New York Six Liberal Arts Consortium Upstate New York Undergraduate Research Conference

Saturday, September 26, 2015

Colgate University

2 New York Six Liberal Arts Consortium Upstate NY Undergraduate Research Conference

Saturday, September 26, 2015 ======

SCHEDULE

9:30 – 10:00 am Registration and Morning Refreshments (Ho Science Center Atrium)

10:00 – 10:10 am Welcome, Roger Rowlett, President of CUR

10:20 – 11:20 am Oral Presentations1 Session 1: Ho 101 Session 2: Olin 301 Session 3: Olin 328 Session 4: Olin 129

11:20 – 11:30 am Break

11:30 am – 12:30 pm Oral Presentations1 Session 5: Ho 101 Session 6: Olin 301 Session 7: Olin 328 Session 8: Olin 129

12:30 – 1:30 pm Lunch, poster set-up and networking (O’Connor Center)

1:30 – 3:30 pm Poster Session2 Ho Science Center Atrium

1Students should plan to pre-load their Oral presentations onto the computers provided in the appropriate presentation room prior to 10:00 am.

2There will be two back-to-back one-hour sessions. All posters will be displayed for the two hours, but students will only present for one based on even or odd numbers that are assigned.

3 Oral Presentation Schedule

Time Session 1- Ho 101 Session 2-Olin 301 Session 3-Olin 328 Session 4 – Olin 129 Chair: Chad Sparber Chair: Karyn Belanger Chair: Jenna Reinbold Chair: Val Lehr 10:20 Abigail Outterson Adam Ashcroft Mark Pitifer Caroline Hobbs Skidmore College Union College Hobart and William Skidmore College Smith Colleges “The DREAM Acts: “Gas Flow Through “Caring for a Legacy: Plausible Policy in the Silica Aerogels” “Understanding religious Micro Hydro Energy at Land of Opportunity?” freedom on campus, Skidmore College” Hindu student organizations in upstate New York”

10:35 Quinn Steigleder William Rosencrans Jennie Wilber Sonia Sandoval Colgate University Colgate University Hamilton College Union College

“The Effect of Legal “The effect of TOR “Narrating an American “Studying the Long Status on Immigrant signaling on nitrogen Religion: The Hill Term Effects of Soil Wages and Occupational stable isotope Cumorah Pageant and Nitrification by Invasive Skills” fractionation” the Story of Mormon Black Locusts (Robinia Religious Freedom” pseudoacacia) in the Albany Pine Bush”

10:50 Emily Gu Kaitlyn Rodriguez Talia Vaughan Jennifer Cristiano and Colgate University Colgate University Hamilton College Lauren Sidor Skidmore College “The Native-Born “Site directed “Defending Indigeneity: Occupational Skill mutagenesis of the The Paradox of “Assessing the Water Response to Immigration pGL3-HIV-1 LAI-LTR ‘Religious Freedom’ for Quality in the within Education and luciferase vector for the Tohono O’odham Kayaderosseras Creek” Experience Cells” transcription studies” Peoples”

11:05 Dakota Noyes Andy Chen Macaela Rourke Anastasia Yandulskaya St. Lawrence University Hamilton College Hobart and William Colgate University Smith Colleges “Apocalypse, Takfiri “Characterization of a “Role of Notch signaling Doctrine and Violence: gene involved in “Religious Minorities in in regeneration of hair Dabiq and ISIS’ Salicylic Acid (SA) Early America” cells in zebrafish lateral Recruitment of Foreign signaling in an SA line” Fighters” tolerant mutant”

4 Time Session 5-Ho 101 Session 6-Olin 301 Session 7– Olin 328 Session 8 - Olin 129 Chair: Chad Sparber Chair: Elodie Fourquet Chair: Jenna Reinbold Chair: Val Lehr 11:30 Caroline Kielar Laine Barrand, Linh Evan Smith Sarah Coburn Colgate University Le, and Nicole Jackson St. Lawrence University Skidmore College Colgate University “Animal Assisted “Reducing L-Band Wide “Participant and Therapy on College “Edouard Glisssant's Observations of Community Outcomes of Campuses” 'Histoire de negre' and Optically Selected Participation in Racial Issues” Galaxies” Environmental Voluntourism Programs: Commitment to Volunteerism, Environmental Issues Awareness, and Pro- environmental Behaviors”

11:45 Adib Chowdhury Hung Hoang Sean Foster Alex Pustelnyk Colgate University Hamilton College Colgate University Colgate University

“The impact of faculty “Chasing Cyborgs: “Mineral Identification “Politics for the People: unionization on faculty Ghost in the Shell’s for Spaceflight Rock Political Legitimacy in salaries: Case study of Posthumanism” Dating” Peru's Informal Housing the University of Settlements” Oregon”

12:00 Evelyn Torsher Sydney Paluch Christopher Demas Rachel Beamish Hamilton College Union College Hobart and William Hamilton College Smith Colleges “Storytelling: A Tool for “Bend and Snap: “Adaptations of Arabic Language Questioning Female Classical Mythology in Acquisition” Spectatorship through “Three Minutes in Contemporary Young Sexualized Space: Muon Detection Adult Literature” Representations of Reaching the Fringes of Female Lawyers” Earth’s Atmosphere”

12:15 Allison Zengilowski Kateri Boucher Jacob Mayle Grace Berg and Sidhant Wadhera Hamilton College Colgate University Hamilton College Colgate University “'Too Smart to be “Partial Difference Sets “Penelope and Her “Adapting MOOC Religious?' Discreet in Rank Two Abelian Odyssey: A Reception Technology for the Seeking Amidst Groups” Study” Liberal Arts Classroom” Religious Stigma at an Elite Secular College”

5

Session 1 Oral Presentations Ho 101 10:20 - 11:20 am

The DREAM Acts: Plausible Policy in the Land of Opportunity?

Abigail Outterson Skidmore College Mentor: Cynthia Bansak A wide variety of literature has been published on the controversial DREAM Acts and their goals of increased opportunities for exceptional undocumented youth living in the United States. This research identifies points of controversy and evaluates the logical reasoning related to the bipartisan proposals of DREAM Act legislation at the federal level and the passage of DREAM Act policies granting in-state resident tuition to undocumented students at the state level. Moral, legal, and economic arguments are analyzed, both in support of and in opposition to DREAM Act policies. Results indicate that there is a great deal of moral, legal, and economic precedent for increased opportunity gains to certain members of the undocumented population that in-state tuition policies cannot fulfill; though they have increased enrollment for undocumented students, they do not provide the same benefits that would be provided by federal legislation, including a conditional and eventually permanent change in legal status. Legislation at this level is expected to be generally beneficial for this community and for United States citizens.

The Effect of Legal Status on Immigrant Wages and Occupational Skills

Quinn Steigleder Colgate University Mentor: Chad Sparber Native and foreign-born workers with a high school degree or less educational attainment provide unique occupational skills to the US labor force. This regularity might be driven, in part, by limited access to occupations for immigrants lacking legal rights to work in the US. This paper exploits exogenous policy change induced by the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) to perform triple-difference estimation examining whether legal status causes immigrants to work in occupations that use skills more similar to those of native-born workers. We find that legal status decreases the manual skill intensity of Mexican immigrants by two percentiles. It increases communication skill intensity by an equivalent amount. This effect reduces the skill gap between Mexican-born and native-born American workers by 13%.

The Native-Born Occupational Skill Response to Immigration within Education and Experience Cells

Emily Gu Colgate University Mentor: Chad Sparber The population of immigrants in the United States has been increasing dramatically in the past few decades. This phenomenon has caused heated debate about how the immigrants have influenced the U.S. native workers for decades. The debate arises from two opposite arguments: immigration has lowered the wages for the native workers, versus immigration has insignificant to positive effects on the native wage structure. Both of these arguments are supported by various empirical analyses. Having two strong and opposite arguments about a topic of such political importance is disconcerting. Many economists attribute this disparity to the different methodologies adopted by the researchers on the opposite sides. The two methodologies that produce starkly different results are “spatial approach” and “national approach”. This paper does not contribute to the existing literature by claiming which approach is better. However, it provides an important insight into this decades-old debate by conflating the two different approaches. To be more specific, this paper looks for common ground by using the strategies adopted by national approach to find out if the relationship between immigrants, skills and wages exist as proved by spatial approach.

6 We found evidence for this relationship. Using methodologies predisposed to finding wage losses, which assumes perfect substitutability between natives and immigrants, our results show a 20% decrease in the negative effect if we assume natives specialize in occupations they have a comparative advantage.

Apocalypse, Takfiri Doctrine and Violence: Dabiq and ISIS’ Recruitment of Foreign Fighters

Dakota Noyes St. Lawrence University Mentor: Howard Eissenstat The Islamic State has taken control of large parts of Iraq and Syria and has a significant presence on social media around the world. This research on focus on analyzing their English magazine Dabiq for the most important concepts such as the takfiri doctrine, the apocalypse and their use of violent images in their recruitment efforts of foreign fighters It will also analyze the relation of these concepts to other Islamist organizations, particularly al- Qaeda. In its culmination, this paper will contribute additional analysis and information to the Islamic State’s ideology and potentially aid in the process of combatting the organization.

Session 2 Oral Presentations Olin 301 10:20 - 11:20 am

Gas Flow Through Silica Aerogels

Adam Ashcroft Union College Mentor: Ann Anderson Silica aerogels have several incredible properties. They are among the lowest density solids known to man, excellent insulators, and contain between 90-99% air. A small, one gram cube of silica aerogel has the same surface area as a tennis court. Union College has a patented process of fabricating these aerogels, and is performing cutting edge research to further understand this futuristic material. Students in the lab are working on catalytically active aerogels for auto emission pollution mitigation, as well as silica aerogels for increased thermal insulation of windows. This presentation will focus on the porosity of silica aerogels, and the measurement of gas flow rate through aerogel samples. Aerogel samples roughly 1” x 1” x 0.5” were used for testing. They were sanded with fine grained sandpaper to create a flat surface. The aerogel was sealed air tight to the testing plate with molten paraffin wax that was pipetted around the perimeter of the aerogel. Flow rates were measured using a digital mass flow meter calibrated for nitrogen. The pressure drop required to push gas through the aerogel was recorded using a pressure transducer on either side of the aerogel sample. Data was collected using a DAQ USB device connected to a personal laptop. Flow rates of 7 mL/min required a pressure drop of 15 psi for a half inch aerogel sample. When the pressure drop grew too large, aerogels displayed bizarre crack formations likely due to the flow pattern through the test plate hole.

