binding decade the population was forcibly removed to the protein, eIF4E, are substrates for the MAP Kinase distant townships while everything they had signaling cascade. We employed a model of viral known was destroyed by the bulldozer. After infection in tissue culture to confirm that the numerous attempts to plead with the government kinase for eIF4E and eIF4G, Map Kinase and exact a reprieve, a new approach emerged in Integrating Kinase (MNK) is responsible for this the 1980s--heavily influenced by the antiapartheid stimulation. By using a cell line in which political movements of the time--that would have a endogenous eIF4G was knocked down by shRNA far greater effect than any of its predecessors. This and reconstituted with a phopho-deficient eIF4G at organization, Hands off District Six, was marked the 1232 site (S1232A), we determined that basal by a strict unwillingness to cooperate with the phosphorylation at this site has no effect on viral government and the development of a platform translation alone. Therefore, future work will focus broad enough that it would be agreeable to the on what sites downstream of MNK direct the most parties. This generational change in approach switch from cap-dependent (cellular) translation allowed Hands off District Six to garner far more and viral IRES translation. respect and community support than any of its predecessors, allowing it to successfully engage Lucy Ma the government from a position of self- True or False? Rape Myth Acceptance at Duke enfranchisement as opposed to supplication. University Research Advisor: Rebecca Bach Andie MacDonald Sociology Role of Sex and Estrus cycle in Ethanol CTA Research Advisor: Cynthia Kuhn Rape myth acceptance represents the false beliefs Pharmacology & Cancer Biology and attitudes on rape, rapists and victims held by individuals that ultimately justify male aggression Alcoholism has historically been a typically-male and behavior towards women. Collaborating with problem. However, females alcoholics develop The Line Campaign, a non-profit organization pathological behaviors more rapidly than males, dedicated to the new generation in creating a world and have a more severe course of disease. One sans sexual violence via popular media and critical factor contributing to this rapid trajectory into dialogues, the project, True or False? Rape Myth alcohol-use disorders is sensitivity to aversive Acceptance at Duke University, seeks to identify effects, which is an important determinant of the rape myth acceptance level at Duke University. drinking behavior both on group and individual Surveys were distributed via email through a levels. As a group, adolescent rats are less random sample and convenience sampling on the sensitive to aversive effects than adults, and are Bryan Center plaza during peak hours. By more susceptible to alcoholism-like drinking identifying and analyzing the rape myth behaviors. Individually, the adolescent rats that acceptance levels among class year, Greek or non- are least susceptible to alcohol's aversive effects Greek affiliation and sexual orientation, social drink the most ethanol voluntarily. Thus, we

Visible Thinking – A Presentation of Undergraduate Research 38 sought to explore whether females, as a group, relationship between T1D knowledge among were more or less susceptible to alcohol's aversive caretakers of T1D children and potential effects, and whether estrus cycle has any effect on predictors, including socioeconomic status, aversion as measured in the conditioned taste frequency of visits to the clinic, and the socio- aversion (CTA) task. In this task, rats were trained emotional impact of the disease. Data was to associate an aversive experience with something collected through oral interviews with each of the normally enjoyable, saccharin-flavored water. The caretakers, conducted with the assistance of extent to which rats avoid saccharin-flavored water Kiswahili translators. The research has after its pairing with ethanol is indicative of the highlighted the importance of improving strength of ethanol’s aversive effects. We communication between caretakers and medical compared adult male and female rats and personnel, re-education strategies, and determined the estrus stage of the females. We synchronizing teaching aids between the different observed that males were more sensitive to clincis. ethanol’s aversive effects than females. Additionally, estrous stage of females on the day Ashton Massey of ethanol-saccharin pairing affected the strength Women and Social Compensation on Facebook of aversion, with females in proestrus stage Research Advisor: Christina Grimes showing less aversion than others. These results Psychology and Neuroscience suggest that both sex and estrus cycle stage affect the aversion sensitivity, and they shed light on Over the past decade, social networking sites potential mechanisms of sex differences in alcohol (SNS) have become a cornerstone of young use disorders. people’s social experiences. A 2011 Pew research survey revealed that online social networking is Sanjana Marpadga particularly prevalent among 18-29 year-old Knowledge of Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus Among women, 89% of whom report using the sites Caretakers of Type 1 Diabetic Children at (Madden & Zickhur, 2011). Because of its Regional Clinics Within Tanzania ubiquity, ability to bridge offline and online Research Advisor: Julie Reynolds communications, and technological breadth, Biology Facebook is a particularly rich and interesting social networking site to study in order to Juvenile-onset diabetes, or Type 1 diabetes (T1D), understand how online communication relates to is one of the most debilitating endocrine and real-life socioemotional development. Studies of metabolic conditions in children. A recent differences in Facebook usage indicate potentially epidemiological study has revealed a three-fold different underlying functions of SNS for different increase in the global prevalence rate of T1D in the populations, perhaps based on social competency past 30 years, with a high burden of the disease in or adjustment (Valkenburg et al, 2005). One low- and middle-income countries due to issues of concept to emerge from this research is the social social immobility, access, and limited resources. compensation hypothesis in which less socially Therefore, the African Region of the International skilled people compensate for deficits in their Diabetes Federation developed a diabetes training offline social lives with online communication and manual for Sub-Saharan African aimed at relationships (Gross, 2002). People with a history improving diabetes management and quality of of social anxiety are among the populations we care through increased education of patients as might speculate to engage in SNS use for reasons well as their families. However, no research has of social compensation. The goals of the present yet been conducted to evaluate new educational study include investigating how young adult strategies. My study was a cross-sectional, women use Facebook to express themselves, and correlational study undertaken to assess the impact whether offline social anxiety across the lifespan is of this new focus in three government-run related to social compensation in this population. hospitals in Tanzania with T1D clinics. Children at Participants were 55 young adult women who had each of these clinics are enrolled in the T1D Take participated in a comprehensive friendship study as Action Children’s Program which provides 4th graders. To investigate links between social patients with free insulin and glucose monitoring anxiety, social compensation behaviors, and supplies. The goal of the study was to assess the Facebook content, our study employed direct

Visible Thinking – A Presentation of Undergraduate Research 39 coding of Facebook profiles as well as self-report Jane Meyerson measures of internalizing symptoms and Facebook The Effect of Functional Connectivity Between usage. the Amygdala and the Insula on Anxiety Research Advisor: Ahmad Hariri Gwendolyn McGinnis Psychology and Neuroscience Ring-tailed Lemur Susceptibility to Human Diseases as Reflected by MHC Divergence This study examined the role of functional Research Advisor: Christine Drea connectivity between the amygdala and the insula Evolutionary Anthropology on anxiety, specifically hypothesizing a positive correlation between functional connectivity and Zoonotic diseases pose a major threat to human anxiety. Previous research suggests that enhanced populations and have become increasingly amygdala and insula activity are independently important to study given recent and continuing related to anxiety. However, it remains unclear human encroachment into previously isolated whether increased functional connectivity between habitats. Intensified contact with other species, these two brain regions plays a significant role in especially non-human primates, increases the anxiety within itself. In order to investigate the possibility that these species may serve as relationship between amygdala-insula connectivity reservoirs for deadly human diseases. Increasing and anxiety, we measured resting state blood- deforestation on the island of Madagascar has oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) signal data, using brought humans and lemurs into closer proximity. functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), in This study examines the potential for ring-tailed 350 nonpatient, young adults, student volunteers. lemurs (Lemur catta) to serve as a reservoir for The data were from an ongoing parent protocol, infectious human diseases. One hundred L. catta the Duke Neurogenetics Study (DNS). All from the Beza Mahafaly Special Reserve in participants completed the State-Trait Anxiety Southwestern Madagascar were tested via PCR Inventory (STAI). We found that individuals with assays for four strains of malaria that most higher anxiety exhibited less functional commonly infect humans and for Simian connectivity between the dorsal amygdala and Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV). None of the insula. Conversely, we did not find any correlation animals tested positive, indicating L. catta are between ventral amygdala and insula connectivity neither susceptible to the human strains of these and anxiety. These findings were therefore in diseases nor able to act as a potential reservoir for opposition to the initially proposed hypothesis. disease transmission. Due to the co-evolutionary Future studies should attempt to map the reduced relationship between pathogen and host, the connectivity between the dorsal amygdala and the evolutionary divergence between humans and insula onto a particular gene or genes in order to lemurs accounts for the differential susceptibility. expand our understanding of these results and aid This evolutionary divergence between pathogens the effort of creating more effective treatments for with different hosts mirrors the divergence of the anxiety disorders. hosts’ Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) genes. As MHC genes control the immune Lindsay Michalski systems’ recognition of these pathogens, this Genetic Contributions to Bipolar Disorder: divergence indicates a coevolution and specificity Clinical Implications of a CACNA1C of hominids and certain blood borne pathogens, as Polymorphism compared to generalized gastrointestinal parasites Research Advisor: Ahmad Hariri that can be transmitted between ring-tailed lemurs Psychology and Neuroscience and humans. Though many non-human primates pose a threat to human health through the Recent genome-wide associate studies have shown transmission of deadly infectious diseases, ring- a correlation between the rs1006737 tailed lemurs are not one of them. polymorphism within the CACNA1C gene – which codes for an important voltage-dependent L- type calcium channel subunit protein – and severe psychopathologies, such as bipolar disorder. Given this, it is important that future studies address the underlying biological mechanisms by which this

Visible Thinking – A Presentation of Undergraduate Research 40 polymorphism may confer risk for the hospitable environments in health facilities development of psychopathology. The amygdala, providing free healthcare, and along with the focus which plays a role in determining the emotional group, they identified a need for health education significance of stimuli and responding and desire for spiritual support in the hospitals. appropriately to challenges in the environment, Final recommendations to FHM included ways for may lend insight into this biological basis. the organization to increase their visibility in Furthermore, the ventral striatum – the hub of Léogâne, address the community’s educational and corticostriatal reward-related processing – is often spiritual needs (as they relate to health), and create abnormally activated in bipolar patients in a positive environment for patients and employees response to feedback-based tasks. My analyses of in the new health center. fMRI and genome data from 150+ participants in the Duke Neurogenetics Study has shown that the Natalie Miller risk allele of this CACNA1C polymorphism is The Relationship between SNCA SNP Allele associated with both significantly increased Frequencies and the Development of Lewy amygdala reactivity to emotionally-salient stimuli Bodies and decreased ventral striatum reactivity to Research Advisor: Ornit Chiba-Falek positive feedback in an outcome-centered task. IGSP These correlations indicate that the risk allele at rs1006737 may, indeed, implicate an increased The alpha-synuclein gene (SNCA) was among the vulnerability to bipolar disorder. first genes to be associated with increased risk for familial Parkinson’s disease (PD). A pathological Elisabeth Michel indication of Parkinson’s disease, on which we A Community Perspective: Haitian Women’s chose to focus, is Lewy bodies (LB), essentially Opinions on Health and Health Services in buildup of plaque in the brain. LBs are mostly Léogâne, Haiti composed of alpha-synuclein, the protein product Research Advisor: Dr. David Walmer of the SNCA gene. The goal of our project was to Reproductive Endocrinology & Fertility analyze the association between specific SNCA single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and LB In Léogâne, Haiti, non-profit organization Family pathology. We examined seven SNPs along the Health Ministries (FHM) provides screening and SNCA gene for four neuropathic patient groups: treatment for cervical cancer and is currently Normal (N), Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), building a health center. From June-July of 2011, Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), and Alzheimer’s I conducted community assessments, garnering Disease with Lewy bodies (AD-DLB). SNPs were individuals’ perspectives on health services in chosen based on functional data and linkage Léogâne and the care FHM provides through its disequilibrium blocks, See Figure 1. We examined clinic. The goal of this research was to help FHM 137 N human brain samples and 589 diseased develop a better understanding of the community’s human brain samples. From these samples, DNA perspective and develop program objectives that was extracted and Taqman sequencing was used can meet community needs. In addition to a focus for genotyping. The allele frequencies for each group discussion, 55 women ages 18 and over took SNP were analyzed in individual bar charts, with an oral survey of 31 questions addressing their SNP frequency on the y-axis and each of the four personal opinions on the health services they neuropathic patient groups on the x-axis. With the encountered in Léogâne. Survey questions data, we were able to observe the SNPs that implicitly and explicitly concentrated on services appeared to have an impact on LB formation in that FHM currently provides or will provide in the DLB and AD-DLB patients. Our results suggested future. The majority of the respondents failed to that SNPs in the 3’ linkage disequilibrium block recognize the FHM name but proved familiarity had an impact on LB development, especially in with the doctor working in the FHM clinic. DLB patients. The tested SNPs seemed to Respondents largely stated they preferred public to contribute more to LB formation from N to DLB private health services, however a significant rather than from AD to AD-DLB. The results can amount of respondents stated dissatisfaction with be explained if put into context using data services received in public healthcare facilities. collected from GWAS and known information on Respondents also demonstrated a desire for more LBs. These results may help to further the

