Ninth Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium a Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Scholarship
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Fostering a Community of Student Scholars in the Sciences, Social Sciences, Technology, Arts, and Humanities UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON’S Ninth Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium A Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Scholarship 19 May 2006 MARY GATES HALL 12:00 – 5:00 PM PROCEEDINGS Created by the Undergraduate Research Program with the support of the Office of Undergraduate Education, the Office of Research, and the Mary Gates Endowment for Students. The Ninth Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium is organized by the Undergraduate Research Program (URP), which facilitates research experiences for undergraduates in all academic disciplines. URP staff assist students in planning for an undergraduate research experience, identifying faculty mentors, projects, and departmental resources, defining research goals, presenting and publishing research findings, obtaining academic credit, and seeking funding for their research. Students interested in becoming involved in research may contact the URP office in Mary Gates Hall Room 120 for an appointment or send an email to [email protected]. URP maintains a listing of currently available research projects and other resources for students and faculty at: www.washington.edu/research/urp. Janice DeCosmo, Director Jennifer Harris, Assistant Director Jentery Sayers, Graduate Student Assistant James Hong, Student Assistant Mike Howard, Student Assistant The Undergraduate Research Program is a unit of the UW’s Office of Undergraduate Education. UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON’S NINTH ANNUAL UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM PROCEEDINGS ______________________________________________________ TABLE OF CONTENTS POSTER SESSIONS 6 PRESENTATION SESSIONS 90 1A. INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES 91 1B. GEOLOGY AND MARINE BIOLOGY OF THE GALAPAGOS ISLANDS 93 1C. SOCIAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS ACROSS THE LIFESPAN 96 1D. AQUATIC ENVIRONMENTS: FROM MICROBES TO MEGAFAUNA 98 1E. OF MICE AND MEN (AND FLIES, WORMS, AND BACTERIA): STUDIES OF FUNCTION VIA BIOCHEMISTRY, GENETICS, NEUROBIOLOGY, AND MORE 100 1F. ROBOTICS AND VISION 102 1G. AFFAIRS OF THE HEART AND GUT: PROBING CLINICAL ANSWERS TO DISEASE 104 1H. ONE MOMENT OUT OF TIME: ARTISTS MAKING THE ORDINARY EXTRAORDINARY 107 1I. CELL AND MOLECULAR MECHANISMS OF GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT 109 1J. MOVING BEYOND MICE AND FLIES: SKY-DIVING STICK INSECTS AND OTHER WILD TALES FROM THE ANIMAL KINGDOM 112 1K. BIOENGINEERING: MATERIALS AND MOVEMENT 113 1L. ADAPTATION AND ECOLOGY: GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES 116 1M. POLITICS, RELIGION, LAW, AND CULTURAL IDENTITY 118 1N. NARRATIVES ABOUT POWER AND CULTURE 120 2A. THEORY AND PRAXIS IN CULTURAL INNOVATION AND PRODUCTION 122 2B. NEUROBIOLOGY: CELLULAR, STRUCTURAL, AND BEHAVIORAL STUDIES 124 2C. MOLECULAR MANIPULATIONS: TRANSITIONS FROM RESEARCH TO APPLICATION 126 2D. BODIES AND MEDIA: THE REMIX 129 2E. HORMONAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL MODULATION OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM 130 2F. SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF THE URBAN 133 2G. EPIDEMIOLOGY AND IMMUNITY 135 2H. COMPUTING FOR THE BENEFIT OF HUMANKIND 137 2I. THE SCIENCE OF LOVE AND THE POLITICS OF NATIONALISM: EXPLORATIONS IN MODERNISM, BUDDHISM, MEDIEVALISM, FEMINISM, AND NATIONALISM 139 2J. NEXT GENERATION OF BIOMEDICAL DEVICES AND THERAPIES 141 2K. PEOPLE, WATER, AND HEALTH 143 2L. FERTILITY, FLIES, FLUORESCENCE, AND MORE! 145 2M. APPLICATIONS AND ALGORITHMS OF MODERN METHODS OF MATHEMATICS 148 2N. FROM EARTH TO UNIVERSE: MODELING, MATTER, AND INTERACTIONS 149 INDEX 153 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 160 PLEASE NOTE: Abstracts are listed alphabetically by the presenter’s last name, unless otherwise noted. ADDITIONAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCHERS! Travel Awards for Undergraduates to Present Research These awards help make it possible for undergraduates to extend their research experience by contributing to important discussions of current research at professional conferences. Students who have had a paper or poster accepted to a conference may apply for funding for travel expenses and registration fees. Applications are accepted on a continuing basis. For more information visit the Undergraduate Research Program website: http://www.washington.edu/research/urp/students/urta.html. Sponsored by the UW Office of Research, Undergraduate Research Program and the Mary Gates Endowment for Students Mary Gates Research Scholarships Through participation in research, undergraduate students learn about the essential role of inquiry in a vital society. These competitive research scholarships are available