The effect of TOR signaling on nitrogen stable isotope fractionation

William Rosencrans Colgate University Mentor: Theodore Brummel Stable Isotope analysis (SIA) is used to non-invasively determine the nutritional status, or trophic level of animal populations. However, the molecular mechanisms that affect the fractionation of stable isotopes are poorly understood. The focus of this study is to investigate the relationship between δ15N fractionation in animal tissue and

7 the Target of Rapamycin (dTOR) signaling pathway. We subjected Drosophila melanogaster to dietary, pharmacological, and genetic manipulations that alter dTOR activity. The δ15N of these flies were then analyzed. We found that manipulations that lowered dTOR signaling (e.g. protein restriction, ethanol, rapamycin, and the inaEEP1011 raised δ15N approximately 1 per mil while enhancing TOR signaling via the the inaEKG08585 mutation genetically prevented the increase in δ15N the associated with dietary restriction (p < 0.05). The dTOR pathway activity helps explain variations and anomalies in expected trophic level shifts. Furthermore the δ15N assay may prove useful in analyzing TOR activity, which has been implicated in aging, cancer, Alzheimer’s, and various metabolic diseases.

Site directed mutagenesis of the pGL3-HIV-1 LAI-LTR luciferase vector for transcription studies

Kaitlyn Rodriguez Colgate University Mentor: Michael Nonnemacher

The Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV--‐1) genome is continuously mutating, even in well‐controlled individuals on antiretroviral therapy. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the long terminal repeat (LTR) are of interest due to their potential impact on the regulation of viral transcription and replication. The long terminal repeat is the promoter region of the virus and contains numerous transcription factor binding sites. Previous studies have identified that SNPs un particular transcription factor binding sites within the LTR can significantly alter viral transcription in a cell type‐specific manner, as well as serve as markers of changes in disease severity. Of interest, a specific LTR SNP at position 108, residing in a confirmed COUP/AP1 binding site, increased in frequency in patients with high viral load and low CD4+ T‐cell counts. To analyze the affect on transcription of the site 108 variations, site directed mutagenesis ‐ a technique to introduce a single nucleotide mutation ‐ was performed with the vector pGL3 that carried the parental LAI LTR (specific Lab strain). The Vector was then transformed into Escherichia Coli To generate enough plasmid DNA To be able to perform transient transfection in U--‐937 Promonocytic cells and Jurkat T Cell lines. The Study will be furthered by a dual luciferase assay to measure luciferase activity in correlation with the rate of transcription. Studies Are underway making further mutations at different known transcription factor binding sites in the LTR To help better understand how the increase or decrease in binding affects the rate of transcription in various cell types infected by HIV--‐1.

Characterization of a gene involved in Salicylic Acid (SA) signaling in an SA tolerant mutant

Andy Chen Hamilton College Mentor: Rajinikanth Mohan The phytohormone Salicylic Acid (SA) serves a suite of physiological functions in plants, but functions primarily in mediating the Systemic Acquired Resistance (SAR) pathway for immunity to pathogenic infection. SA’s function in plant immunity involves production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). However, inability to contain SA levels and the accompanying ROS production during infection results in chlorosis and is detrimental to plants. In order to understand the mechanism by which plants tolerate high and potentially toxic levels of SA, in this study a genetic screen was performed using Arabidopsis mutant pools and a salicylic acid tolerant mutant that can germinate and grow in toxic levels of SA was isolated. The isolation of a salicylic acid tolerant mutant indicates a genetic basis to SA tolerance in plants. Further characterization of this mutant will involve identification of the mutated gene by TAIL PCR followed by confirmation of the SA tolerance phenotype using additional alleles for the mutation. Understanding the mechanism of SA tolerance will provide insights not only into SA toleration of toxicity but also into how plants cope with oxidative stress.

8 Session 3 Oral Presentations Olin 328 10:20 - 11:20 am

Understanding religious freedom on campus, Hindu student organizations in upstate New York

Mark Pitifer Hobart and William Smith Colleges Mentor: Anthony Cerulli On the basis of preliminary research in the field of religious studies, I now have a multitude of reliable sources that have shaped my understanding and guided my attitude toward Hinduism. Through a vast array of perspectives by scholars who have studied this topic I now have a framework to base my results on. In this paper I will show how I am working on a summer research project titled, "Understanding Religious Freedom on Campus: Hindu Students Organizations in Upstate New York". In this project I am trying to the best of my ability to understand why Hindu students join Hindu religious groups on campus, how they construct their ethno-religious identities as members of such groups, and the impact that these groups have on them. Our project overview discusses how an eight-week summer research fellowship would support student research on the experiences of Hindu students at four college and university campuses in Upstate New York. Almost five weeks into the project, I have read 5 different books related to the topic I am studying and have studied ethnographies that have focused on second generation Hindus in the United States as well. This knowledge I have learned about, not only Hinduism, but this connection to India even if the Indian Americans are indeed born in the United States, this connection and desire to experience their heritage is profound.

Narrating an American Religion: The Hill Cumorah Pageant and the Story of Mormon Religious Freedom

Jennie Wilber Hamilton College Mentor: Jenna Reinbold

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, commonly referred to as the Mormon Church, has fought to create an American identity since Joseph Smith’s discovery of the golden plates in 1823. The Church’s inclusion into the religious, and especially Christian, fabric of the nation hinged on both the inward relation of the Church to its people and the outward relation of the Church to the national government. Mormonism clashed with the Christianity practiced by most Americans in the 19th century with its religious tenets such as the establishment of the holy city of Zion, the practice of polygamy in the late 19th century, and a hierarchical structure that resembled a burgeoning theocracy. Through interactions with the federal government in the early 20th century, the Church weathered most of these challenges, in large measure by accommodating itself to the demands of the broader American culture. Their next challenge arose in solidifying this negotiated identity within the Church itself, leading to pageants both celebrating and reinvigorating the history of the Church consistent with its newly minted American identity. The annual Hill Cumorah Pageant, held in Palmyra, New York, provides a case study of this theatrical presentation of identity to audiences comprised of both members of the Church, for internal reification, and non-members, as historical education. The Pageant began in its earliest form in 1937, with the version in use today developed and recorded in 1987. It celebrates the history of the location of the Hill Cumorah in relation to the Book of Mormon, telling its stories and culminating in a reenactment of Joseph Smith’s revelation of the golden plates containing the scripture under a rock on the Hill itself. My research consisted of familiarizing myself with the history of Mormonism and its interactions with the American public, culminating in several attendances of the Hill Cumorah Pageant. At the Pageant, I conducted interviews of the cast, encouraging them to investigate their identities in the Church and its relation to the formation of their identity. My combined research of religious theory, Mormon history, and performance studies drew me to conclusions about the relationship between the Pageant’s theatrical and religious elements and Mormon American identity. The Church’s use of features such as a recorded script and score

9 for the production elucidates the Pageant’s role in securing a particular Mormon American religious identity internally. In an ongoing cycle, the history of the Church makes the uses of the Pageant clear, which in turn solidifies the history of the Church for its members.

Defending Indigeneity: The Paradox of “Religious Freedom” for the Tohono O’odham Peoples

Talia Vaughan Hamilton College Mentor: Seth Schermerhorn Though the Tohono O’odham peoples of Southern Arizona did not defend their non-Christian, indigenous traditions using the rubric of “religious freedom” before the 1920s, religious and ceremonial practice for the Tohono O’odham Nation thrived. Paradoxically, Tohono O’odham religious traditions fared better during a period of relatively benign neglect and even government sponsored persecution than they have since they were granted religious freedom. My goal in this paper was to understand why. Though O’odham were granted and utilized the rubric of “religious freedom” after their acquisition of “religious freedom” in the 1920s, their society changed its views in terms of alcohol and education, which reflected in the change of practice of traditional ceremonies, specifically in the rain bringing ceremony involving the fermentation of wine using saguaro cactus fruit. Alcoholism with the introduction of Western alcohol became a problem in many indigenous communities, including O’odham communities. The introduction, forced or otherwise, of Western education also affected O’odham traditions by alienating O’odham from traditional customs and practices. This change is similar to many other communities across the United States and the globe and I speculate by the end of my paper that, though the push for “modernity” in a Western, liberal society is, in some ways, beneficial to populations, the conversion of other societies, like indigenous communities, to liberal ideals comes with many unintended consequences. I end my paper by speculating whether “modernity” is worth these loss of traditions and lifeways in indigenous communities.

Religious Minorities in Early America

Macaela Rourke Hobart and William Smith Colleges Mentor: Shayna Sheinfeld In a time when people are constantly questioning the separation of Church and State in our country, we often forget that this problem has existed for such a long time. Even during the time of the Civil War America was struggling to find this separation. Religious minorities often struggled to find their voice in a mostly Christian country. But, every so often, an individual like Mordecai Manuel Noah would come along and make their difference known. These individuals challenged this separation and proved points that are relevant in our culture to this day.

10 Session 4 Oral Presentations Olin 129 10:20 – 11:20 am

Caring for a Legacy: Micro Hydro Energy at Skidmore College

Caroline Hobbs Skidmore College Mentor: Karen Kellogg Skidmore College and Gravity Renewables saw a unique opportunity for partnership in an artifact of the industrial revolution in the Hudson Valley. A small dam, originally built in the early 1800’s, sat on an existing fault line and waterfall in Stockport, NY, but years of inadequate funding threatened the future of the historical facilities. Gravity Renewables purchased and revitalized the infrastructure, while Skidmore minimized the risk for Gravity by committing to purchase the power produced by the facility for twenty years. We explored the industrial history of the site, the energy regulations that lead to both the decline and the restoration of the facilities, and the social, environmental, and economic impacts of the project. To communicate our findings we created an interactive webpage via WordPress.