Visible Thinking – A Presentation of Undergraduate Research 41 understanding of the extent to which genetic Recent work on TbetaRIII has uncovered non- variability on the SNCA gene, marked by the redundant roles for this protein independent of chosen seven markers, contribute to development other TGF-beta receptors, suggesting that of LBs. TbetaRIII can regulate cell processes and cancer progression via Smad-independent pathways. This Jordan Miller project aimed to investigate the mechanism of Aggression and Resource Defense in the Female TbetaRIII's well-established role in breast cancer Chimpanzees of Gombe Stream National Park, progression, specifically to see if non-canonical Tanzania signaling through TbetaRIII contributes to its role Research Advisor: Anne Pusey as a tumor suppressor. Based on an initial analysis Evolutionary Anthropology of pathway signatures which identified significant correlations between TbetaRIII expression and There is striking variation in the reproductive signaling pathway activity, several pathways success of individual female chimpanzees, Pan commonly mutated in breast cancer were chosen troglodytes. In primates, this variation is often tied for validation in vitro. Expression of TbetaRIII to dominance rank in which dominant females out- appeared to down-regulate the ERK pathway in a compete subordinates. However, female primary breast cancer cell line. Additionally, chimpanzees lack a linear dominance hierarchy TbetaRIII appeared to have roles in the regulation and agonistic interactions are rare. Female of other pathways, including Akt. To investigate reproductive success is thought to be largely possible mechanisms of action, we utilized determined by access to resources, implying that TbetaRIII cytoplasmic domain mutants which are those individuals with the highest fitness have unable to bind to beta-arrestin2 or GIPC, both of secured food resources more successfully than which have been shown to mediate noncanonical their competitors. Defending core areas, spaces in signaling. Our data suggest that TbetaRIII is able which female chimps forage alone within larger to regulate the activity of noncanonical signaling male defended territories, is one potential pathways, identifying TbetaRIII as a possible mechanism through which females can maintain therapeutic tool for the treatment of breast cancer. long-term access to food resources. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the nature of female Marissa Mumford competition in the chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes A Love Hate Relationship: Exploring the Link schweinfurthii) of Gombe, and to determine Between Class Preference and Motivational whether females actively defend their personal Theory core areas through overt aggressive interactions. Research Advisor: Lisa Linnenbrink-Garcia Specifically, is core area competition the Psychology and Neuroscience predominant precipitator of female-female aggression and therefore an example of contest Employing the advantages of a qualitative competition? approach, the current study examines whether certain motivational elements of the classroom Allyson Morton bear greater or lesser weight in liking or disliking Novel interactions between the type III TGF-beta of a class in high school versus college students. receptor and noncanonical pathways in breast This study has three aims: (1) to examine the cancer prevalence of elements of motivational theory in Research Advisor: Gerard Blobe favorite versus least favorite classes, (2) to identify Pharmacology & Cancer Biology common individual motivational profiles, and (3) to compare the reasons high school versus college The transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) students identify for favorite and least favorite signaling family regulates a multitude of biological classes. Instead of pre-designing the coding processes including cell proliferation, migration, scheme before viewing the data, the current study differentiation, and apoptosis, and is commonly enabled patterns to naturally arise that best altered in breast cancer. TbetaRIII, a TGF-beta co- described the data. These patterns reflected the receptor, is expressed in essentially all cell types constructs of achievement goal theory, interest and the loss of TbetaRIII expression correlates development, and expectancy-value theory. with breast cancer progression and poor prognosis. Findings from this study will help determine

Visible Thinking – A Presentation of Undergraduate Research 42 salient factors in the high school and college Clinical severity of sickle cell disease (SCD), classroom environment that are liked or disliked measured by vaso-occlusion frequency, strongly by students and how to potentially manipulate correlates with the degree of sickle red blood cell external and internal factors of students in the (SSRBC) adhesion to vascular endothelium classroom environment to optimize adaptive goal- (Hebbel et al., 1980). SSRBC’s intercellular directed behavior. adhesion molecule – 4 (ICAM-4) mediates adhesion to the vascular endothelium integrin Michael Murphey alphaVbeta3 (Zennadi et al., 2007). In addition, The “Delay of Germination 1” Gene: a BCAM/LU is a high affinity receptor found on Dormancy Control Mechanism in Arabidopsis RBCs that binds laminin isoforms 10 and 11 thaliana Mediated by Temperature (Udani et al., 1998) and can mediate SSRBC Research Advisor: Kathleen Donohue adhesion to immobilized laminin. Since plasma Biology factors have been shown to affect sickle erythrocyte adhesion to vascular endothelium Germination is a plant’s first major life history (Mohandas et al., 1985) and soluble plasma event. The environment in which a seed laminin levels in SCD patients are elevated germinates is very important, so plants have compared to non-sickle cell patients (Bolarin et al., specific mechanisms to delay germination until 1998), the role of plasma laminin in SSRBC conditions are favorable. A cold maternal adhesion warrants investigation. In this project, temperature has been shown to induce dormancy, we used the static flow chamber assay to while seeds have been shown to lose initial investigate the ability of soluble purified laminin (primary) dormancy as they age, in a process and plasma laminin to enhance SSRBC adhesion called after-ripening. The Delay of Germination 1 to endothelial cells. Our data suggests that the (DOG1) gene induces dormancy in Arabidopsis incubation of SS patient plasma with washed thaliana, though how external factors such as SSRBCs enhances adhesion of the SSRBCs to temperature and after-ripening affect its expression endothelial cells. A dose-response investigation of is unknown. I conducted germination assays with human soluble purified laminin’s ability to seven different alleles of the DOG1 gene with enhance SSRBC adhesion to endothelial cells is varying expression levels to test how DOG1 currently being undertaken, and preliminary results affects germination in different pre-dispersal and are presented. Subsequent work investigating the post-dispersal temperatures. Fresh and after- degree to which laminin levels in plasma correlate ripened seeds were used in order to test how age with the degree of SSRBC adhesion enhancement affects DOG1’s response to these conditions. I produced by different plasmas will illustrate the showed that DOG1 is necessary for dormancy role of plasma laminin in influencing vaso- induced by cold maternal temperatures in fresh occlusion frequency in SCD patients. seeds. A cold post-dispersal temperature broke this dormancy in genotypes with a semi-functional Shikha Nayar DOG1 gene. DOG1 was also necessary for The use of Pramipexole to reduce motor secondary dormancy (restoration of dormancy in problems and eventually treat zebrafish induced after-ripened seeds) induction by a prolonged cold with a Parkinson's Disease model post-dispersal treatment, and influenced the Research Advisor: Elizabeth Godin optimum germination temperature. DOG1’s affect Pharmacology & Cancer Biology on germination after this cold post-dispersal treatment reversed directions following a hot The use of adult zebrafish to study stratification. These results illustrate the neurodegeneration and behavior has developed complexity of genome-environment interactions, extensively in recent years. Locomotion, in and solidify DOG1’s importance as a dormancy particular, has been a common method to test the regulator in A thaliana. effects of toxins such as 6-hydroxydopamine (6OHDA) used to induce a model of Parkinson’s Charmaine Mutucumarana Disease (PD). To delve further into the Role of Plasma Laminin in SS RBC Adhesion to neurodegenerative studies already conducted, the Vascular Endothelium induction of a PD model in zebrafish provides a Research Advisor: Marilyn Telen good window to test other possible treatments that

Visible Thinking – A Presentation of Undergraduate Research 43 act as dopamine-enhancing drugs. In this study, people growing up in India’s villages unable to different doses of Pramipexole were used to treat attain high paying jobs matching their potential? PD induced zebrafish, through which the change of Kids who top their classes become teachers or low- their locomotion was monitored. The general level government employees, or work the same relationship observed was that higher Pramipexole day labor jobs as primary school dropouts. What is doses reduced locomotor activity, which implies holding these youth back? With the advent of reduced motor function. This is inconsistent with greater technology and communication, bridging the literature in that dopaminergic drugs have the divide between rural and urban, could some shown an increase locomotor activity; possible intervention correct the imbalance between ability reasons for this inconsistency and consequences and opportunity in rural India? By comparing the from this study are discussed. experiences of young people a variety of distances from the city of Udaipur in southern Rajasthan, my Bowen Niu study seeks to unearth the tangled roots of the new Progress towards NMR Characterization of generation’s difficulties sharing in India’s much Oxidized Human Superoxide Dismutase1 lauded economic success. All of the variables I Research Advisor: Brian Coggins hope to measure proved meaningful in Biochemistry understanding how youth make plans and their ensuing success fulfilling their ambitions. Superoxide Dismutases are a class of enzymes Unsurprisingly, the factors that influence responsible for converting highly toxic superoxide university outcomes are manifold. Students who anions to hydrogen peroxide and oxygen. Human live closer to the city did have a simpler journey to superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) is a dimeric university, with easier commutes, more role enzyme with 153 amino acids that binds one atom models, and more information sources. Perhaps of copper and zinc per subunit. SOD1 misfolding most significant, it seems students with clear and aggregation has been implicated in causing aspirations, no matter their background, were more Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) more likely to be on track for college than their commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Recent classmates with unarticulated hopes for the future. evidence suggest that SOD1 mutations could be Aspirations are born of role models and clear the only mutations that cause ALS exclusively information on careers, schools, scholarships etc. (with no other pathology).Much is still unknown both of which are lacking in village communities. regarding the mechanism of misfolding and aggregtion but a recent study showed that toxic Kelly Ostrofsky SOD1 aggregates share a structural epitope with Sexual dimorphism in the lumbar vertebrae: oxidized SOD1 and other research indicates that Application to Australopithecus sediba the four cysteines on each subunit play a key role Research Advisor: Steven Churchill in aggregation. The goal of our experiment is to Evolutionary Anthropology study native and oxidized SOD1 at atomic resolution using NMR. Lumbar lordosis is a hominin adaptation that helps maintain the body’s center of mass above the hips Sarah Nolan during bipedal locomotion. Previous studies have What Determines Aspirations and University shown that females have an increased curvature Attendance in Rural India? and greater reinforcement of the lumbar vertebrae, Research Advisor: Anirudh Krishna thought to have evolved to compensate for heavy Public Policy fetal loads during pregnancy. Since natural selection likely began operating on the lumbar Children born to rich parents often attain similar region with the earliest hominin bipeds, the levels of wealth, while children from poorer australopiths, sexual dimorphism in the lumbar backgrounds tend to remain that way. While a vertebrae can be expected in Australopithecus. The universal theme, this trend is particularly striking remarkably complete fossil skeletons of A. sediba, in India’s rural areas. India’s IT sector isn’t exactly MH1 and MH2, preserve several lumbar vertebrae; drawing employees from its city slums or rural thus the potential exists to examine sexual villages. The world’s largest democracy is not a dimorphism based on lumbar vertebral meritocracy. So why are bright and talented young morphology. The ultimate goal is to confirm the