to enhance the educational experiences of students across campus who are engaged in research with faculty. For more information visit the Mary Gates Endowment website: http://www.washington.edu/oue/mge/becoming_research. shtml Library Research Award for Undergraduates The University Libraries, in cooperation with the Undergraduate Research Program, is sponsoring the “Library Research Award for Undergraduates” competition, recognizing University of Washington students who produce significant inquiry requiring use of information resources, the library, and its collections. Application deadline: May 22, 2006. For more information visit the Odegaard Undergraduate Library website: http://www.lib.washington.edu/researchaward/ Competition awards are funded through the Kenneth S. Allen Library Endowment. STUDENTS HONOR THEIR MENTORS Participants in the 2006 Undergraduate Research Symposium were invited to submit a haiku poem honoring their research mentors. Included in this volume is a selection of the wonderful poems that we received. Posters and slide shows of all the submissions are on view throughout Mary Gates Hall. A complete list may also be viewed on the Undergraduate Research Program website, www.washington.edu/research/urp Student: Nauzley Abedini - Biology, Comparative History of Ideas Mentor: John Silber - Neurological Surgery I appreciate John’s openness and trust in My abilities Student: Lauren Brown - Anthropology, Public Health Mentor: Stevan Harrell - Anthropology Click send the email When does he sleep it returns like an echoing Student: Derrick Jefferies - Art Mentor: Ellen Garvens - Art Calm and thoughtful hand Things made flat and flesh again Kinship among things Student: Jayson Bowen - Electrical Engineering Mentor: Maya Gupta - Electrical Engineering With guidance and help Joy of learning discovered Her kindness, unique Student: Sarah Bowerman - Biology Mentor: Mary Lidstrom - Chemical Engineering Ever inspiring In the ways, mysteries of Methylotrophy POSTER SESSIONS PLEASE NOTE Abstracts are listed alphabetically by the presenter’s last name. Association of low apurinic endonuclease activity with annotation we are fractionating the organism into select pediatric onset temporal lobe epilepsy organelles to help narrow the putative genome annotation. Nauzley Abedini, Sophomore, Cellular, Molecular, & Cell cultures of T. pseudonana were filtered and lysed to Developmental Biology, Comparative History of Ideas give whole cell lysate, membrane and soluble fractions. Mary Gates Scholar All fractions were digested with trypsin and separated on Mentor: John R. Silber, Neurological Surgery a nano-liquid chromatography system. Precursor values were measured in the Fourier Transform-Ion Cyclotron Pediatric onset temporal lobe epilepsy is frequently Resonance (FT-ICR) cell, and selected for MS/MS in the associated with appreciable cognitive decline compared linear ion trap. The data was searched, using SEQUEST, to adult onset temporal lobe epilepsy patients. Early onset against the predicted genomic annotation. Afterwards, is associated with greater neuronal loss and glial scarring, matches of tandem mass spectra to peptide sequence which may underlie the decline in mental performance. were sorted using a 0.9 minimum probability with Seizures generate reactive oxygen free radicals that kill ProteinProphet, and the high mass accuracy of precursor cells by producing a wide range of DNA damage, including ion scans acquired in the ICR. Together this allowed over lethal abasic sites. Apurinic endonuclease is a DNA repair 650 proteins to be identified in a first pass analysis of the enzyme that initiates the removal of oxidative damage. whole cell lysate. Using this same confidence interval, over Our goal is to determine whether intrinsically low apurinic 500 proteins were identified in the membrane fraction. For endonuclease activity is a risk factor for pediatric onset all fractions analyzed to date the average protein sequence of temporal lobe epilepsy. Medial temporal lobe tissue coverage (discarding single hits) was approximately 25 excised from patients undergoing surgery for pediatric and percent. This high percentage is likely accredited to the adult onset temporal lobe epilepsy will be used. Apurinic implementation of gas-phase fractionation (GPF) on the endonuclease activity will be quantified by a biochemical samples. Preliminary data suggests that the attempt to isolate assay that measures the conversion of plasmid DNA from certain organelles is successful, and this will help to refine super-coiled to relaxed form by incision at the abasic the data and classify these previously undetected proteins. site. The activity will then be shown to correlate with The goal of this project is to confirm or refute genomic open expression of the major human apurinic endonuclease reading frames predicted by traditional alignment tools activity, Ape1/Ref-1, by Western Blot. Finally, abasic sites in epilepsy and control brain will be quantified using an Tobacco as a Trap Plant for the Greenhouse