Studying the Long Term Effects of Soil Nitrification by Invasive Black Locusts (Robinia pseudoacacia) in the Albany Pine Bush

Sonia Sandoval Union College Mentor: Jeffrey Corbin The Albany Pine Bush is a globally rare inland sand plain ecosystem that hosts a variety of rare and endangered species including the federally endangered Karner Blue Butterfly. Historic fire suppression has allowed the invasion of non-native species including the nitrogen-fixing black locust tree. This tree is able to increase nitrogen in the soil, thus altering ecological conditions. The Albany Pine Bush Commission has been restoring invaded sites since 1999 by physically removing the locust trees and reintroducing fires. Though these methods are effective in removing the trees themselves, there are indications that a legacy of invasion remains behind in the form of higher-than-normal nitrogen levels. This summer, our team set out to determine whether these management procedures are able to return soil nitrogen levels to pre-invasion levels. We analyzed soil nitrogen dynamics from 51 sites at the Preserve including sites where locust still dominates, sites that have been restored, and sites that were never invaded by locust. Restored sites vary by the length of time since restoration and the number of fires. Soil samples were analyzed for the amount of elemental nitrogen, inorganic nitrogen, and the rate of nitrogen cycling. We hypothesized that that removing black locust would reduce soil nitrogen, and that soil nitrogen would be highest in still-invaded sites, intermediate in restored sites, and lowest in uninvaded sites. Furthermore, we hypothesized that soil nitrogen levels would decrease as the amount of time since removal and the frequency of fires increased. This data analysis will allow the Albany Pine bush Commission to quantify its current conservation efforts, as well as optimize a plan for future endeavors.

Assessing the Water Quality in the Kayaderosseras Creek

Jennifer Cristiano and Lauren Sidor Skidmore College Mentor: Anne Ernst Anticipated development within Saratoga County poses a potential threat to the historically high water quality of the Kayaderosseras Creek. We began a long-term study of the Kayaderosseras to establish a baseline and determine how changes in the watershed affect water quality. We deployed CT2X sensors in three sites along the Kayaderosseras to

11 measure conductivity, temperature, pressure, salinity, and total dissolved solids. HOBO temperature loggers were also installed in five main tributaries to the Kayaderosseras, with loggers above and below a location of high imperviousness. Thus far, we have found an increase in all variables, with the exception of temperature, within the Kayaderosseras from upstream to downstream. We plan to continue to monitor this creek and assess how urbanization affects water quality in the Kayaderosseras watershed.

Role of Notch signaling in regeneration of hair cells in zebrafish lateral line

Anastasia Yandulskaya Colgate University Mentor: Jason Meyers Posterior lateral line is a sensory organ in fish that allows fish to detect changes in water flow. It consists of neuromasts – clumps of cells along the fish body that are deposited early in development from a cluster of migrating undifferentiated cells, called migratory primordium, and then differentiate in a number of cells types. Hair cells are the sensory cells within neuromasts, sending signals to the brain in response to being distorted by water flow. Zebrafish hair cells are very similar to the hair cells in the human ear, but unlike human cells, the zebrafish hair cells possess a remarkable ability to regenerate after injury. Atoh1 is a transcription factor that promotes the fate of a hair cell progenitor in an undifferentiated primordium cell, and its expression is inhibited by Notch signaling. To investigate the role of Notch signaling in hair cell regeneration, I reverted all posterior lateral line neuromasts in two day-old zebrafish to migratory primordium through pharmacological manipulation of Wnt and FGF signaling, and then inhibited Notch signaling during regeneration of the neuromasts. I found strong upregulation of atoh1 mRNA in the neuromasts that regenerated in the absence of Notch signaling, compared to those that regenerated normally and in untreated controls. I also found an increased number of hair cells in the neuromasts that regenerated without Notch signaling, possibly reflecting the upregulated expression of atoh1. These findings suggest that inhibition of Notch signaling may promote regeneration of hair cells from migratory primordium in zebrafish neuromasts.

Session 5 Oral Presentations Ho 101 11:30 am - 12:30 pm

Animal Assisted Therapy on College Campuses

Caroline Kielar Colgate University Mentor: Mark Stern Recently, the use of college mental health counseling services has been increasing rapidly. Specifically, college counseling center directors report a drastic rise in the number of students facing anxiety and stress. A variety of cultural, social, and political factors affect today’s generation of college students, thus contributing to the increase in counseling usage on college campuses. The unique cultural issues that college students experience today, such as an intense focus on materialism and the rapidly increasing use of technology, suggest that a less traditional and more holistic remedy, such as animal assisted therapy, might be needed. Animal assisted therapy, or AAT, endeavors to create distinct lasting change and progress in clients presenting different types of mental health issues by using therapy animals to form a unique therapeutic environment and provide immediate responses to the patient. This research attempts to start a conversation between scientists, therapists, school counselors, and the general public to create a better understanding of the use of AAT in a college setting as a way to increase awareness about this promising therapy.

12 The impact of faculty unionization on faculty salaries: Case study of the University of Oregon

Adib Chowdhury Colgate University Mentor: Richard Higgins This paper attempts to find a causal link between faculty unionization and faculty salaries, using the recent unionization of the University of Oregon in 2013 as a case study. Five public universities in Illinois are used as controls. The control universities have similar faculty salary trends over 2010 to 2014 to the University of Oregon. A difference in difference method is applied, using salaries adjusted for cost of living differences between states, and the impact of the faculty union measured within the rank brackets professor, associate professor, assistant professor, and other lower ranks which includes instructors and lecturers. Placebo tests are used to ensure that the results are not spurious and fixed effects models used as robustness check. The results show union base salary premiums of 5.2 percent for professors, 6.8 percent for associate professors and 9.9 percent for instructors and lecturers. Assistant professors suffer a negative 7.5 percent decrease in base salary as a result of the union.

Storytelling: A Tool for Arabic Language Acquisition

Evelyn Torsher Hamilton College Mentor: Mireille Koukjian

This is an ongoing research project which measures the effectiveness of the Total Physical Response Storytelling (TPRS) teaching method in entry-level Arabic language students. The research involves developing an Arabic reader that combines traditional vocabulary and grammar exercises with story-based comprehension activities. This reader will be implemented as the primary course material of second and third-semester Arabic learners and taught with the TPRS method, which involves animated reading and incorporation of the stories into the course. Arabic proficiency will be tested before the beginning of the course, after one semester and after two semesters of teaching with the TPRS reader. This research seeks to prove that the engaging, connection-based principles of TPRS teaching are more effective in the acquisition of a foreign language than traditional textbook learning. The reader I have developed consists of four fairy tales that include level-specific vocabulary and grammar including colors, food, weather and body parts. The stories and exercises in the reader were written by Evelyn Torsher, illustrated by Fiona Glen and Victoria Negron, and edited by Mireille Koukjian. The reader has been informally published at the Hamilton College print shop and will be used beginning in Spring of 2016 as a teaching tool for second semester Arabic students. This project was made possible by a grant from the Kirkland Endowment.

Adapting MOOC Technology for the Liberal Arts Classroom

Allison Zengilowski and Sidhant Wadhera Colgate University Mentor: Karen Harpp The philosophical and practical differences between small liberal arts colleges and major research institutions raise important questions regarding the use of online educational technology. In particular, how can online platforms be used effectively in a liberal arts setting? We describe a pedagogical experiment conducted at Colgate University to investigate the intersection of MOOCs, online educational technology, and the liberal arts. Specifically, we explore the potential of adapting MOOC technologies and methodologies to enhance the educational mission of liberal arts institutions.

13 Session 6 Oral Presentations Olin 301 11:30 am - 12:30 pm

Edouard Glisssant's 'Histoire de negre' and Racial Issues

Laine Barrand, Nicole Jackson and Linh Le Colgate University Mentor: Mahadevi Ramakrishnan The presentation explores Édouard Glissant’s 1972 play “Histoire de Nègre” and its portrayal of race through the casting process and the character list, which then identifies the significance of the references to cultural figures like Toussaint Louverture, Andre Aliker, Patrice Lumumba and Malcolm X. Furthermore, we also look at how Colgate University students’ staged reading of the play manages to convey Glissant’s ideas and extends it to the Colgate racial climate, especially in the September 2014 sit-in. The umbrella terms ‘Colonists’ and ‘Oppressed’ used to denote the characters show the disparity between the white and the Africans, characterizing them by their social positions. Each actor plays multiple roles with different names, illustrating how one’s identity is malleable. Thus, ‘Colonists’ and ‘Oppressed’ become merely names assigned to people instead of immutable social roles. The all- black original cast is modified in Colgate University’s performance with students from diverse racial backgrounds. Also, the students’ change of shirt color from the black-and-white uniform demonstrates the arbitrariness of ‘Colonists’ and ‘Oppressed’ as ways to designate people. Moreover, the cultural figures show their courage to challenge norms of colonialism, who consequently mobilized and empowered the masses to stand up for themselves. Underneath all the human constructs to classify ourselves, the black and the white are the same and there is no reason why the white should dominate the black. The 40-year-old play is still applicable to our society today, not only in Martinique but also in Africa and especially America, which is both fascinating yet humiliating.

Chasing Cyborgs: Ghost in the Shell’s Posthumanism

Hung Hoang Hamilton College Mentor: Kyoko Omori I focus on the Japanese anime films Ghost In The Shell (1995) and Ghost In The Shell: Innocence (2004), both directed by Oshii Mamoru, well-known for his philosophical work. A large body of scholarships in media and animation studies discusses these two pieces extensively. Nevertheless, few venture beyond Freudian psychoanalysis to posit Oshii’s work in the larger discussions on the complex issues of posthuman societies, such as the emergence of cyborgs and their invitation for discourse on gender binaries, transnationalism , racial classification, class warfare, and capitalism. While such analyses contribute positively in opening up a critical space for evaluating Japanese anime, they fail to consider that: 1. The medium is integral to the artistic processes, 2. The materiality of this medium’s moving image enriches the discussion at hand insofar as there is an interconnectedness between the text and the medium the text is being presented, and 3. such interconnectedness does not only render reductive analyses impractical, but also introduces another layer of text, or metatext, that invites Deleuzian rhizomatic reading. Consequently, my objective is to revisit the cyberuniverse imagined by Ghost and reevaluate Ghost’s role as an instigator of such universe by putting the mechanism of anime’s moving image at the heart of the analysis. I hope to find that Ghost’s metatext would not only confirm the findings that are already evident in the narrative, but also that in such agreement it would effectively make parallel the animation mechanisms of anime and the salvation to the very condition it exposes.