Visible Thinking – A Presentation of Undergraduate Research 44 sex diagnoses of these fossil individuals. Sharon Pomranky Univariate and multivariate analyses indicate that Rejuvenating Geriatrics: Rethinking the lumbar wedging angle, relative zygapophyseal American Geriatrics Society’s Approach to surface area, relative robusticity of the pedicles, Advocacy for Geriatric Medicine and relative spinous process thickness are Research Advisor: Alma Blount important discriminators between modern human Public Policy males and females. However, due to a large degree of overlap in these features, discriminant functions By 2030, the number of people age 65 and older produced relatively low cross-validation will increase from 13% to 19% – 40 to 72 million. classification rates, ranging between 65-75%. However, as of March 2011 there were only 7162 Comparative analyses plot specimens of A. sediba board certified geriatricians, one for every 5500 and A. africanus in relation to the modern human people. Only 3% of students in medical schools sample. Due to the fragmentary nature of the take geriatrics electives; only 10% of medical fossils and lack of separation between modern schools require geriatric medicine rotations. There human males and females, these comparisons were is a clear disconnect between population unsuccessful in evaluating the degree of sexual distribution and specialized medical professionals dimorphism in the fossil species. Nonetheless, this serving them. The lack of trained physicians alone research did raise several important questions would not be an issue if it were not inflated by a regarding the degree to which the female skeleton lack of nurses, direct care workers, pharmacists, may be adapted to gravid body weight, which will psychologists, psychiatrists and social workers require further study. with geriatric training. Though medicine is one sliver of society, the lack Stephanie Patterson of qualified geriatric-trained medical professionals The Role of Adolescent vs. Adult Exposure to perpetuates stigmas against the elderly and Binge Ethanol in Delay Discounting Behavior relegates them to inferior levels of care. Research Advisor: Nicole Schramm-Sapyta “Rejuvenating Geriatrics” is an exploratory Psychiatry venture into the current state of geriatric medicine. I apply the adaptive leadership framework to Delay discounting is one aspect of impulsivity that reframe how the American Geriatrics Society has been shown to contribute to vulnerability to should approach advocacy for geriatrics. Adaptive drug addiction. It has also been shown that Leadership points toward value conflicts – in this adolescents have immature brain development, case, life prolongation versus quality of life – to particularly in regions related to impulsivity and approach innovative solutions to the issues decision-making. Furthermore, exposure to many underlying the shortage of qualified geriatric care drugs of abuse, including ethanol, has been shown providers. to increase impulsivity. This study was designed to test the hypothesis that ethanol exposure during Fontasha Powell adolescence, when impulsivity is naturally high, Altered Disgust Response to Visual Stimuli in would have a lasting effect of increasing Anorexia Nervosa impulsivity in adulthood. We used a recently Research Advisor: Karli Watson characterized, semi-rapid delay discounting task to Neurobiology assess the effect of ethanol exposure at two developmental time points, adolescence and Individuals with anorexia nervosa typically adulthood, on delay discounting behavior in consume fewer than 500 calories a day and exhibit adulthood. We observed that the timing of the an obsessive fear of weight gain. These symptoms exposure has no effect on choice behavior. may arise due to a conditioned disgust response to However, exposure to ethanol at either time point food. In the current study, we use resulted in the animals choosing the delayed lever electromyography (EMG) to measure the disgust more often than control animals, particularly at response in participants with and without a history longer delay durations. A trend toward higher of anorexia nervosa. Activity in the levator labii omissions in the ethanol-exposed animals suggests muscle, located under the nose, is the evolutionary that this perceived decreased impulsivity may be adaptation of distaste exhibited by many mammals related to decreased motivation. as a means to reject or expel potentially harmful

Visible Thinking – A Presentation of Undergraduate Research 45 stimuli. Disgust, a higher order manifestation of whereas all ΔGAG homozygous mice die, F205I distaste, is a universal emotion amongst humans, homozygous mice survive. I therefore tested F205I and previous imaging studies have mapped the heterozygous and homozygous mice on motor experience of disgust onto the insular cortex. learning and coordination tasks. Interestingly, Moreover, previous studies have shown the insula F205I mice performed similarly to wildtypes on to be disordered in subjects who have experienced motor learning tasks, but F205I homozygotes had anorexia nervosa. In the present study, participants performance deficits on motor coordination tests. attend an experimental session during which EMG The presence of this motor phenotype in F205I electrodes are placed on the levator labii while homozygotes indicates that this mouse model may anorexic subjects and control subjects are exposed be a useful tool to study dystonia pathology and to various categories of visual stimuli, including treatments. social images and images of contamination. Additionally, each participant explicitly reports Layla Quran subjective ratings of disgust, valence, and Division or Development? : Iraq under US attractiveness in response to each image. We Occupation hypothesize that participants with a history of Research Advisor: Robin Kirk anorexia nervosa will have significantly different ICS disgust response to food stimuli and body stimuli than control subjects. With this behavioral study, On March 13, 2003, the U.S. commenced we expect to further implicate the insular cortex as Operation Iraqi Freedom with the announcement a source of neural dysfunction in anorexia nervosa. by former President George W. Bush that the US would begin stages of military intervention in Iraq Sunny Qiu to reveal and remove weapons of mass destruction. Characterization of Motor Impairment in Mouse Former President Bush highlighted in a January Models of Dystonia 2007 address that 80% of the sectarian violence Research Advisor: Nicole Calakos within Iraq occurred within 30 miles of the capital, Neurobiology which has consequently divided Baghdad into sectarian enclaves. My research seeks to Dystonia is a neurological movement disorder understand how Iraq was altered politically, characterized by abnormal postures and repetitive socially, and economically after the fall of Saddam movements. The most common genetic cause is Hussein, in order to further comprehend how this the ΔGAG mutation in the TOR1A gene. ΔGAG affected sectarianism in Iraq. In order to answer mouse models have been created, but do not this question, I will create a website divided into demonstrate clear motor phenotypes. This lack of a political, social, and economic tabs which further clear motor phenotype in mice impedes the study include smaller projects on the impact of US of TOR1A functions and potential treatments. I invasion on Iraqi women, the economy of Iraq, and therefore took two approaches to identify motor the organization of the Iraqi government structure phenotypes in mouse models of dystonia. First, I pre/post-US invasion. I share this information and studied ΔGAG mice, which have abnormal include input on how this affected sectarianism responses in tonically active neurons. As these within Iraq. neurons are involved in reward prediction, the My audience is the general public of the United abnormal responses would be predicted to cause States, whether an expert or student interested in deficits in reward prediction, but this behavior has US foreign policy and unaware of the impact of not yet been studied in ΔGAG mice. Therefore, I U.S. invasion of Iraq. The goal of the website is to tested ΔGAG mice on a reward prediction test. present the impacts of a U.S.-controlled Iraq, in Contrary to the hypothesis, no deficits in reward particular the political, social, and economic prediction were detected in ΔGAG mice. Second, I effects of the U.S. invasion on the sectarian divide. studied a novel mutation, called F205I, which was I began this project to present the facts on a war reported in a human dystonia patient. In cell commonly misunderstood, and allow the general culture, F205I showed similar pathology as public to decide for themselves what happened in ΔGAG. However, the F205I mutation appears to Iraq. be hypomorphic to the ΔGAG mutation due to less severe clinical and cellular phenotypes. Similarly,

Visible Thinking – A Presentation of Undergraduate Research 46

Rachna Reddy study has yet examined the effect of the interaction Do red ruffed lemurs yawn contagiously? of mood and affective stimuli on forgetting Research Advisor: Brian Hare behaviors using this paradigm. Participants began Evolutionary Anthropology by studying word lists in which neutral cues were paired with either negative or neutral Animals use many mechanisms to form social associates. Later, participants experienced either a bonds. Humans, for example, mimic aspects of neutral or negative mood induction and others’ behavior nonconsciously to create subsequently retrieved a portion of the study affiliation. One behavior susceptible to such list. Following a distracter task, participants mimicry is yawning. Contagious yawning is completed a voice recall test of the original study influenced by social closeness and linked to list. There was a significant difference in stimuli empathy in humans. Several nonhuman haplorhine valence for the negative mood induction condition, primates also display contagious yawning. To in which negative items were remembered more understand the evolution of this behavior in than neutral items. This may be an indication for primates, we investigated whether a strepsirrhine the mood-congruency theory, which would predict species, the red ruffed lemur (Varecia variegata that items of similar valence to mood would be rubra) yawned contagiously. In the first remembered more. Furthermore, our data revealed experiment, subjects (n=10) housed at the Duke that participants who had higher ruminative Lemur Center were shown footage of a yawning tendencies had less inhibition of negative items conspecific. To investigate the link between compared to neutral items. The findings have contagious yawning, social bonds and empathy, we clinical implications, as deficits in inhibition are showed each subject footage of a yawning stranger associated with mood and affective disorders. and a yawning groupmate, as well as control footage of these individuals at rest. Subjects did Brandon Ruderman not yawn in response to video stimuli. We Epigenetic Maintenance and Inheritance of conducted a second experiment to determine Heterochromatin in Fission Yeast whether red ruffed lemurs were capable of Research Advisor: Kristin Scott understanding video stimuli. We showed subjects IGSP from the same social groups as study I (n=11) footage of a fox walking, and footage of their Molecular regulatory mechanisms allow technician providing grapes, stimuli to which they eukaryotic cells with identical genomic sequences produced differential responses. Lemurs produced to display a wide variety of phenotypes. One of the more alarm vocalizations in the fox condition than ways this occurs is through the structural and in the technician condition. Our study provides the functional differentiation of chromatin into distinct first evidence that strepsirrhine primates respond to domains throughout development, guiding video playbacks and suggests that red ruffed adaptation to environmental changes and cell lemurs, and perhaps strepsirrhines, do not yawn specialization in vivo. Broadly, chromatin can contagiously, implying that contagious yawning adopt either a transcriptionally active state known behavior evolved later in primate evolution. as euchromatin or a transcriptionally silent state known as heterochromatin. Dana Rosen Our goal is to understand the contrasting roles of Affective Influences On Forgetting genetic and epigenetic signals that maintain Research Advisor: Kevin LaBar chromatin states through multiple cell generations Public Policy and the molecular mechanisms behind this inheritance. Our lab has developed an assay in the Inhibition allows people to suppress competing fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe to memories so that the most relevant memories can separate genetic and epigenetic signals involved in be remembered successfully. In order to study regulating chromatin. My research has focused on inhibition or related items, the Retrieval-Induced using this assay to study the mechanisms of trans- Forgetting (RIF) paradigm was used in the present acting chromatin proteins and also improving it to study. While previous research has investigated study inheritance patterns in individual cells. the role emotion by altering the affective state or First, I investigated the role of chromatin assembly changing the emotional content of stimuli, no factor 1 (CAF1), a conserved histone chaperone, in

Visible Thinking – A Presentation of Undergraduate Research 47 the epigenetic maintenance of heterochromatin. sharpened wooden points, leading to the My results suggest that, in addition to its known suggestion that investment in the production of role in histone deposition during DNA replication, lithic points may serve social rather than economic CAF1 has a direct function in heterochromatin motives. Here we report on experimental work maintenance. Second, I have worked to allow for with wood- and stone-tipped arrows fired into single-cell observation of heterochromatin calibrated ballistic gel. While the stone-tipped maintenance by using the green fluorescent protein arrows underperformed with respect to penetration, gene, gfp, as a reporter gene. Cell sorting and live they far exceeded the wood-tipped arrows in the cell imaging can be used to observe the inheritance volume of gelatin destroyed. These results suggest of alternative chromatin states between cells. that the total volume of tissue destroyed by a projectile is as or more important than its Diana Ruiz penetration depth, that adding a lithic point Transgressing the Confines of Victim-Centered increases the lethality of a projectile, and that Cinematic Narratives: Thomas Allen Harris' decisions about projectile armatures were Vintage: Families of Value motivated by economic rather than social Research Advisor: Kimberly Lamm concerns. Women's Studies Daniella Schocken In recent years, film and television documentaries Sickness and Self-Diagnosis in the Emergency have received attention for both depicting issues of Department sexual violence and for portraying liberating, Research Advisor: Naomi Quinn therapeutic roles for the victims in the films. There Cultural Anthropology remains a question of the extent to which such documentaries can have an emancipatory effect for As information formerly accessible only to sexual violence survivors if their experience is individuals with advanced training and degrees is ultimately being narrated and represented by disseminated widely through the Internet, someone else (such as an actor, editor, or laypersons today have unprecedented access to filmmaker). To this end, emerging filmmakers literature and knowledge on a broad range of have engaged in productive exercises that open the topics, including health. Before entering a doctor’s possibility for alternatives. I find that among the office, a patient may now look online in search of many alternatives, perhaps the most important self-diagnosis, testing, and treatment options. This involves the possibility of restoring the agency to research aimed to investigate the extent to which victims of sexual violence, since all acts of sexual patients engage with Internet-based health violence strip the victim of his or her sense of resources in order to self-diagnose during episodes power, or agency. I focus on Thomas Allen Harris’ of acute illness. / By interviewing patients in the Vintage: Families of Value (1995) because I find Emergency Department of a large, urban hospital, that the film’s mode of production works to undo I was able to examine a demographic cross-section established continuity editing and narrative of that city’s population, determining what broad approaches of treating sexual violence survivors on trends exist with respect to patterns of self- screen. diagnosis and sources of information about health. This research offered the opportunity to refine my Paul Salem data collection process for future studies, but it Penetration, Tissue Damage, and Lethality of also yielded a range of qualitative data suggesting Wood- Versus Stone-Tipped Projectiles the diversity of illness behaviors and experiences Research Advisor: Steven Churchill among Emergency Department patients. After Evolutionary Anthropology collecting interviews from twenty-five patients, I found that contrary to my hypothesis, relatively Lithic projectile points are a universal component few patients consulted the Internet or endorsed it of the hunting tool kits of archeologically- and as a reliable source of information about sickness historically-known foragers. Recent experimental and health. Additionally, only five participants in work with ballistic gelatin targets has shown that my study indicated that they had self-diagnosed lithic-tipped projectiles do not have a marked their malady prior to coming to see a doctor, many penetration advantage over those with simple fewer than I had initially anticipated. Rather,

Visible Thinking – A Presentation of Undergraduate Research 48 families and extended social networks were of In sickle cell disease, end-organ damage is likely primary importance in my interviewees’ illness caused by acute vaso-occlusive “crises”. Vaso- experiences, helping them to contextualize their occlusion is largely promoted by abnormal sickle problems, carry out research, and make the red blood cell adhesion to enflamed-vascular decision to seek further care from a physician. endothelium. Our recent studies have shown that mitogen-activated protein kinase MEK1/2 and its Brett Schroeder downstream effector ERK1/2 are expressed in red The Effects of Grading on Student Achievement blood cells. Importantly, ERK1/2 is hyperactive in and Motivation: A Systematic Review sickle cells but not in normal cells, and is involved Research Advisor: Harris Cooper in sickle red cell adhesion to the endothelium. We Psychology and Neuroscience therefore hypothesize that inhibition of MEK1/2- induced ERK1/2 activation in sickle red cell In the United States education system, the practice prevents adhesion to the endothelium and vaso- of grading is almost universal in its reach and occlusion in vivo. Here, our data show that prevalence. Yet, despite the widespread use of treatment of sickle red cells with MEK inhibitors grades as the primary means for evaluating student inhibits their adhesion to activated-endothelial work and progress, there is still much to learn cells using in vitro adhesion assays. MEK inhibitor about whether this practice is harmful or treatment of sickle red cells ex vivo also reduces beneficial, or whether a better method might be adhesion to enflamed venules and prevents vaso- available to educators both in the United States and occlusion in nude mice implanted with dorsal skin- abroad. The present systematic review thus sought fold window chamber in vivo. Beta-arrestin1 and to identify past research to better understand GRK2, two kinases known to regulate ERK grading and its impact on student achievement and signaling, were both increasingly recruited to the motivation. By examining previous studies that plasma membrane and phosphorylated in sickle red investigate the relationship between grades that cells as a result of receptor-stimulation, suggesting teachers give and student future achievement and that these two kinases up-regulate ERK1/2 motivation, suggestions could be made for future activation. In normal red cells, membrane– assessment practices. Following a meta-analytic recruitment and phosphorylation of GRK2 did not combination of effect sizes, grades were found to change. However, membrane-recruitment of beta- be more beneficial for student performance arrestin1 increased while phosphorylation outcomes than no feedback at all, but any type of decreased as a result of receptor-stimulation, feedback, whether it be comments or praise, was suggesting that beta-arrestin1 activation in normal found to be more beneficial than simply grading a cells is involved in receptor desensitization. Based student. The effects of traditional grading on our data, targeting ERK signaling will likely practices on student motivational outcomes (e.g. prove to be a novel effective therapeutic strategy to interest in subject matter) also highlighted the prevent painful vaso-occlusive crises in patients negative effects of grading. Students in with sickle cell disease. constructive or elaborative feedback conditions were more likely to give higher ratings of interest Alexandra Shams and more positive attitudes toward school than Cross-species Comparison of Scent Marking students in the grades only conditions. Finally, Behavior in the genus Eulemur suggestions for future research with an eye Research Advisor: Christine Drea towards investigating possible moderator effects— Evolutionary Anthropology grade level, cross-cultural factors, and type of feedback—are discussed. The functional role of scent marking is poorly understood because many believe that its Evan Schwartz significance is diminished in primates. The Effect of MEK Inhibitors on Sickle Cell Nonetheless, olfactory communication is important Disease to many primate groups, particularly strepsirrhine Research Advisor: Rahima Zennadi species. Scent marking has been shown to convey Hematology a variety of information in strepsirrhines, including dominance status, reproductive state, and relatedness. It may also communicate territorial

Visible Thinking – A Presentation of Undergraduate Research 49 defense, maintain dominance hierarchies, influence (HHT-1). The role of endoglin in regulating competition, and aid in sexual advertisement. endothelial cell migration during angiogenesis via Scent marking’s specific function in individual its interaction with other signaling pathways is not species may differ based on social, ecological, and well understood. However, I found that protein physical properties. In this study, I examined the signaling crosstalk is occurring between endoglin scent marking behavior of five species of and the p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (p38 prosimian primates from the genus Eulemur that MAPK) signaling pathway, which is known to vary in social and mating structure. I observed positively regulate endothelial cell migration. male and female pairs during the breeding and Through the previously mentioned biochemical nonbreeding seasons. Four of the species are assays, I discovered that elimination of endoglin female dominant and were grouped based on their causes a significant increase in the activation of classifications as pairbonded or p38 MAPK and a subsequent upregulation in multimale/multifemale (MM/MF). The final endothelial cell migration. Additional assays have species was grouped separately because it has a indicated that this interaction between p38 MAPK codominant social structure. The study’s results and endoglin at the cell surface of endothelial cells show that the patterns of seasonal change and may be mediated by the scaffolding protein B- gender disparity in scent marking vary by social arrestin2. Given the role of endoglin in structure. Female dominant species scent marked cardiovascular development, this study offers more than codominant species and the males of the insight into endothelial cell biology and the MM/MF groups increased scent marking in the protein-protein interactions driving the process of breeding season .This supports the idea that angiogenesis. olfactory communication is used for different purposes in each group.. This study provides a Lena Sharma novel look at the effects of social systems on scent Can the need to learn sex-specific behavior marking behavior and suggests functional patterns explain the extended juvenility in differences for olfaction within the genus, a Propithecus coquereli and Lemur catta? concept that should be further investigated in a Research Advisor: Amy Schreier larger primate sample. Evolutionary Anthropology

Arun Sharma Among mammals, primates have the longest A Novel Interaction between Endoglin and p38 juvenile period. During this extended juvenility, MAPK Regulates Endothelial Cell Migration young primates face many challenges, in addition during Angiogenesis to a greater risk of death and delayed reproduction. Research Advisor: Gerard Blobe Thus, there must be a great fitness advantage that Pharmacology & Cancer Biology results from this extended juvenility. A clear explanation for this extended juvenile period has The molecular mechanisms behind angiogenesis in yet to be found, but it is thought that the large cancer, or the development of blood vessels amount of social skills that need to be learned and providing nourishment for tumors, must be better developed before adulthood may be the most likely understood in order to develop effective therapies one. This reason is what has been suggested by the for this disease. In this study, I investigated the sex-typing and behavioral role model hypotheses. role of the transforming growth factor beta (TGF- Although studies have been conducted on the B) signaling pathway in regulating the migration juvenile period in apes and monkeys, this has yet of endothelial cells, which line the interior of to be done in great detail in lemurs. It is for this blood vessels. Proper endothelial cell migration is reason that I focused on the relationship between a critical aspect of angiogenesis during extended juvenility and social development in development and tumor formation. I utilized lemurs. Using a scan sampling technique, I molecular techniques such as western blotting and observed three Propithecus coquereli groups and immunofluorescence in cultured endothelial cells one Lemur catta group at the Duke Lemur Center in order to study the protein endoglin, a to test both hypotheses. I predicted that juveniles transmembrane TGF-B co-receptor mutated in will spend more time with same sex adults than cancer and cardiovascular diseases such as opposite sex adults. I also predicted that there will hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia type 1 be a greater degree of sex-typing among female