14 Bend and Snap: Questioning Female Spectatorship through Sexualized Representations of Female Lawyers

Sydney Paluch Union College Mentor: Lori Marso In its most basic sense, film is a system of recorded gaze. Since the advent of motion pictures as a product of bourgeois capitalism the male gaze has typically dominated this cinematic realm with Hollywood productions “constructed according to the unconscious of patriarchy” (Kaplan, 42). This has resulted in “the representation of the female body as the primary site of sexuality and visual pleasure” (De Lauretis, 13). Through the male gaze not only are women objectified for their appearance in heteronormative films, but such phallocentric objectification further serves to encourage audience identification with male characters. However, in films with women as the target demographic, the male gaze is typically reversed in terms of biological sex but not gender as the male gaze remains masculine even when enacted by a female character. Such reversal of the masculine gaze is demonstrated in both How to Get Away With Murder and Legally Blonde. Although both films ultimately invert the male gaze, in Legally Blonde this reversal is accomplished through satire, whereas How to Get Away With Murder instead has Annaliese seductively strut into the masculine role. As a result of reversing the male gaze without substituting a feminine version, both Elle and Annaliese are able to manipulate paternalistic constructions while parading as sexualized representations of highly educated female lawyers meticulously clothed in curve-hugging outfits. Although the gaze still functions as male it does not objectify these female characters, but rather questions what it means to be a female spectator.

'Too Smart to be Religious?' Discreet Seeking Amidst Religious Stigma at an Elite Secular College

Kateri Boucher Hamilton College Mentor: Jaime Kucinskas To advance understandings of how religion manifests in hidden ways in secular institutions, we examine college students’ religiosity and spirituality at an elite secular liberal arts school. Using mixed qualitative methods and interviews with various constituencies on campus, this study investigates how students navigate religious and spiritual exploration on a secular campus with an overarching culture that is suspicious of and at times even discriminatory towards religion. Despite an institutional commitment to inclusion of “diversity” and encouraging students in self-exploration, a cultural stigma towards religion as well as marginalized institutional pathways for spiritual exploration have led students towards: (1) a lack of dialogue about the sacred, (2) discreetness in exploring and adhering to their sacred beliefs and practices, and (3) a large degree of religious and spiritual pluralism. The authors find that, because religious and spiritual beliefs and practices are often kept covert and private, the student body is perceived to be less religious and spiritual than students’ individual confidential reports suggest. Our data additionally illustrates that initial exposure to the campus culture’s critical regard for religion had a lasting impact on students’ behaviors and identities for the rest of their college experiences. Therefore, the authors propose that intentional dialogue regarding religious and spirituality exploration is introduced early on in students’ campus experiences.

15 Session 7 Oral Presentations Olin 328 11:30 am - 12:30 pm

Reducing L-Band Wide Observations of Optically Selected Galaxies

Evan Smith St. Lawrence University Mentor: Aileen O'Donoghue Observations of galaxies in the Virgo Cluster were completed at the Arecibo Observatory in the spring and summer of 2015. 161 targets were observed, selected by criteria such as magnitude and shape from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The targets, which were too dim to be detected by Arecibo’s ALFA drift scanner, were observed with the L- Band Wide detector. Once reductions in an IDL environment were done, these data were matched to the targets from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the GALEX/MAST catalog. Comparing the galaxies that were detected against the galaxies that were not detected (by the L-Band Wide receiver) will allow us to refine our method of choosing HI- rich galaxies in the 2000km/s to 9000km/s range and prepare for the Arecibo Pisces-Perseus Supercluster Survey, which will use the same method of target selection. 115 of the 161 targets observed had positive detections, a 71% success rate.

Mineral Identification for Spaceflight Rock Dating

Sean Foster Colgate University Mentor: Jonathan Levine We are developing a prototype mass spectrometer capable of dating rocks through the 87Rb-87Sr isochron method. We employ the technique of laser ablation resonance ionization mass spectrometry to measure elemental and isotopic abundances of rubidium and strontium. This technique is miniaturizable for spaceflight and so can be used to date geologic specimens on the surfaces of other planetary bodies. Mineral identification is critical for interpreting the ages that we calculate since samples may have undergone complicated thermal histories that could have reset the abundance ratios within the rock. To perform this mineral identification, we obtain spectra, for each spot analysis, of the ions liberated from the sample directly by the laser ablation process. We infer which spots are the same mineral based on similarity among their ion spectra. To analyze these data, I have developed an analytical tool in MATLAB that can evaluate various statistical measures for each spot’s spectrum to search for natural groupings. From the meaningful groupings that emerge, we will work to confidently identify the mineral at each spot.

Three Minutes in Space: Muon Detection Reaching the Fringes of Earth’s Atmosphere

Christopher Demas Hobart and William Smith Colleges Mentors: Peter Spacher and Ileana Dumitriu RockSat-C is a NASA program that enabled HWS students to design and build a sounding rocket payload. On June 17th, the HWS team traveled to NASA Wallops Flight Facility base, in Wallops VA, to test and integrate the payload consisting of two muon detectors and a spectrometer into the Orion sounding rocket. The rocket was launched on June 25th, 2015 and recorded visible light spectra and muon flux as it passed through Earth’s atmosphere (~72 miles). Muons are generated by cosmic radiation, which originate outside of our solar system, when the high-energy photons and atomic nuclei come in contact with the atmosphere. Muons are negatively charged particles, 200 times heavier than an electron. Our research investigated the flux of muons at various layers in the atmosphere using two detectors: a solid-state scintillator detector and a Geiger-Müller detector. Our research strived to determine the baseline of muon flux in the upper atmosphere and determine if a muon flux exists in space, an area of interest that

16 had yet to be investigated until this project. The instrument successfully collected data throughout the rocket’s ascent and descent. Due to the high speed of the rocket and the limited time spent in each layer of the atmosphere, it was difficult to get an accurate muon flux baseline at all altitudes. However, the data collected from both detectors indicate that there is a difference in muon flux throughout the atmosphere and in space.

Partial Difference Sets in Rank Two Abelian Groups

Jacob Mayle Colgate University Mentor: Ken Smith Partial difference sets are combinatorial structures that arise from abstract groups. Of particular recent interest are those which arise from abelian groups with high exponent, due the difficulty they pose to otherwise fruitful techniques derived from commutative algebra. In this talk, we'll first introduce the Smith-Malandro tree diagram, a useful computational tool in the search for such partial difference sets. Then we'll give an overview of the known n n partial difference sets in groups of the form Cp x Cp and look into how tree diagrams may be exploited as a n n theoretical tool to prove the existence of two new infinite families of partial difference sets in Cp x Cp .

Session 8 Oral Presentations Olin 129 11:30 am - 12:30 pm

Participant and Community Outcomes of Participation in Environmental Voluntourism Programs: Commitment to Volunteerism, Environmental Issues Awareness, and Pro-environmental Behaviors.

Sarah Coburn Skidmore College Mentor: AJ Schneller "Voluntourism" is best understood as travel abroad or domestically, coupled with a healthy time commitment to volunteering for social and/or environmental causes. Participants in voluntourism vary in age and include both youth and adults. Various US based companies organize (and sell) formal voluntourism trips. In response to the sparse amount of evaluation on the participant, community, and environmental outcomes of voluntourism programs, we conducted mixed-methods research through 22 interviews, 10 focus groups, and 96 written surveys with teenage voluntourists in Uvita, Costa Rica. Respondents also included community influentials living in the community of Uvita. Preliminary qualitative data showed low to moderate changes in personal pro-environmental behavior change, but a high degree of change in relation to concern and awareness for environmental issues. 17.7% (18/96) of students who completed multiple voluntourism projects over consecutive summers showed a distinct dedication to volunteering for underserved communities and the environment in the future, as well as noted changes in their environmental behaviors upon return to the US. Pending quantitative post-program data from our year-long environmental action drip email campaign will further inform this longitudinal research in the coming year.

Politics for the People: Political Legitimacy in Peru's Informal Housing Settlements

Alex Pustelnyk Colgate University Mentor: Maureen Hays-Mitchell

17 This research examines whether the neighborhood organizations that govern Peru’s informal housing settlements should be considered politically legitimate governing entities with a limited right to make and enforce laws. By utilizing Allen Buchanan’s justice-based theory of political legitimacy, this paper establishes the baseline criteria for legally recognizing informal, non-state governing institutions. It then applies these criteria to Peru’s neighborhood organizations through an extensive literature review, and interviews with local leaders. The goal is to create a theoretical foundation for grassroots development policy that can be modeled on examples of successful informal housing settlements in Peru.

Adaptations of Classical Mythology in Contemporary Young Adult Literature

Rachel Beamish Hamilton College Mentor: Shelley Haley As a Classical Studies and English double major I am intrigued by how contemporary young adult novels incorporate and adapt classical mythology—expanded to include Egyptian mythology—in order to speak to issues of twentieth and twenty-first century American culture. These include gender, race, class, learning disabilities and climate change. This summer, Shelley Haley, professor of Classics and Africana Studies and I collaborated on a joint article which focuses on this very topic. This paper is a distillation of that article and my research. I examine how the world of the myths, i.e., the ancient world, is integrated into the modern world of today’s young adult reader. My research centered primarily on several different aspects of these adaptations: how ancient myths are transformed to appeal to modern young readers; how the myths are integrated into the modern world and whether or not they are presented as factual events; how the gods themselves are presented and how their characteristics and personalities in these novels compare to those from the original myths; and finally, what kind of tone or voice these novels use. Finally, under the guidance of Professor Haley I rely on critical race feminist theory as I examine how young adult literature uses classical mythology to critique more current issues of identity such as race, gender, class, learning disabilities, and the environment.

Penelope and Her Odyssey: A Reception Study

Grace Berg Hamilton College Mentor: Barbara Gold As reception studies gain popularity in the field of classical studies, contemporary scholars have begun to reevaluate the roles of female characters in ancient texts. While Penelope, the wife of Odysseus, has traditionally been championed for her role as the ideal chaste and loyal wife, recent studies raise questions about Penelope’s role in the epic tradition, her possession of agency, and her simultaneous inhabitation of multiple roles such as the ideal wife, mother, siren, and heroine. A recent play by Margaret Atwood, The Penelopiad, featuring the ancient Penelope, retells the story of the Odyssey from Penelope’s perspective. On the whole, the book appears to be a feminist play. Yet the play does not promote the feminist ideals its reception seems to suggest and has generated vigorous debate from feminist scholars. While classicists have begun to reevaluate Penelope’s role in the Odyssey, and feminist scholars have debated the feminist authenticity of Atwood’s Penelopiad, there has been little crossover between these two disciplines and the subject they share. My project analyses The Penelopiad from a classical perspective to reveal how the play fits into a rich history of classical reception over time. I explore how the choices Atwood makes reflect changes in our reception of ancient texts, and how the reaction to these choices, by scholars and the public alike, exposes the complexity of our relationship to these works.