Visible Thinking – A Presentation of Undergraduate Research 50 juveniles compared to male juveniles because of Braxton Shelley the female dominance in these species. Overall, the A Preacher's Chord: Richard Smallwood's results supported these predictions. Juveniles "Hammer" Six-Four associated more with same sex adults than Research Advisor: Anthony Kelley opposite sex adults and adults associated more Music with same sex juvenile than opposite sex juveniles. Additionally, sex-typing was more prevalent in P. Richard Smallwood's gospel compositional style is coquereli than L. catta. influenced by at least three central aspects of his biography: Smallwood has decades of experience Nicholas Shelburne as a church musician, he is a classically trained Exploring the Reactivity of Electrophilic Amines pianist, and he is a seminary-trained preacher. The and Amides compositional influence of his experience and Research Advisor: Qiu Wang training in the African-American homiletical Chemistry tradition is especially clear in his 1999 composition, "Healing." This paper, which is Nitrogen plays an important role in the structure inspired by Robert Hatten's semiotic reading of the and function of many biologically important "arrival" six-four chord, uses scholarship about molecules. As such, being able to manipulate the narrative paradigms in country music, the structure reactivity of nitrogen-containing compounds is of of many African American sermons, the analytical particular importance to organic chemists. One history of the six-four chord in tonal music, and such strategy to do this has been to add the characteristics of Pentecostal "church" songs to electronegative heteroatoms to the nitrogen, which relate Smallwood's harmonic practice in “Healing” can lead to a change in polarity and reactivity of to the African-American preaching tradition. amines and amides. Our lab has been seeking to Analysis reveals that Smallwood’s use of the utilize these electrophilic amines to develop new “cadential” six-four chord in "Healing" is not transformations that could be used to synthesize a merely syntactical. For Smallwood, the six-four is wide variety of small molecules with potential a rhetorical hammer. He uses the harmony-- and biological activity. In particular, we sought to use the lyrics associated with it--to reiterate the central transition metal catalysts and an electrophilic message of his piece. This reiterative strategy is nitrogen source to generate C-N bonds in the place very similar to the ways in which themes are of specific, previously unreactive C-H bonds on repeated in many African-American sermons. This heterocyclic building blocks. Unfortunately, these characteristic of Smallwood's music is especially experiments were hampered by difficulties in significant, because it emphasizes the close directing the catalyst to activate the appropriate relationship that exists between African-American bond and frequent breakdown of starting materials Gospel music and the African-American preaching at the reaction conditions used. We also explored tradition. the ability of N-chloroamines to selectively oxidize alkylbenzenes to the corresponding aldehydes. We Shalin Sheth were able to consistently generate the desired Cohesion and Individuals: The relationship product using this transformation, but its utility is between social cohesion and individual diminished by our inability to increase the typical achievement. yield above 20 percent due to frequent side Research Advisor: Katie Rosanbalm reactions and breakdown of the nitrogen source. Public Policy These transformations, while still in need of more development, offer interesting potential because Our communities serve as our friends, our support they could eventually be important tools in the networks and our burdens. Community cohesion ongoing discovery and development of new drugs has typically been defined in five separate ways: by allowing for the efficient synthesis of relevant collective efficacy (community self-belief), small molecules. interpersonal relationships (friendship), trust (trust between members), task-oriented relationships (cohesion developed around working together) and social support (support/aid between members). The relationship between community cohesion and

Visible Thinking – A Presentation of Undergraduate Research 51 individuals living in those neighborhoods has Mesha Sloss previously been primarily been tested in terms of Out of Egypt: Egyptian Influences in Greek Art scholastic achievement. This study explores the of the Middle Bronze Age and Early Archaic effect that different forms of cohesion have on Period individual development factors – specifically Research Advisor: Sheila Dillon parenting, emotional state, and household state – in Art, Art History, Visual Studies order to better understand community structure. The study used data from the 2004 Cross-Sites I conducted my research, as part of the Mellon survey on various neighborhoods in North Mays Undergraduate Fellowship, on Egyptian Carolina. The survey included 600 participants. influences on Greek art of the Middle Bronze Age The sample population was 70% African- and Early Archaic Period. From the Middle Bronze American and the majority of the participants had Age, I focused on the Shaft Graves of Mycenae an income of $20,000-$70,000. The survey itself circa 1650 BCE and the fragments of Palace wall was extensive and comprehensive and required paintings from Avaris circa 1500 BCE. From the trained researchers to conduct one-on-one Early Archaic Period, I analyzed selected Greek interviews. The researchers were also asked to give kouroi and the finds from the Royal Tombs on their own impressions of the household states. The Salamis, all of which were from around the early survey was split into sections (typically about 10 eighth to the early sixth centuries BCE. I questions) that represented the community structured my argument around the claims of cohesion types and the individual development Martin Bernal in his 1987 volume Black Athena: factors. The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization and Preliminary analysis reveals a strong and the countless literary responses to this work. The significant relationship between the collective seemingly strong connection between many of the efficacy and trust cohesions and positive parenting finds at the Shaft graves and Royal Tombs and and emotional states. Task-oriented cohesion had a ancient Egyptian religious practice, in addition to weaker significant relationship. The forms of the superficial resemblance of Greek kouroi to the cohesion had only a small relationship with Egyptian sculpting style and the inter-cultural household state. In effect, certain forms of exchange suggested by the subject matter of the cohesion had a strong relationship with emotion wall paintings of Avaris led me to conclude that and behavior, but less with factors that depend the art of the ancient Greeks was influenced by more directly on income levels. their neighbors to the south. The extent of said influence, however, is debatable. Rachel Simon Reevaluating Civil Religion in America: Nari Sohn Research Advisor: David Morgan Are Oysters and Blue Crabs from North Carolina Religion Safe to Eat? Robert Bellah proposed a theory of American civil Research Advisor: Dan Rittschof religion as such: the "public religious dimension Biology [that] is expressed in a set of beliefs, symbols, and rituals.” He goes about defining it through textual Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are manmade evidence, such as the Declaration of Independce. industrial compounds that pose a great health risks But religion is more that its dogma, and comes to humans and animals. Humans get PCB exposure from a very real human need. Following this idea, primarily through seafood. In response to I apply Emile Durkhiem's articulation of the concerned consumers, Environmental Defense Elementary Forms of Religious Life as a Fund (EDF) created guides that provide seafood framework to go about looking for civil religion in safety recommendations. However, the the most basic units of material culture. recommendations on whether or not to eat seafood are based on a national average for contaminants. The objective of my study was to determine levels of PCBs in two popular seafood varieties, oysters and blue crabs, from North Carolina, so that I can reevaluate EDF’s non-regionally specific seafood assessments. Samples were collected from fishery

Visible Thinking – A Presentation of Undergraduate Research 52 regions (northern, central and southern) in North Tawnee Sparling Carolina coast. To extract and measure PCBs from The Shoulder of Australopithecus sediba blue crabs and oysters, enzyme-linked Research Advisor: Steven Churchill immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was performed. Evolutionary Anthropology Although flagged for high toxin levels by EDF, North Carolina softshell and hardshell blue crabs Australopithecus sediba is a recently discovered had low enough concentration of PCB that anyone 1.977 million year old fossil from South Africa. could consume them without restriction. Oysters MH2 in particular retains a relatively complete had equally low level of PCBs; this aligned with scapula, or shoulder blade, and may provide EDF recommendation. Overall, about 98% of all insight into whether these hominins engaged in samples were below the EDF health-risk levels for arboreal behaviors. The shoulder joint is adults. A regionally-specific study should be functionally divergent among primates, and has replicated in other locations to further evaluate the been used to infer locomotor behaviors through relevancy of EDF recommendations. The next step comparative studies. In this thesis, I applied would be to update EDF and demand for principal component analyses to study the scapular regionally specific seafood guides so that morphology of MH2 in comparison to that of consumers can make better informed decisions. Homo sapiens, Gorilla gorilla, Pan troglodytes, Pongo pygmaeus, and Hylobates lar, as well as Katherine Soltis DIK-1-1 and KSD-VP-1/1 (the only other nearly "Biting the Bullet” and Banning Guns: The complete hominin fossil scapulae to date). Overall, Brazilian National Referendum of 2005 and Its MH2 is characterized by a cranially oriented Defeat at the Polls glenoid fossa, an oblique spinous process, and a Research Advisor: John French large supraspinatus fossa. The presence of such History primitive traits indicates an arboreally competent hominin and supports previous descriptions of the After the United Nations named Brazil the country Malapa hominins as a mosaic, transitional species with the highest number of gun deaths in the world in the evolutionary lineage towards modern in 1996, the Brazilian government set the date for humans. the world’s first and only national referendum to vote on gun prohibition in 2005. Although public Melanie Sperling opinion polls showed popular support levels over Getting Involved 80% just three months before the vote, the ban was Research Advisor: Leslie Babinski surprisingly defeated with 64% of those who Child and Family Policy voted, or 59 million people, voting against it. To date, the existing studies on the disarmament issue Parent engagement in their child’s schooling have argued that the outcome reflected the success improves child achievement, academic of the “No” Front’s advertising messages that performance, and the parent child relationship. The played off of widespread insecurity and violence, objectives of my research were to find out what yet literature on other aspects of the disarmament barriers keep parents from being involved in their movement remains limited. This study examines child’s academic life, and how the BELL regional and state variation in voting results, Foundation can engage parents when it comes to: showing the importance of overlooked cultural home to school communication, and learning at factors and finding that higher homicide rates and home. Over ten weeks I conducted email surveys, lower public security provision were associated phone interviews, and parent forums. I found that with support for the ban. These results show that parents are eager to improve their communication disarmament was not out of touch with civilian with the school, and believed that using email preferences as previous studies have concluded but could reinforce school to home communications. was in fact an appealing public security response Parents are enthusiastic to find new ways to help for Brazilians faced with crime and insecurity. their children at home, but have barriers such as: having other demands (children and work), having a lack of understanding the subject matter, and being unfamiliar with the –technical language” (current nomenclature) in what their child is

Visible Thinking – A Presentation of Undergraduate Research 53 learning. I recommended that BELL use email and Hyejin Sul Facebook to improve communication, that teachers How can DPFC employ social media to inform reach out to parents at drop off and pick up, that and motivate early childhood stakeholders to teachers give specific times for parent drop-ins, become active advocates of early childhood? and that teachers give parents their contact Research Advisor: Christina Gibson-Davis information. Handouts should be sent home that Public Policy give directions to parents for difficult homework assignments, and have a simple checklist where Organizations, including non-profits like parents can check off that the homework had been Durham’s Partnership for Children, are shifting completed, and where they can write any questions their media strategies to keep up with evolving or concerns for the teacher. Lastly, BELL should technologies. But are these new methods actually have engaged parent leaders run meetings to talk worth the time and investment? The purpose of about individual’s struggles as parents, and ways my community-based research project is to parents can become more positively involved in investigate the effectiveness of social media as a their child’s education. communication tool. My research question is: How can DPFC employ social media to inform and Leigh Spivey motivate early childhood stakeholders to become Wait a Minute! Exploring The Relationship active advocates of early childhood? To answer Between Spatial Reasoning and Inhibitory this question, I surveyed and interviewed Control in Preschool-Age Children individuals that were already involved with the Research Advisor: Amy Joh Partnership in order to determine how we might Psychology and Neuroscience best communicate with them and to identify characteristics of potential supporters. Based on Spatial reasoning emerges early in the first year of the findings of my research, I was able to design a life and continues to develop through childhood. social media strategy that recognizes the strengths Researchers have suggested that the development and constraints of social media, and targets pre- of spatial reasoning is reliant on a functioning motivated supporters and likely supporters with inhibitory control system (Freeman, Hood, & focused messages on early childhood efforts. The Meehan, 2004), which is one component of a results of my study unearthed some trends about broader executive functioning mechanism. Here, the way the Partnership could be using social this theory was tested directly by asking 3.5- to 4- media as a way to communicate and the impact it year-old preschoolers to complete one measure of is having on early childhood stakeholders. For spatial reasoning (modified from Hood, 1995) and example, among Partnership supporters and three separate measures of inhibitory control (Day- stakeholders, Facebook is used primarily used for Night, Dimensional Change Card Sort, and Frog- personal reasons—catching up with friends, Monkey tasks) within a single laboratory session. looking for pictures, etc. Based on the data and on Participants were grouped based on their inhibitory background research, I was able to make control abilities as indexed by the number of recommendations about how to focus the practice trials required to learn the rules of the Partnership’s social media strategy by targeting Frog-Monkey task. For the group of children likely supporters by tapping into existing adjacent requiring less practice—presumably, those with networks—immediate friends, neighbors, and more developed inhibitory control skills— colleagues who already have a vested interested in performance on the spatial reasoning task was early childhood. correlated positively with performance on the inhibitory control tasks. No such relationships Kathie Sun were found for the group of children with less Analysis of the subcellular localization of GFP- developed inhibitory control skills. These results tagged accessory subunit variants of DNA support and refine the proposed theory on the role polymerase γ associated with mitochondrial of inhibitory control on spatial reasoning by disease elucidating the developmental relationship Research Advisor: William Copeland between the two cognitive skills. Medical Psychology

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Human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is replicated study, we seek to find out to what degree people by polymerase γ, a heterotrimer composed of a 140 might be regulating their exposure to primes, even kDa catalytic subunit (p140) and a 55 kDa dimeric unconsciously. Also, we hope to find out what the accessory protein (p55). The nuclear genes POLG potential consequences of self-priming are for and POLG2 code the p140 and p55 subunits, individuals’ ongoing self-regulation. To study this, respectively. The p55 accessory protein enhances we have designed a study with a 2x2 factorial DNA binding and promotes processive DNA design. The first manipulation is a health prime. To synthesis, and thus plays an important role in the see whether participants self-prime, the second replication of genes located on the mtDNA that factor is foreknowledge of an eating task. We encode components of the electron transport chain expect that those primed with a health goal and and are required for oxidative phosphorylation and with the foreknowledge that there will be an eating ATP generation. Mutations of the POLG2 gene task will self-prime. To measure this, we will have that typically result in amino acid substitutions participants choose 6 posters from a set of 12 to throughout the protein, including at the p55 dimer place on the wall in front of them. 3 of these interface region and the C-terminal domain that posters show unhealthy logos, 3 show healthy interacts with the catalytic subunit, have been logos, and 6 show neutral logos. Depending on implicated in the pathogenesis of mitochondrial which posters are selected, we can see if diseases. This project demonstrates that an participants self-prime. We will measure the engineered p55 tagged with green fluorescent effectiveness of the initial prime and the self-prime protein (nGFP) is expressed and targeted to in the eating task, where we will record how much mtDNA when transfected into HEK293 cells and each participant eats. visualized in vivo using confocal microscopy. Using this tool we analyzed the subcellular Rong En Tay localization of select disease-associated variant Positive Feedback – A Means Of Maintaining p55 subunits by comparing their nGFP fluorescent The Robustness Of Cell-cycle Oscillations? emissions to those of other mitochondrial stains Research Advisor: Steve Haase and the wild-type protein. Overall, this study has Biology enhanced our understanding of the pathophysiology of clinical mutations located in Cyclin/CDKs are commonly thought to be a core the p55 coding region. In particular, we regulatory component of the eukaryotic cell demonstrate for the first time the requirement of division cycle; however, our lab has proposed an the p55 mitochondrial targeting sequence for alternative model in which the cell-cycle correct localization to the mitochondrial matrix transcriptional programme is regulated by a and, specifically, the mtDNA. Additionally, two network of serially-activating transcription factors variants, L475DfsX2 and P205R, fail to localize to functioning as a cyclin/CDK-independent discrete regions containing mtDNA. oscillator. In the absence of cyclin/CDKs, transcriptional oscillations are dampened, Divya Taneja suggesting that cyclin/CDKs promote oscillation How do People Exercise Influence over their robustness. As cyclin/CDKs positively feed back Own Implicit Motivations? into several transcription factors in the oscillator Research Advisor: James Shah network, I hypothesise that positive feedback Psychology and Neuroscience maintains the robustness of cell-cycle transcriptional oscillations. Goals are the foundation of human self-regulation. To test this hypothesis, I replaced cyclin/CDK- At any given time, there is a limit to how many of mediated positive feedback with transcriptional our goals are the level of conscious awareness. positive feedback in Saccharomyces cerevisiae Therefore, the unconscious plays a huge role in strains lacking B-cyclin/CDK activity. This was how our goals are organized and prioritized in done by placing two distinct transcription factors order to regulate our behavior. This project focuses (SWI5 and HCM1) within our network oscillator on unconscious goals, and how regulating our under the control of promoters of their respective exposure to cues in our environment can bring target genes, SIC1 and NDD1. Thus, cyclin/CDK- particular goals to the conscious level. We call independent positive feedback loops were this psychological process self-priming. In our engineered into the transcription factor network.

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Changes in oscillation period and amplitude were Jacob Tobia then examined in synchronised yeast populations Somewhere Down the Way: The Marion County over time. Oral History Project My data show that oscillations in S. cerevisiae Research Advisor: Robert Korstad strains with engineered transcriptional positive Public Policy feedback exhibit decreased periods and increased amplitudes relative to oscillations in strains This past summer, I was given the opportunity to without transcriptional positive feedback. The conduct an oral history project in Marion County, partial restoration of oscillation robustness by SC. Marion County, SC is somewhere that most transcriptional positive feedback is consistent with people only pass through on the way to Myrtle my hypothesis that positive feedback contributes to Beach. Located about an hour west of the beach, the maintenance of robust cell-cycle oscillations. the county typifies the South Carolina low- Furthermore, my data also support the idea that a country. The county is mostly poor, mostly rural, transcriptional network serves as the fundamental and dotted with small towns throughout. While it oscillator of the S. cerevisiae cell cycle, and may is rich in a conflicted, sometimes painful, and be relevant to the study of cell-cycle oscillations in oftentimes joyful history, it is an area that has other organisms. rarely been studied and a place where history is rarely reflected on. My goal in conducting life Amberly Tenney history research in Marion County is to bring this The Effect of Prior Knowledge on the Acquisition history to light through the lens of personal and Retention of Misinformation from Popular experience and to help facilitate dialogue in a History Films community where dialogue is oftentimes rare. Research Advisor: Elizabeth Marsh Psychology and Neuroscience Christine Tsai Generating a fluorescently tagged Cd36 protein History educators often show popular films in the in zebrafish using BAC recombineering classroom, but these films can contain major Research Advisor: Michel Bagnat historical inaccuracies. In two experiments, we Cell Biology investigated how the amount of prior knowledge students have before viewing these films effects During development most internal organs are their acquisition and retention of misinformation in formed by the assembly of tubular structures made the films. Participants read texts about historical across polarized epithelial surfaces depending on topics, took a test, and watched corresponding film the asymmetric localization of membrane proteins clips. Each text contained a target piece of between apical and basolateral surfaces. Cellular information that contradicted the misinformation processes such as protein sorting and trafficking in the film clips. The initial test was used to are critical in the formation of tubular organs such manipulate how well participants knew the as the gut. Cd36 is a polarized cell surface protein material presented in the texts before they were that may play a role in fatty acid and glucose exposed to the misinformation. After a week delay, metabolism and has been shown to localize to the participants took a final test on the texts. When apical surface of the gut epithelium in mice. To participants had prior knowledge about the target better understand the cellular mechanisms fact that was inaccurately represented in the film, regulating this protein during tube formation we they retained more of the correct information and use the zebrafish gut as a model system due to its did not acquire the misinformation. When optically clear nature, genomic plasticity and participants had prior knowledge that supported rapidly developing embryos. To visualize the the target fact, they also retained more of the zebrafish protein Cd36, I created a modified correct information and acquired less of the bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) tagged with misinformation; however, supportive prior a red florescent protein (RFP) marker to the C- knowledge was not as protective as target prior terminal end of the cd36 gene. The recombinant knowledge. Overall, these findings indicate that construct was injected into single cell wildtype students would benefit from a strong background zebrafish embryos and screened for florescent about a topic before they view a popular history expression during gut development (3-5 dpf). film. Transiently expressing zebrafish were then

Visible Thinking – A Presentation of Undergraduate Research 56 screened for transgenesis and embryos carrying the invasiveness, angiogenesis, and metastasis in transgene cd36::RFP were used for fluorescent several types of cancers, including breast cancer. confocal microscopy imaging. This transgenic line However, the exact role of T-beta-RIII ectodomain will allow us to trace the sorting and trafficking shedding in regulating TGF-beta signaling is not pathway of Cd36 throughout gut development in well understood. My research thus investigated zebrafish embryos. whether T-beta-RIII ectodomain shedding regulates TGF-beta signaling in breast cancer Arianna Uhalde epithelial cells in vitro. In order to determine this, I Empathy, Sympathy, and Donation Behavior expressed T-beta-RIII cleavage mutants that Over Time undergo reduced ectodomain shedding and a T- Research Advisor: Gavan Fitzsimons beta-RIII super-shedding mutant that undergoes Psychology and Neuroscience increased ectodomain shedding in MDA-MB-231 (invasive human breast cancer) and HEK 293 In a two-part online study, we explore the effects (human embryonic kidney) cells. The level of of empathy and sympathy on donation behavior TGF-beta signal transduction resulting from each over time. We further the argument that empathy mutant strain was then measured using Western and sympathy are two distinct but related blotting analysis. Although my preliminary results emotional responses: empathetic donors feel with were not conclusive, they suggested that T-beta- victims, whereas sympathetic donors feel for RIII ectodomain shedding may in fact have a role victims (Escalas & Stern, 2003). We predict that in regulating TGF-beta signaling. Further individuals who self-report high empathy (vs. low elucidation of this regulatory role of T-beta-RIII empathy) will donate more at time 1, time 2, and ectodomain shedding will be significant in the overall. Similarly, we predict that individuals who development of a breast cancer treatment that self-report high sympathy (vs. low sympathy) will modulates TGF-beta signaling via generation of donate more at time 1, time 2, and overall. Lastly, soluble T-beta-RIII. we hypothesize that individuals who self-report high empathy and high sympathy (vs. high Jenny Wang empathy/low sympathy; low empathy/high Emerging Bilinguals and Executive Function sympathy; and low empathy/low sympathy) donate Research Advisor: Makeba Wilbourn more at time 1, time 2, and overall. Psychology and Neuroscience