18 Poster Session Ho Atrium 1:30 - 3:30 pm

*odd numbers present from 1:30 – 2:30 pm *even numbers present from 2:30 – 3:30 pm

Heterogeneous Photochemistry of Coadsorbed Water and Nitrates on a TiO2 Surface

(1) Talia Stortini Skidmore College Mentor: Juan Navea Natural and industrial processes release aerosol particles into the atmosphere. Aerosols are known to provide an active surface for the uptake of atmospheric trace gases, such as nitric acid. This particle-gas interaction can lead to reactions with implications in the nitrogen balance of the atmosphere. Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is a common component of aerosols and is a semiconductor active within the solar spectral region of the atmosphere. In this study, we explore how the properties of TiO2 impact the heterogeneous photochemistry of nitric acid in the presence of coadsorbed water. Relative humidity is varied and the rate of reaction of nitric acid is investigated. Additionally, the amount of gas products NO, NO2, N2O, and HONO are also measured.

Effects of different formulations of Cerium Oxide Nanoparticles in a mouse model of Multiple Sclerosis.

(2) Dominique James St. Lawrence University Mentor: Karin Heckman Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a disease in which immune cells attack the myelin insulation on neurons, causing eventual loss of motor function and paralysis. These immune cells, specifically macrophage cells, produce reactive oxygen species, which damage the myelin sheath by stealing electrons from proteins, lipids, and DNA. Antioxidants have the ability to protect neurons by donating electrons to these unstable free radicals and interfering with the process of demyelination. Nanoceria particles exist in two different oxidation states giving them the ability participate in redox reactions to stabilize free radicals, making them great candidates for possible therapeutic drug development. By using the well-known model of MS, experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis model (EAE), we are able to study how the nanoparticles work in vivo. The cerium oxide nanoparticles used at SLU have recently been tested intravenously and are successful at decreasing multiple sclerosis symptoms. The particles can be synthesized with different stabilizers and washing methods which affects the biological functions of the particles. Here, we are comparing the different formulations of CeNPs and performing daily motor testing and twice daily clinical scoring to track disease progression. The results of this study will reveal which stabilizers increase the effectiveness of the particles’ ability to interfere with disease progression and will indicate which formulation should be pursued for further development.

The Processing of Positive and Negative Emotion-Laden Words During Reading: An Eye-Tracking Study

(3) Emma Starr Skidmore College Mentor: Rebecca Johnson Previous research has found that emotional stimuli, including emotion words, have a processing advantage over neutral stimuli. However, previous research has not specifically examined emotion-laden words, which are words that do not express a state of mind (e.g., joy) but have emotional connotations (e.g., birthday). The present study examined the processing of positive and negative emotion-laden words compared to neutral words utilizing eye- tracking methodology. Results indicated that both positive and negative emotion-laden words have a processing

19 advantage over neutral words. Positive emotion-laden words showed advantages in early, late, and post-target measures, while negative emotion-laden words showed effects only in late and post-target measures. These results indicate that the arousal (emotional content) and the valence (positivity/negativity) of words do affect readers' processing speeds.

Accelerating Dynamically Typed Languages with a Virtual Function Cache

(4) Lillian Pentecost Colgate University Mentor: John Stratton Dynamically typed languages are increasingly important to programmers of all levels because they allow for complicated class hierarchies with shared functions and multiple inheritance. Virtual functions are a key element in implementing these interesting and useful features, but they are more costly than their static equivalents. This research proposes additional hardware support for the execution of virtual function calls in the form of a Virtual Function Cache in an effort to improve overall performance of dynamically typed languages. We present conceptual and technical background to motivate the introduction of the Virtual Function Cache, in addition to outlining our initial implementation of the Virtual Function Cache and analyzing preliminary results.

Composition and Structure of Oyster Cement Provides Unique Materials Properties

(5) Rebecca Rist Colgate University Mentor: Rebecca Metzler My research project examined the structural and chemical composition of an oyster, the Crassostrea virginica. This oyster creates an adhesive in which it uses to cement to other oysters, allowing these oysters to aggregate into colonies. Once they cement to each other, they are cemented for life. This adhesive is extraordinary— it is flexible yet strong enough to effectively function in tidal environments. By examining both the chemical and structural properties of this adhesive, my professor, Rebecca Metzler, and I hope to help identify how the Crassostrea virginica creates this adhesive. Through completion of this research, we will be closer to synthetically recreating this adhesive, so it can be used as a biomedical adhesive, or any adhesive utilized in a wet or unstable environment. I specifically measured the hardness values of the oyster’s adhesive and shell with the goal of correlating hardness to particular elements and materials within the two components. I measured hardness values for geologic calcite and aragonite, of which the shell and cement are composed, to serve as a comparison. The cement is significantly softer than the shell with the results acquired. Jointly examining the elemental composition of both the cement and shell, yielded new findings: the adhesive and shell are composed mostly of carbon, calcium, oxygen, sulfur, and silicon. Additionally, the cement contains soft regions high in carbon and hard regions high in silicon.

Endomorphisms of the Fundamental Group of the Double Torus

(6) Julia Ceglowski Colgate University Mentor: Evelyn Hart Algebraic topology is a subject in which topological spaces are studied through algebra using group theory. My goal was to classify all the endomorphisms on the fundamental group of the double torus. The double torus (or double- doughnut) is the topological space we are currently studying. The reason we are studying the double torus is because it has a challenging fundamental group compared to other spaces previously studied. The fundamental group of the double torus, which we call π, is a four-generator group with one relator, R. Formally, π = < a, b, c, d; abABcdCD = 1 >. An endomorphism is a function from a group to itself with the property that ƒ(xy)= ƒ(x) ƒ(y) and ƒ(1)=1. So any endomorphism on π is determined by ƒ(a), ƒ(b), ƒ(c), and ƒ(d). This is because the image of any word under ƒcan be broken down, and we will only need to know how ƒworks on our 4 generators. A function ƒ will be an endomorphism on the fundamental group if and only if ƒ(R)=1, and thus in order for there to be an endomorphism ƒ(abABcdCD)= ƒ(a) ƒ(b) ƒ(A) ƒ(B) ƒ(c) ƒ(d) ƒ(C) ƒ(D) must equal 1. So I am categorizing all

20 the choices for ƒ(a), ƒ(b), ƒ(c), ƒ(d), (which we call w, x, y, and z respectively) that will make ƒ(R)=1.

Computational Modeling on Transition Metal-Ligand Covalency

(7) Haochuan Wei Colgate University Mentor: Jason Keith This computational chemistry project aims to investigate the effect of geometric properties of bonding on metal- ligand covalency, specifically for Pd and Ti diphosphine complexes. We collect our computational data by modeling slightly different transition metal complexes, as well as their K-edge X-ray absorption with time-dependent density functional theory. The data is compared with its experimental counterpart from our collaborators. A set of Pd and Ti diphosphine species were optimized in terms of geometry, wave functions and chemical potential. K-edge absorption was calculated and normalized to give X-ray spectra for the compounds. The first feature in each spectrum shows the pre K-edge absorption, whose intensity demonstrates the relative strength of covalent interaction. Under molecular symmetry assumptions, we are able to designate key variables for the geometric profile of each compound. We look to obtain more K-edge data, both computational and experimental, to help quantify covalency in a mathematically more rigorous manner.

The Investigation of Immunomodulatory Properties of Cerium Oxide Nanoparticles.

(8) Liqian Ma St. Lawrence University Mentor: Karin Heckman Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease caused in part by oxidative injury. The specific mechanism of this disease is believed to be that immune cells produce free radicals that possess an unpaired electron, are highly reactive, and can steal electrons from other molecules. Those free radicals, when interacting with nervous tissues, can lead to tissue destruction inside the body. To remedy this self-attack, a custom cerium oxide nanoparticle (CeNP), acting as an antioxidant that neutralizes free radicals, was produced as a potential drug for MS. In 2013, the study of Heckman et al. showed that CeNPs reduced the level of free radicals and preserved motor function effectively in a mouse model of the disease. However, nanoparticles in general could also compromise immune functions, while being used as a treatment. This project examined the effects of CeNPs on bone marrow derived murine dendritic cells (DCs). The DCs were exposed to lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a maturation stimulus that induces the expression of co-stimulatory molecules (MHCII and CD80) on DCs. After stimulation, the expression level of those molecules, with or without CeNP exposure, was measured. Once matured, DCs were co-cultured with T cells, and T cell proliferation was measured, as a result of activation by DC stimulation. The minimal changes in the level of expression of DC co-stimulatory signals and T cell division induced by mature DCs, after exposure to nanoparticles, indicated that the use of CeNPs as a potential treatment for MS might not be detrimental to normal immune activation.

Optimization of Silver Nanoparticle Films:The Search for the Green Color

(9) Hannah Skipper Skidmore College Mentor: Maryuri Roca Silver nanoparticles and their application to stain glass provide a creative way for students to learn about the optical properties of silver at the nano-scale. Previous procedures obtain silver nanoparticle films, but only of a yellow color. In this work, we seek to create silver nanoparticle films of different colors, specifically a green film. The synthesis of colored nanoparticle solutions and colored films were explored. We observed that homogenously colored solutions do not form homogenously colored films. Partially green colored films were obtained by

21 combining yellow and blue nanoparticles. The formation of this green film expands the original application of silver nanoparticles in stain glass.

Differentially Private Machine Learning: An Empirical Evaluation of Differentially Private Classifiers

(10) Wanqing Han Colgate University Mentor: Michael Hay Machine learning is a subfield of artificial intelligence that focuses on recognizing and learning patterns from real data in order to make predictions. For our research project, we were particularly interested in classifiers. A classifier is a machine learning method that uses pattern matching to attempt to assign a label/class to an observation. For example, classifiers can be used to label an email as spam, to predict a patient’s risk level for a particular disease, etc. In certain cases, data that is used to build these classifiers is sensitive (e.g. medical data) and people need a privacy guarantee before they volunteer their data. One of the most prevalent methods of trying to ensure privacy is anonymization or the removal of personal identification information; however, anonymization doesn’t provide sufficient privacy, thus we need a more robust method of privacy. Differential privacy is a proposed alternative to anonymization. It ensures that computations be insensitive to changes in an individual’s record. Differential privacy achieves this by adding noise to the statistical computations. There has been much research in the past on differentially private classifiers; however, there has not yet been a comprehensive study of the existing differentially private classifiers. The goals of the project were to look at the current algorithms in the field and do an empirical comparison and to propose possible improvements to current algorithms.