Kristie Vu Executive function, an umbrella term for goal- The Role of T-beta-RIII Ectodomain Shedding in oriented behavior, encompasses inhibition, Regulating TGF-beta Signaling in Breast Cancer shifting, and updating. In the executive function Cells research, bilinguals are a particular group of Research Advisor: Gerard Blobe interest due to their cognitive management of two Pharmacology & Cancer Biology languages. This research has repeatedly found a bilingual advantage. However, most research The transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta) focuses on crib bilinguals, leaving open the signal transduction pathway has both tumor- question of how bilingual input affects executive suppressing and tumor-promoting roles in different function. The current study explores emerging cellular contexts. The most commonly expressed bilinguals, who are in the process of becoming TGF-beta receptor is the type III receptor (T-beta- bilingual, and .the bilingual input they receive. To RIII), which undergoes a process called address this question, we conducted a series of ectodomain shedding. Ectodomain shedding is the experiments with children enrolled in a Two-Way cleavage of T-beta-RIII’s extracellular domain Language Immersion Program (TWLIP) and from the cell membrane; this cleaved extracellular children enrolled in a traditional English-only domain then resides in the extracellular space as program (TRAD). All children were given two soluble T-beta-RIII. Soluble T-beta-RIII binds and executive function tasks. The findings revealed sequesters TGF-beta ligands and thus inhibits that children with more years of bilingual cancer progression in cancerous epithelial cells by instruction (<1. 1, 2 years) performed significantly hindering TGF-beta signaling. This reduced TGF- better on the cognitive inhibition and attentional beta signaling leads to decreased cell migration, control task. The TWLIP children did not show

Visible Thinking – A Presentation of Undergraduate Research 57 any significant improvements in working memory decay gases built up in the organic rich stomach or lexical access. However, children enrolled in folds and caused the overturning or floatation of the traditional, English-only program (TRAD) did the carcass. Furthermore, anoxic conditions not demonstrate a similar pattern of results. The retarded the decay rate by a few hours, but results of the analyses confirmed that children who ultimately neither initial nor developing anoxia had one or more years of bilingual language appears to slow decay significantly compared to experience in the TWLIP program performed well-oxygenated conditions. significantly better on the cognitive inhibition and attentional control task compared to children who Yu-Po Wong had less than a year’s worth of exposure in the Building a Quantum Key Distribution System TWLIP program. Thus, these results provide Research Advisor: Daniel Gauthier insight into bilingual cognitive development with Physics strong theoretical and practical applications. One early and important application of the Megan Welch emerging field of quantum information is quantum High Resolution Taphonomic Studies of key distribution (QKD). The primary difference Ophiuroids between quantum and classical key distribution is Research Advisor: Alexander Glass that QKD uses a fundamental property of quantum Earth and Ocean Sciences mechanics, known as wavefunction collapse, to increase its performance over existing classical Fossilization of organisms with a low communication systems. Quantum key distribution preservational potential requires unusual has been proven to be fundamentally secure environmental conditions. Taphonomic studies against eavesdropping, and may have important seek to delineate the chemical, physical, and uses in securing information communicated biological factors that influence necrolysis, decay, between parties, such as in the smart power grid or biostratinomy, and diagenesis, ultimately in the financial industry. The main goal of this contributing to fossilization. project is to build a QKD system for use in an Brittlestars (Phylum Echinodermata, Class advanced physics laboratory course. In this project, Ophiuroidea) are ubiquitous in today’s marine I use the polarization of photons to entangle environments and they have been a key component information. The polarization-entangled photons of marine ecosystems since the early Paleozoic. are created from a nonlinear optical process known This project presents high-resolution, ossicle-scale as spontaneous parametric down-conversion observations of decay rates and chronology for the (SPDC). Experimentally, I send a strong laser extant suspension-feeding ophiuroid Ophiothrix beam (pump) into a nonlinear crystal where there angulata. The decay of specimens was carefully is a small probability that the pump photon is monitored hourly for several weeks under varying annihilated and two lower-energy photons with temperatures, levels of agitation, and dissolved correlated polarizations are created. I characterize oxygen contents. the quality of quantum entanglement from SPDC Depending on lab conditions, initial signs of and implement methods to improve the quality of deterioration began between 12 and 36 hours. Soft the entanglement, which is important for tissues deteriorated first with the tube feet, then generating a key with the highest fidelity and rate. arm tissue, stomach gland tissue, spine ligaments, I will describe the experimental system, how it is and finally intervertebral muscles. Skeletal used to distribute a cryptographic key, and the disarticulation is generally in the following order: performance of the QKD system. spines, lateral arm ossicles, dorsal and ventral arm ossicles, and central disk skeleton. Tube feet, and Mengyou Wu overall timing of deterioration, began fastest under Genetic Diversity of Branchipolynoe pettiboneae water-agitated conditions and was slowest under in Manus Basin Hydrothermal Vents anoxic conditions. Paramecia were most prevalent Research Advisor: Cindy Van Dover on specimens that developed heavy microbial Nicholas School of the Environment mats, which occurred most on the ophiuroids under oxygenated water conditions. Significant Hydrothermal vents are ephemeral and in this disruption of the entire skeleton occurred when dynamic environment, vent organisms with high

Visible Thinking – A Presentation of Undergraduate Research 58 dispersal have higher success. Dispersal is a key Diana Xie factor for population recovery after catastrophic Activation of CAMKII during DFP toxicity disturbance such as a volcanic eruption or mineral mediates cell death in human neuroblastoma SH- extraction. One area planned for mineral extraction SY5Y cells is Manus Basin. The dispersal potential of one Research Advisor: Mohamed Abou-Donia Manus Basin vent polychaete species, Pharmacology & Cancer Biology Branchipolynoe pettiboneae , was inferred from genetic statistics. Portions of the CO1 and 16S Organophosphate pesticides have been classically genes from B. pettiboneae were used to determine described as inhibitors of acetylcholinesterase haplotype frequencies at two sites separated by ~ (AChE) activity. However, there is now more 40 km [Solwara 8 (n = 28 individuals) and South evidence supporting the hypothesis that these Su (n = 27 individuals)]. We found no genetic compounds also act through non-cholinergic differentiation between the two site and infer high pathways, particularly those related to inducing levels of gene flow in Manus Basin on this spatial cell death. This experiment investigates the effect scale. The population of B. pettiboneae in Manus of organophosphate diisopropyl Basin is likely undergoing demographic expansion, phosphorofluoridate (DFP) dependent-activation suggesting that repopulation following a of CAMKII in human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y disturbance is possible . cells. Effects on differentiation will be assessed through monitoring morphological changes. It is Eddie Wu hypothesized that DFP will increase CAMKII Pictures of expression in SH-SY5Y. Furthermore, induced- Research Advisor: William Noland differentiation of SH-SY5Y by retinoic acid (RA) Art, Art History, Visual Studies will decrease the number of neurite-bearing cells compared to control treated with RA that will This semester, I collected many photographs in the show increased number of neurite-bearing cells. Triangle Area based on visual interest. That is, Cell death will be measured using MTT cell assay, there is no unifying metaphor or conceptual point and rates of apoptosis will be compared between that my photographs illustrate; rather, the subject the control and experimental groups. If preliminary matter and colors in these photographs generate data supports this hypothesis, it will suggest that interest. In this presentation, I show several CAMKII may play a crucial role in cell photographs from my project. death/survival during DFP treatment.

Mengya Wu Jianing Xie Genetic Diversity of Branchipolynoe pettiboneae Two and Two: An Anthropological Study of in Manus Basin Hydrothermal Vents Protestant Conversion in Guatemala from 1930- Research Advisor: Cindy Van Dover 1960 Nicholas School of the Environment Research Advisor: John French History Hydrothermal vents are ephemeral and in this dynamic environment, vent organisms with high David Stoll refers to Protestantism in Latin dispersal have higher success. Dispersal is a key America as an –inevitable reformation growing out factor for population recovery after catastrophic of Catholicism itself.” The implications of this disturbance such as a volcanic eruption or mineral statement are complex, but it is clear that extraction. One area planned for mineral extraction Protestantism in Guatemala in the 1950s rose as an is Manus Basin. The dispersal potential of one alternative due to the lack of hegemonic Roman Manus Basin vent polychaete species, Catholicism. The Catholic Church’s ability to Branchipolynoe pettiboneae, was inferred from maintain a vertical power structure was in peril due genetic statistics. Portions of the CO1 and 16S to decentralization of diocese power and political genes from B. pettiboneae were used to determine polarization at the national level. Especially after haplotype frequencies at two sites separated by the coup of leftist president Jacobo Árbenz in roughly 40 km [Solwara 8 (n = 55 individuals) and 1954, the Catholic hierarchy began to divide into South Su (n = 54 individuals)]. camps characterized by varying degrees of nationalism, religious orthodoxy, and social action.

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Additionally, new proselytization methods focused provide deeper insight into muscle fiber on education and poverty reduction rarely reached development and repair, and improve current villages in the rural highlands. What existed in the therapies for a range of degenerative myopathies. stead of orthodox Catholicism was a diverse mix of indigenous religion and natural belief systems Sunhay You which found stability in Catholicism as a venue for The Invisibility of Caregiving Work and its communal organization. Protestantism, which first Adverse Impacts on Women came to the country in the 1880s, found potential Research Advisor: Alma Blount for conversion within this background. This Public Policy research paper studies ethnographies in Guatemala that have done their fieldwork between 1932-1962, My research and understanding of domesticity in order to explore the status of Protestantism raises the questions: How do we shift away from preceding the boom in evangelization during the the ideology of domesticity that renders caregiving 1960s and 1970s. It proposes three community work invisible and work toward de-gendering and models that center on religious, racial-political, legitimizing care-giving work? Who should take and rural-urban differences, and how each of these on this challenge so we can move towards a more displayed the absence of hegemonic Catholicism. integrated and inclusive understanding of the value Thus, although Guatemalan Protestants initially of caregiving work, particularly in divorce courts? faced alienation due to their abandonment of the What are possible structural/policy changes that dominant religious system, their response is also can address gender inequity in the home and the natural as people seeking individual stability and workplace, the affects of which culminate in opportunity. gender-inequity in divorce courts where more and more women and children are ending up in Amy Xu poverty? The Role of Drebrin in Skeletal Muscle Regeneration and Repair Tun Jan Young Research Advisor: Jonathan Stiber Trends in sea ice cover across the North Atlantic: Cardiology implications for harp and hooded seals Research Advisor: David Johnston Muscle fiber formation during development and Nicholas School of the Environment post-injury repair involves the proliferation, migration, and fusion of muscle stem cells known Ongoing changes in ice conditions pose significant as myoblasts. These events necessitate the calcium challenges for harp and hooded seals, which use (Ca2+)-dependent reorganization of the myoblast sea ice as a platform on which to give birth and actin cytoskeleton, a process that is modulated by nurse their pups. It is known that sea ice dynamics diverse proteins including the Transient Receptor in harp and hooded seal breeding locations are Potential (TRP) channels, Homer scaffold proteins, governed largely by the phase and amplitude of the and various actin-binding proteins. However, the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). In this study, detailed mechanisms linking TRP channel we examined the coupled relationship between the activation (and subsequent Ca2+ influx) with NAO and satellite-derived measures of sea ice cytoskeletal remodeling remain unclear. Our recent cover during February and March 1979 – 2011 in findings indicate that the actin-binding protein areas where harp and/or hooded seals traditionally drebrin is localized in the subsarcolemma of reproduce. We confirmed a consistent positive skeletal muscle tissue and is dramatically correlation between the NAO Index and annual sea upregulated after cardiotoxin injury. Mice deficient ice in the regions located in the Northwest Atlantic in drebrin were viable, but showed significant off eastern Canada. However, sea ice cover in the lethality immediately after birth. As drebrin was White Sea harp seal region between Norway and also found to impact expression levels of multiple Russia was negatively correlated with the NAO, proteins involved in Ca2+ signaling and and the West Ice region off eastern Greenland cytoskeletal rearrangement, we postulate that showed a consistent decline across the entire time drebrin is a critical component of channel series that is indicative of longer-term climate regulation and actin remodeling processes. change. A mixed effects linear regression analysis Understanding drebrin’s various functions may of sea ice cover in the same breeding regions

Visible Thinking – A Presentation of Undergraduate Research 60 revealed a significant annual decline in sea ice be improved with more samples and control for cover across the entire North Atlantic, regardless phylogenetic non-independence. of regional NAO effects. These results indicate that both short-term and longer-term climate Lauren Zalla variability are affecting the breeding regions of Embodied History: Breastfeeding Beliefs and harp and hooded seals. Management strategies for Practices in Haiti these and other ice-breeding seals should account Research Advisor: Alma Blount for local climate effects and larger-scale climate Public Policy trends. This is especially important for the West Ice stock of hooded seals, which has decreased in This project works at the intersections of number by up to 90% over the last 50 years and anthropology, history and public health to explore was listed as “vulnerable” by the IUCN in 2008. breastfeeding beliefs and practices in Haiti. It draws on survey and ethnographic research Tian Yuan conducted from May-July 2011 in Leogane, the Scaling of Jaw-Muscle Architecture in New epicenter of the January 12, 2010 earthquake. An World Monkeys analysis of this data offers a novel summary and Research Advisor: Andrea Taylor description of breastfeeding rates and beliefs in Evolutionary Anthropology Haiti. New World Monkeys (infraorder: Platyrrhini), Taking into account the history of wet nursing on differ dramatically in adult body size, feeding colonial plantations, as well as interviews with behavior and diet. Variation in jaw muscle midwives, vodou practitioners, and foreign aid morphology has been functionally linked to workers, I argue that breastfeeding promotion feeding behavior and diet but is not fully campaigns too often ignore the role of structural understood in regards to size. Looking at variables violence in determining breastfeeding practices. I related to ingestion and mastication, I further investigate how the United States and Europe have extend the work of Anapol et al. (2009) by performed and exacerbated structural violence in evaluating scaling relationships of PCSA and fiber Haiti, from colonization to contemporary foreign length on load-arm (jaw and condyle-M1 length) policy. My project concludes with practical measurements. Superficial masseter and temporalis implications of this analysis for foreign aid muscles of eighteen platyrrhine species (n=102) organizations seeking to promote breastfeeding in were weighed and measured for fiber length and Haiti. calculation of PCSA, indicators of muscle excursion and force, respectively. Using Systat, William Zhang mean data was plotted to illustrate variation in Directed evolution of Cryptococcus neoformans fiber lengths and PCSA, signifying a correlation in low-nutrient media generates a stable between architecture variables and size. Jaw phenotype that differentially interacts with length was highly correlated to condyle-M1 length murine macrophages and body mass, indicating its use as a proxy for Research Advisor: Anastasia Litvintseva either variable. Ordinary least squares regression Molecular Genetics & Microbiology (OLS) slopes largely demonstrated negative allometry (< 1.0), and correlations were significant Cryptococcus neoformans var. grubii is an (p < 0.01), indicating that as platyrrhine body size opportunistic human pathogen that causes increases, muscles have less excursion and significant morbidity and mortality among produce relatively less force. Reduced major axis immuno-compromised patients, particularly those (RMA) slopes additionally included cases of with HIV/AIDS. Infection is acquired by isometry and positive allometry, and results should inhalation, and if not contained by the local be taken with caution. Functional variations found immune response, spreads from the lungs to other after allometric analyses support previous studies parts of the body, preferentially to the central of feeding behavior and diet (e.g. C. apella’s large nervous system, where it causes meningitis. Other PCSA correlate to its consumption of hard nuts) researchers utilized methods of reverse genetics and encourages further research on platyrrhine and identified several factors that are required for functional morphology (e.g. Alouatta). Data could virulence, but have not uncovered the fundamental mechanisms that enable C. neoformans to infect

Visible Thinking – A Presentation of Undergraduate Research 61 and colonize mammals. Here, we employ a BMI measurement was taken and a 24-hour dietary forward genetic approach and apply experimental recall was conducted. Further interviews will be evolution to study virulence of C. neoformans. To conducted with resettled Bhutanese families to test our hypothesis that ability to adapt to a gain an understanding of their food culture, nutrient-limiting environment can enhance attitudes toward food, and household food security. virulence, we selected several avirulent strains and As more Bhutanese refugees continue to resettle, propagated them for approximately 250 the findings will provide insights on the dietary generations in microbiological media containing acculturation process, particularly in the resettled limiting amounts of the essential nutrients, such as refuge children. Practically, the information could glucose, nitrogen, iron and copper. We then tested identify which interventions are beneficial and the stability of the acquired phenotypes by what improvements are needed. growing these evolved strains on rich media for one week (five passages), and assayed their ability Tim Zhang to grow in the nutrient-limiting conditions to Silver-Coated Copper Nanowires for which they were originally adapted. Our results Transparent, Flexible Electrodes indicate that these strains retain their superior Research Advisor: Benjamin Wiley ability to proliferate in nutrient-poor media even Chemistry after propagation on rich media. Further, results from in vitro murine macrophage assays suggest Transparent electrodes made with indium tin oxide that our evolved strains may be preferentially films are found in many electronics, but they are phagocytized and/or have an enhanced ability to expensive, inefficiently deposited and brittle. proliferate within macrophages. Our ongoing work Electrodes made with a film of copper nanowires focuses on separating these two potential effects are an alternative that maintain comparable levels and studying each in isolation. of sheet resistance and light transmittance. Copper is much less costly, and the film’s synthetic and Alice Zhang deposition methods allow for high throughput. Nutrition of Resettled Bhutanese Refugee Another advantage is that the nanowires retain Children in North Carolina conductivity after being flexed over 1000 times. Research Advisor: Suzanne Shanahan However, the synthesis of copper nanowire Sociology electrodes requires a rate-limiting annealing step, which is a significant input of energy. For 18 years, approximately 107,000 Bhutanese Additionally, the film exhibits a reddish tint, rather refugees lived in refugee camps in Nepal. In 2008, than the gray color optimal for electronic displays. the Bhutanese refugees began the process of We believe that coating the copper nanowires with resettlement. As of 2011, 43,000 Bhutanese silver will resolve both of these problems. Silver refugees have resettled in the United States, with at was deposited onto the copper nanowires using a least 1,800 Bhutanese refugees in North Carolina. variety of methods. A thin film was then produced Faced with an environment of greater food options, on a glass slide using a Meyer rod. The silver different means of obtaining food, and a new food reduces the level of red color and greatly lowers culture, the Bhutanese refugees may alter their the average sheet resistance of the film compared food consumption patterns. Their new food to copper nanowires without annealing. After consumption patterns can impact their nutritional finalizing the coating procedure and the optimal intake and body mass index (BMI), resulting in a amount of silver to use, the next part of the study change in their nutritional status. will focus on the retention of conductivity when Given that resettled Bhutanese refugee children are the coated nanowires are exposed to air and heat, consuming new food items through the school and when bent upon flexible substrates. lunches, I examined their nutritional status. I focused on the Bhutanese population in North Lucy Zhang Carolina, particularly in Durham and Raleigh. Data Bacteriophage as a Novel Disinfection collection began in the summer of 2011, through Technology an initial measurement of their BMI and an Research Advisor: Claudia Gunsch administration of a food frequency questionnaire. Civil and Environmental Engineering During a six-month follow-up in January, a second

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Many bacteria have developed resistance to Grace Zhou antibiotics and traditional physicochemical Understanding and Evaluation of the Mental and disinfectants. Therefore, a better method for Physical Well-Being of Orphaned and controlling such pathogenic species, especially in Vulnerable (OVC) in Naama, Uganda engineering systems and health settings, is needed. Research Advisor: Sumi Ariely Lytic bacteriophages, viruses that specifically Global Health destroy bacteria, have long been overlooked since the advent of antibiotics, and may be a solution. This study assesses the mental, emotional, and We isolated three unique phages from the physical well-being of institution-based orphaned environment for each of the model species Bacillus and vulnerable children (OVC), community-based cereus, Escherichia coli, and Pseudomonas OVC, and non-OVC who attend Naama aeruginosa, and evaluated their ability to control Millennium Preparatory School. In addition, it bacterial culture growth in comparison to that of compares the standards of care such as healthcare, bleach, ampicillin, and kanamycin. The child labor, and nutrition of these 3 groups in order bacteriophages proved to be as or more effective in to create a comprehensive picture of the challenges maintaining a low OD620 value as the traditional OVC in the community face. The results showed disinfectants for up to 24 hours, over a range of that although the physical and cognitive well-being multiplicities of infection. These results suggest between the 3 groups did not differ significantly, that phages are a promising novel disinfection community-based OVC had higher levels of technology that is furthermore environmentally emotional trauma, received less adequate and economically sustainable. Future studies healthcare, and spent more time on household should examine their characteristics through chores than the others. electron microscopy and molecular studies and explore their potential in genetic engineering and Sicong Zhou other applications. How pre-transplant social relationships and support in patients undergoing hematopoietic Johnny Zhao stem cell transplant is associated with post- Evaluation of Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) transplant physical, functional, and emotional as a Target for Inhibiting Colorectal Cancer Cell well-being Migration: An Immunotherapy Approach Research Advisor: Rebecca Shelby Research Advisor: Gayathri Devi Psychiatry Surgical Sciences Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is Immunotherapy has become an attractive treatment a prevalent treatment for serious diseases, but often for various types of cancers due to its specific has severe physical and emotional side effects and targeting of cancer antigens. One particular antigen consequences. HSCT also impairs the quality of of interest in colorectal cancer is life (QOL) in patients. Past research indicates an Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), a glycoprotein important role for social support in patient involved in cell adhesion and which has been outcome and quality of life. This study examines found in the serum of individuals with colorectal how pre-transplant social relationships and support carcinoma. The PANVAC phase I clinical trial is in patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell being conducted on patients with both CEA+ and transplant is associated with post-transplant CEA- colorectal cancer. A pox viral vector physical and emotional well-being. The study uses containing the CEA gene construct is being data from 52 patients, collected at pre-transplant, administered to the subjects to induce cell- discharge to home, and 3 months post-transplant. mediated immunity against CEA. The mechanism The results indicate that greater pre-transplant of CEA immunotherapy is unknown and we social support is significantly correlated with hypothesize that sera containing antibodies against greater physical, emotional, and functional well- CEA work in part by inhibiting cancer cell motility being. The results from this study have important and migration. clinical implications and will help health professionals improve patient care and outcomes.

Visible Thinking – A Presentation of Undergraduate Research 63

Visible Thinking – A Presentation of Undergraduate Research 64