Pegatinas Políticas

(11) Laurel Hurd St. Lawrence University Mentor: Catherine Tedford Street art stickers have become an ever-present global trend, taking over city sidewalks, building walls, traffic signs and just about any other accessible surface of the built environment. Stickers have validated themselves in today’s ever-changing modern society not by their impressive size or their technological advancement. But rather, they have left their mark due to their cultural significance, conceptual relevance and intellectual contribution to our perspectives on the world around us. Street art stickers when analyzed in connection with a specific place and time allow us to achieve an in-depth look into the culture in which they were born. With this in mind, the purpose of this fellowship was to create an interactive mapping and timeline project using an extensive archive of sticker street art from all over Spain. To this end, around 100 political stickers were selected to be debuted online. After creating a cataloging process, the title and text of all the stickers with their English definitions were defined, along with their sources, language, location, date, references and a description of what each sticker represented. The stickers reflected on political, cultural, economical and creative aspects of their context, ultimately revealing the opinions of the masses on contemporary issues. Once they were catalogued they were placed into exhibitions that brought together different themes from individual stickers into one story. In these exhibitions the following topics were explored: Catalonia Independence Movement, Feminism in Democratic Spain, Spain’s Energy and The Environment and Trade Unions in Spain.

Effects of location and deployment timing on efficiency of light-based traps for collecting Hemimysis anomala.

(12) Jamila Roth Skidmore College Mentor: Meghan Brown Hemimysis anomala, invaders from the Ponto-Caspian region, are often collected and surveyed using plankton nets, which have limitations due to H. anomala habitat preference for rocky crevices. We investigated light-based traps for H. anomala collection, focusing on the effects of trap deployment timing and location. The traps were

22 horizontally-secured buckets with a flashlight and plug in the back and a 10 cm opening in front. We deployed traps at two locations with contrasting exposure to the open lake, and we deployed traps for consecutive three-hour periods at night. Traps with lights were significantly more effective than control traps without lights, consistently collecting hundreds of primarily juvenile H. anomala, with little bycatch. Light-based traps were similarly effective when deployed for any three hour period from 20:00 to 5:00, and traps were more effective when deployed at the protected location. The organisms collected in the traps were similar in demographic composition to the H. anomala collected in concurrent net tows. However, fewer large organisms were collected in the traps, suggesting that this portion of the population may be less attracted to the light-levels used in the traps and/or able to leave the trap.

Assessing the relationship between shape and function in the sensory neurons of larval Drosophila melanogaster

(13) Andrew Kil Colgate University Mentor: Mala Misra Many neurons have highly branched dendrites that process information from other neurons and the environment. Neuronal shape is essential for proper neuronal function. However, this correlation and underlying molecular mechanism are not well understood. Elucidating the nature of relationship between form and function of dendrites in greater detail would provide a better understanding of neuronal development and disease. To investigate the relationship between neuronal shape and function, the pain-sensing class IV dendritic arborization (da) neurons of Drosophila melanogaster (fruit fly) were used a model, because the neurons mediate a behavioral reflex utilized by larvae to evade noxious thermal and mechanical stimuli. This response, an easily interpretable evasive roll, provides an unambiguous read-out of class IV da neuron function. Genetic manipulation of dendritic branching of class IV da neurons was performed using the GAL4/UAS system. From Professor Misra's past work, the loss of function in a protein, Coracle, which is present in epidermal and neuronal cells, can cause mild increase in dendritic branching. The GAL4/UAS system, expression of wild-type and Coracle RNAi was driven in epidermal cells for one experimental group of larvae and neuronal cells for another experimental group of larvae. Based on preliminary data, the Coracle RNAi increased secondary and tertiary dendritic branching in class IV da neurons and caused hypersensitivity in neuronal knockdown of Coracle, but not in epidermal knockdown, suggesting that Coracle may play a larger role in neurons and ultimately that dendritic shape affects function.

Quantum chemical calculations combined with vibrational spectroscopy to investigate adsorbed nitrate on

SiO2 surfaces

(14) Katie Shi Skidmore College Mentor: Juan Navea - Atmospheric nitrate (NO3 ) can interact with aerosol particles, thereby changing its geometry and electron distribution. SiO2, a common component of aerosols, had previously been thought to interact with nitrates only through hydrogen bonding. Chemisorption of nitrates on SiO2 would suggest a greater role for SiO2 in the nitrogen cycle than previously believed. Quantum chemical calculations combined with vibrational spectroscopy were used to investigate the ability of nitrates to chemisorb to SiO2 and to determine whether SiO2 can act as an adsorption site for nitrates in the atmosphere. Different coordination structures of nitrates adsorbing to SiO2 were calculated, and vibrational modes from experimental data of adsorbed nitrates on SiO2 were used to confirm calculated coordination structures.

23 Comparative Analysis of Iron Leached From Nighttime Dissolution of Fly Ash From Different Source Regions

(15) Deborah Kim Skidmore College Mentor: Juan Navea Fly ash, a byproduct of coal-fired power plants, is commonly found in atmospheric aerosol plumes. These particles are rich in iron (II) and (III) oxides and, under the acidic atmospheric condition, they can leach iron and impact the chemical balance of the atmosphere. In particular, it has been hypothesized that Fe (II) leached from aerosols induces phytoplankton blooms in the open ocean, prompting carbon sequestration and global cooling. In this project, the yield and rate of iron leached from fly ash from different source regions has been investigated. Three sources of ash were examined in nighttime conditions: US Midwest, Northeast India, and European ash. It was found that Midwestern fly ash leaches more iron at a faster rate than either Indian or European fly ash.

The Effects of Custom-Synthesized and Commercially Available Cerium Oxide Nanoparticles on the Healthspan of Caenorhabditis elegans.

(16) Brittany Cuff St. Lawrence University Mentor: Ana Estevez Free radicals are reactive biomolecules that are present in virtually all cells. At high concentrations, they can become harmful and induce oxidative stress. To combat this, many organisms contain an endogenous antioxidant system that protects cells against free radicals. If free radical production exceeds the cells ability to neutralize them, cell death can occur. Free radical accumulation has been involved in the pathology of many neurodegenerative diseases; however, there are currently no exogenous antioxidant therapies clinically available to treat these disorders. Currently, cerium oxide nanoparticles are being tested as a potential therapeutic antioxidant. However, studies have also reported toxic effects of these nanoparticles, thus more research is needed to understand these biological effects before they can have widespread clinical use. The aim of this present study was to test the hypothesis that chemical synthesis of the nanoparticles and their ability to aggregate can alter these effects in vivo. We hypothesized that because of their small size and monodispersion, the custom-synthesized Cerion NRx nanoparticles would be most effective on maintaining the healthspan of C. elegans, in comparison to the commercially synthesized particles. To assess healthspan, five different behavioral assays were used to test various physiological functions. Overall, the results of the behavioral assays showed the cerium oxide nanoparticles had no harmful effect on healthspan. However, for the acute stress thermotolerance assay, all nanoparticles significantly improved the C. elegans thermotolerance. Our data suggest that these nanoparticles are not toxic and that they may be helpful for combating thermal stress.

Drawing: The Elephant of the Coding Room

(17) Duy Tran and Michael Chavinda Colgate University Mentor: Elodie Fourquet Graphics packages and language features that support non-trivial 2D graphics and animation usually require advanced mathematical and software development knowledge. Computer science courses, therefore, tend to not teach any graphics concept until advanced undergraduate classes. Our project is to create a powerful but simple graphics library that is tailored for introductory courses, which are commonly taught in Python and Java. We draw inspiration from Processing, a programming language and IDE for visual artists and designers. The specialization of Processing makes it difficult to be used as a standard language for instruction, but its declarative approach to graphics operations is an intuitive framework, most approachable to novice programmers. Drawing is done by simple function calls rather than advanced object-oriented approaches, as usually seen in existing packages. The end results are two 2D graphics packages in Python and Java, whose application programming interface are loose subsets of Processing. The Java library uses the default Java AWT and Swing features while the Python library uses

24 a Python binding to the Cairo renderer and Pygame for interaction. Processing code written by students are used as a benchmark to evaluate the consistency of our packages. The images produced by Processing are compared to our packages’ images using the open-source image analysis application called Resemble.js. Our packages support most common 2D graphics and animation operations, and current efforts are focused on reducing dependencies for the Python library and increasing the rigorousness and features of the Java implementation.

Effects of nanoceria on timing in model of Autism

(18) Joseph Licata St. Lawrence University Mentor: Adam Fox Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) affects 1 in 68 children. Individuals with ASD experience time as passing more quickly and with less precision than typically developing same-age peers. These differences in time perception may be related to social and behavioral deficits characteristic of ASD. In this pilot study, the valproic acid (VPA) rat model of ASD was compared with a control group and a second VPA model group treated with cerium oxide nanoparticles prenatally on a task designed to measure timed behavior. The VPA model is linked with increased oxidative stress in the brain. Cerium oxide nanoparticles act as potent antioxidants and neutralize free radicals. There were no significant differences between the three treatment groups across multiple iterations of the task. However, the VPA rats consistently timed intervals faster than the control group, which is promising for future research. Timed behavior for the VPA group treated with cerium oxide nanoparticles was similar to the VPA group.

Women's Loss in Post-Conflict Zones

(19) MacKenzie Neeson Colgate University Mentor: Peter Bedford My research looks at what existing tools are available to understand women’s position immediately after conflict has ended. Increasingly, religion is developed as an external factor to help characterize a society and how women’s position may be situated. Traditionally, a women’s life in a post-conflict zone is reduced to a question of rights. Does she or does she not have rights? Religion plays a huge factor in this, especially when it allows researchers to make claims about entire societies while reducing it to one aspect. The question of whether or not women have rights is not the right question to ask; it’s not particularly beneficial to those women, nor does it help paint an accurate picture of a suffering human life. Women frequently negotiate their own rights in the context of war, and increasingly do so in the period immediately following war.

Logic and Truth: The Nature of Logic and its Important Insight into Metaphysical and Mathematical Thinking

(20) Qingyue Pan St. Lawrence University Mentor: Laura Rediehs Beginning with Aristotle, logic has been defined as the study of processes whereby a statement follows necessarily from other statements. It was not until late nineteenth century that the systematic organization of logic was revolutionized by Gottlob Frege, who attempted to show the logical connection between mathematics and deductive reasoning. In Principia Mathematica, Bertrand Russell and Alfred Whitehead went further to claim that mathematical thinking could be grounded in pure logic. Ultimately, Kurt Gödel proved that no finite axiom system can be both consistent and complete. This proof challenged the work of earlier mathematicians, who have long assumed that mathematics could be captured by laws of pure symbol manipulation. Nevertheless, logic remains a popular discipline among philosophical circles. More philosophical students in present days, especially those of analytic school, show a strange predisposition towards what T.S. Eliot refers to as “imitation mathematicians”, and futile efforts have been made to push logic beyond its expressiveness and intended purpose. In my project, I

25 analyzed the role of logic in philosophical investigations and made a list of misapplications of logic. I also examined the goal of metaphysics and evaluated to what extent the study of logic is unable to illuminate metaphysical discoveries. Furthermore, I critiqued the modern tendency of preferring logical techniques over other philosophical methods among analytic philosophers, and eventually, with Plato and Kant, I placed a rank between philosophical and mathematical reasoning and answered why philosophers should not try to become “imitation mathematicians”.

Biofilm Formation in Response to Tetracycline

(21) Autumn Rolack St. Lawrence University Mentor: Lorraine Olendzenski Biofilms are growth habits that allow bacteria to adhere to abiotic and biotic surfaces. The structure of biofilms, which is composed of extracellular polymeric substances, allows for exchange of nutrients, chemical signals, and genetic material. These characteristics can increase the bacteria’s resistance to antibiotics and antimicrobial compounds, ultimately increasing viability. The presence of biofilms has become a great concern in medical communities because of their ability to form on implanted devices and cause infection in patients. This study focuses on the effects of tetracycline on biofilm formation in tetracycline resistant soil bacteria from a dairy farm. It was determined that twelve of the eighteen isolates showed adequate growth rates. After the isolates were assayed, using crystal violet, seven showed a significant difference between the mean amounts of biofilm formed in the absence or presence of 30µg/ml tetracycline. Isolates D9 and D25 showed an increase in biofilm formation in the absence of tetracycline. Isolates D3, D7, D11, D22, and D28 showed an increase in biofilm formation in the presence of 30µg/ml tetracycline.

Proactive Interference with Positive Words

(22) Juliana Boucher Skidmore College Mentor: Faye Knickerbocker Proactive interference (PI) is the hindrance of the recall of current information by older information, typically observed when recalling the same category of stimuli across several trials. Release from PI is the spontaneous recovery of recall ability. Previous research found that shifting between neutral, emotion, and emotion-laden categories of words led to release from PI, (Knickerbocker & Altarriba, 2013). This work only incorporated words with strong negative emotional associations in the emotion and emotion-laden conditions. The current study attempted to replicate the previous findings utilizing neutral, positive emotion, and positive emotion-laden categories. Emotion words represent states of mind that can actually be experienced (e.g., happy), while emotion- laden word represent concepts that have emotional associations (e.g., marriage).

Measurement of CPE from Serum-Derived Exosomes

(23) David Freeman Hamilton College Mentor: Anne Breggia Caroxypeptidase E (CPE) and an accompanying N-truncated isoform (CPE-ΔN), have been implicated as putative predictors of tumor metastasis in many cancer patients1-3. However, to date these results have been restricted to solid tumor samples. Utilization of CPE as a practical biomarker requires the extrapolation of these previous results to blood samples. In recent years, exosomes, small excretory vesicles, have allowed researchers to measure RNA concentrations from blood. This study sought to: 1) determine the feasibility of measuring CPE from cancer patients’ blood serum; and 2) produce a replicable methodology for RNA extraction from serum-derived exosomes. Preliminary analysis of a revised protocol using ExoCapTM Composite Beads (JSR, Sunnyvale, CA) suggests that RNA can be extracted from exosomes over a time period of 5 hours up to 3 days depending on varying incubation

26 times. Furthermore, there was no statistically significant difference between the RNA concentrations extracted from fresh or frozen samples (p>0.6). However, the revised protocol qRT-PCR protocol was unable to detect CPE in cancer patients despite amplification of other genes. These preliminary results lead us to believe that given the current approach, we cannot accurately detect CPE levels. However, we remain optimistic that given further revisions to the protocol in addition to a larger cohort of patients we may still uncover an efficient manner to measure CPE levels via blood.

Gone but Not Forgotten: Testing Legacies of Invasive Tree Species on Soil Chemistry

(24) Kathryn Peterson Skidmore College Mentor: Jeffrey Corbin Black locust is a nitrogen-fixing tree that, though it is native to Pennsylvania, is a relatively new invader into the Albany Pine Bush ecosystem. This nitrogen-fixing tree can change the soil chemistry and transform this unique, sandy, and naturally low-nutrient area. Various restoration methods including tree cutting and burning have been conducted over the past 16 years to eradicate black locust from the Preserve. While the methods have reduced the number of black locust in the area, the nitrogen they put into the soil may stay behind, as a legacy of their invasion. We sampled the soil at 51 sites in the Albany Pine Bush Preserve in order to determine whether black locust leaves a legacy even after it has been removed, and if so which restoration methods are most effective in reducing any legacy. We compared soil nitrogen between three different kinds of sites (uninvaded, black locust invaded, and restored sites). We hypothesized that: 1) Soil nitrogen will be highest in invaded sites; and 2) Soil nitrogen levels in the restored sites will vary depending on the amount of time since restoration occurred and the frequency of controlled burns at a sample site. Our findings will help the Pine Bush Preserve determine the most effective restoration method in dealing with black locust. In finding a more powerful treatment, the preserve will be able to better prevent one of New York’s unique ecosystems from disappearing.

The Effectiveness of the St. Lawrence University Stormwater Retention Pond

(25) Amanda Tucker St. Lawrence University Mentor: Lorraine Olendzenski Stormwater retention ponds are built to ensure that extra nutrients and organic matter are not released into larger bodies of freshwater (Heathwaite, 2010). The construction of the St. Lawrence University’s Science building created a need for a stormwater retention pond to obey the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). The objective of my study was to understand if the St. Lawrence University stormwater retention pond is still working effectively, obeying all the DEC requirements, after construction eight years ago. I measured and compared abiotic physical parameters and nutrient levels in the St. Lawrence University stormwater pond to a previous study done by Kondratowicz (2007). Total phosphate levels are significantly higher in 2007 compared to levels in 2015 (p=0.002) and the phosphate levels going out of the pond has a trend of being lower in 2007 compared to 2015 (p=0.107). Chlorophyll a was significantly higher going out of the pond in 2007 compared to 2015 (p= 0.032.) Secondly, I compared abiotic physical parameters and nutrient levels from the retention pond to mean concentrations required by the DEC guidelines. I found an average of 0.10 total phosphate at the outlet of the pond and 0.13 total phosphate in the stormwater pond, which is below the national median concentration for stormwater ponds according to the DEC. However, forty percent of total phosphate was not removed from the pond as water moved out, which is not in regulation. Thirdly, I looked at the microbial community (phytoplankton and zooplankton) of the retention pond. This information will be used to compare the biology of the pond after remediation. Fourthly, the pond’s discharge rate (m3/s) into the Little River is approximately 0.0029 m3 s-1 and the turnover rate is 6.245 m3 in one day. Fifthly, I sampled three other drainage basins to compare to the data. There was a significantly higher chlorophyll a count in the stormwater pond than two other sites sampled (p=0.001). One spot in particular in the stormwater pond was significantly lower in percent dissolved oxygen than all other sample sites (0.000). The stormwater pond has some areas turning anaerobic, meaning the pond is not working effectively and needs remediation.

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Electrochemical Peroxidation of Hydraulic Fracturing Waste Water Streams Using Fenton’s Reagent

(26) Stephen Grow St. Lawrence University Mentor: Matthew Skeels As a method of extracting petroleum products, hydraulic fracturing has exploded in popularity due to technological advances in the past 25 years. Its increase in popularity has also led to the production of extremely high volumes of potentially toxic wastewater. Fenton’s chemistry has the potential to safely, cheaply and, efficiently clean these wastewater streams for not only environmental but also human use. To model wastewater created by hydraulic fracturing a methylene blue dye solution was created ( 3.8x10-5M) to be analyzed using UV/Vis spectroscopy. As the Fenton reaction is carried out and hydroxyl radicals are produced, the color of the solution fades allowing reaction efficacy to be measured. By varying conditions such as pH and concentration, the kinetics profiles of free iron, hematite, magnetite and EDTA performing the Fenton reaction were created to enhance the reaction process and optimize wastewater treatment.

Effects of Antidepressants and a Serotonin Agonist on Nitrite Release in RAW 264.7 and Primary Glial Cell Cultures

(27) Jillian Belgrad Colgate University Mentor: Jun Yoshino Glial cells are an essential component of the central nervous system and work to support, nourish and regulate neurons. Microglia, the resident immune cell of the brain, and astrocytes, important in repairing damaged tissue following neuronal injury, are two major types of glial cells. During an immune response in the brain, the NF-kß signaling pathway is triggered increasing the transcription of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) resulting in higher levels of the proinflammatory NO molecule. Proinflammatory cytokine levels are also higher in the brains of people with Major Depressive Disorder during a period of depression. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) and tricyclic (TCA) antidepressants may be affecting this immune response. Past studies have shown that the SSRI, fluoxetine (FLX), may act as a serotonin (5HT) agonist, thereby activating the serotonin receptor. Given that FLX might be acting as an agonist for serotonin receptors, the 5HT-2A, 5HT-2B and 5HT-2C receptor agonist, meta- Chlorophenylpiperazine (mCPP), was also investigated. We show that FLX, TCA Nortriptyline, and mCPP treatments caused an increase in nitrite release from primary mixed glial cultures. However, in RAW 264.7 cells, FLX and mCPP treatments caused a decrease in nitrite release. While the mechanism of this neuronal immune response is unknown, the astrocytes in the mixed glial cultures may be secreting a factor following activation of 5HT receptors that could affect the synthesis of iNOS in the microglia, thus causing the increased nitrite release.

The Introduction of a Fabry-Perot into a Raman System

(28) Isabel Bogacz St. Lawrence University Mentor: Adam Hill Raman spectroscopy characterizes the vibrations of materials, revealing what product was made in a synthesis, or how a molecule changes during a reaction. This experiment worked towards measuring the Raman spectra of heterobimetallic materials with catalytic applications using a 405 nm excitation source. A Fabry-Pérot interferometer was built and incorporated into the system to improve the quality of the exciting light source, allowing for the collection of good-quality spectra from a multi-mode source.

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Fluidization of Ejected Material from Northern Hemisphere Martian Impact Craters

(29) Brendan Sheehan Colgate University Mentor: Nadine Barlow Sinuosity and extent of layered ejecta blankets of 5,759 Martian northern hemisphere impact craters are measured using images from the Mars Odyssey mission, in attempt to better understand formation of these layered ejecta blankets and volatile concentrations in the northern hemisphere of Mars. The quantifiable parameters measuring sinuosity and ejecta extent are lobateness and ejecta mobility, respectively, which can shed light on relative amounts of subsurface and atmospheric volatile chemicals as well as the formation mechanism of different impact crater morphologies. We tested for variation in lobateness and ejecta mobility against crater diameter, latitude, elevation, and local albedo for three different crater morphologies, and saw no statistically significant variations. These results largely agree with prior studies, and in context suggest three key conclusions: separating impact craters by layered ejecta blanket morphology can help better understand crater formation and relative volatile concentrations; layered ejecta blankets are generally formed by impact into ice-rich terrain, with atmospheric water vapor playing a secondary role to subsurface ice; and lack of latitudinal variation in lobateness and ejecta mobility points to a very deep (deeper than 500 m) water-ice reservoir that is roughly homogenous throughout Martian geography.

Clinical Response to Variance in Stereotactic Radiation Dosimetry

(30) Jonah Kudler-Flam Colgate University Mentor: Michael Yunes Stereotactic Radiosurgery (SRS) and Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy (SBRT) are focused, high-energy photon beam radiation therapies delivered by Linear Accelerators (LINACs) that are used to treat functional disorders, abnormalities, and tumors in the brain, lungs, and spine. SRS and SBRT are used when a patient’s condition appears inoperable. Stereotactic Radiation works the same as all other forms or radiation treatments, only the radiation beams are significantly more focused and of higher energy, usual requiring only a single fraction of treatment. The summation of the radiation waves distort the DNA of the tumor cells causing the cells to be unable to reproduce and retain fluid. Using the three-dimensional modeling in the treatment planning software “Brainlab” and advanced immobilization equipment, SRS and SBRT are extremely effective at minimizing the radiation that passes through healthy cells not associated with the tumor. Higher dosages to non-associated cells are unfavorable due to the damaging effects on cell DNA. This research examines the associated correlations of the stereotactic radiation dosimetry parameters of V100, D100, Dmax/Rx, Tumor Size against long-term and short-term clinical outcomes for Acoustic Neuromas, Brain Metastases, and Lung Cancers. The results provide insight for dosimetrists and medical physicists who will conduct future treatment planning for SRS and SBRT candidates.

Schools in Sin City: The Las Vegas Education Machine and Its Operations in the Casino-Oriented Environment

(31) Bobae Kang Colgate University Mentor: Nancy Ries While the glitz of Las Vegas has attracted great attention from all around the world, few studies have been conducted to look beyond the rapid economic growth or the semiotic significance of the Strip. This study seeks to illuminate the actual state of affairs in Las Vegas, and examines its local education in relation with the predominant presence of the casino-entertainment industry. More precisely, this study focuses on the media and mechanisms through which the operations of casinos shape those of the local education in Las Vegas especially since its casino- driven economic expansion in the late 1980s. In this study, based on Gille Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s ontological framework, as well as that of Levi Bryant, Las Vegas education is understood as a machine that operates by drawing

29 and extracting various flows from its environment. Four such flows, or media, are identified and analyzed: students, educators, resources, and information. This study then describes how particular characteristics of each flow results from the operations of casino-entertainment industry in Las Vegas, and presents specific challenges to the local education and its operations as well as the local education’s responses to such challenges.

Garlic Mustard Management in the Adirondack Park

(32) Matthew Wolford Union College Mentor: Jeff Corbin As an unintended consequence of globalization, non-native species of flora and fauna have spread around the globe. Some have experienced explosive growth at a cost to the biodiversity and economy of local ecosystems. One example of this is the introduction of garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) into forest habitats in eastern North America. Garlic mustard is capable of forming dense populations and reducing abundance of plants normally found in forest understories. In the fall of 2006, The Nature Conservancy identified a new invasion of garlic mustard along a road leading into the Adirondack Park, NY. They began hand pulling adult, flowering plants each spring between 2007 & 2012, in the hope that this would reduce or eradicate the population. In 2007 we established 82 20-m transects along the 13km road where garlic mustard was found. Distance between transects ranged from 0.1 to 0.4 km. Each spring before hand-pulling was conducted, we counted the number of garlic mustard adults in each transect. We found that the population exhibited a strong 2-year cycle, in which population density alternated between high and low years that were relatively unrelated to the hand-pulling. However, we also found that the hand pulling of adult plants was unable to significantly reduce the garlic mustard populations of transects during the study period. The Nature Conservancy’s efforts to control the population ceased in 2012, and our survey in 2015 indicated that the population has, indeed, increased in that time. Overall, our study suggests that even 5 years of treatment by The Nature Conservancy’s were not sufficient to eradicate the garlic mustard population. However, the Nature Conservancy’s decision not to continue treatment may have been justified, as only modest gains in population size, and relatively little spread into the forest from the roadside, were seen in the years after control ceased.

The Influence of pH on the Cation Exchange of Aluminum With Iron in Humic Acids

(33) Jaya Borgatta Skidmore College Mentor: Juan Navea Humic acids (HA) are complex organic molecules found in soil and atmospheric aerosols. HAs are chelating and redox agents that can form interactions with metals. In this study, the chelation of Fe (II) and Fe (III) was observed in different acidic media. The iron-HA complex was then reacted with an excess of aluminium to observe iron recovery. An effective chelation of aqueous phase iron with humic acids was observed, with aqueous iron removed from aqueous phase into a HA complex. In addition, the redox properties of humic acids showed a fraction of iron (III) was reduced into the more bioavailable iron (II). Cation exchange with aluminium suggested that bioavailable iron (II) ions chelate with HULIS in a combination of exchangeable and inexchangable iron. In addition, lower pHs increased the amount of free iron.

Exploring the Efficacy of Community Water Fluoridation for Improved Public Health

(34) James Robbins Hamilton College Mentor: Herman Lehman In March of 2015, legislation for community water fluoridation for improved oral health was defeated at the polls for the seventh time in Bennington town history. In addition to public health officials, scientists, and medical and dental clinicians, the debate over water fluoridation attracted myriad Bennington residents who were concerned with the safety, effectiveness, cost, and ethics of its practice. Bennington is a town of approximately 9,000 residents located in the southwest corner of Vermont. According to 2009-2013 census data, 21% of Bennington residents live below the poverty line, compared to a rate of only 11.8% in the entire state of Vermont. Similarly, the median

30 household income in Bennington is $36,170, which is almost exactly two-thirds of the median household income for the state of Vermont. Needless to say, many Bennington residents lack the capability to finance the high cost of oral healthcare and thus comprise an at-risk population for poor oral health. Therefore, Bennington served as an opportune portal for examining a critical demographic of this public health debate. Because the study of public health is inherently multidisciplinary, this study of community water fluoridation was conducted by reviewing a spectrum of resources, such as government documents, scientific literature, census data, economic reviews, and Internet blogs, and by conducting interviews with figureheads of anti-fluoridation networks and government- employed public health officials. Moreover, the efficacy of public health measures often hinges on the convictions of the people to whom the measures are directed. Therefore, this research was also informed by the testimonies of financially disadvantaged members of the Bennington community who have had to forgo oral healthcare to afford food and clothing for themselves and their families and who were thus made to suffer decades of pain, nutritional compromise, and social estrangement from their poor oral health.

Synthetic Investigation of Diels Alder Reactions with α-β Unsaturated Ketones

(35) Lauren Soong Skidmore College Mentor: Kara Cetto Bales α-β Unsaturated ketones are often used as precursors to form highly substituted cyclohexene compounds that have various functions ranging from antimicrobials and pain relievers, to preservatives. Because of their ubiquity in every-day applications, the goal of this research is to develop innovative synthetic methods for these compounds using inexpensive and readily available materials. Our group has recently synthesized a cyclohexene compound and have conducted studies that show it to be an effective fungicide. As such, we are investigating the synthesis of a similar product and our developments will be discussed in detail.

Synthesis and Purification of an Agriculturally Relevant Molecule

(36) Nicholas Friedman Skidmore College Mentor: Kara Cetto Bales Organic synthesis allows for molecules with biomedical and industrial applications to be produced from readily available materials. This project is focused on investigating the synthesis and purification of a molecule of potential relevance to the agricultural industry. Previous work in our group has shown this compound to effectively inhibit the growth of pathogenic fungi. The current goal is to discover if this compound promotes plant growth, as structurally similar compounds are known to exhibit this behavior. Before testing the compound as a plant-growth promoter, the method of isolation must be improved to obtain biological grade product in quantities suitable for treating plants. Isolating the synthesized molecule from newly detected impurities has proved challenging. The progress of our isolation and purification methods will be discussed.

Synthetic Investigation of a Highly Substituted Cyclohexene Compound

(37) Justin O'Sullivan Skidmore College Mentor: Kara Cetto Bales Organic synthesis holds an essential role in the creation of complex molecules with a variety of applications from pharmaceuticals to agriculture. Often, expensive reagents and complex reaction schemes are necessary. Our group is interested in a class of highly substituted cyclohexene compounds that can behave as anti-fungal agents, and are used as fragrances and preservatives. Our research attempts to develop inexpensive and time efficient methods for the synthesis of these materials. We have recently optimized a one-step synthesis of a compound that shows promise as an anti-microbial agent. Our current project seeks to develop a method to prepare a structurally similar compound which may also possess these properties. Preliminary studies suggest that this may be challenging due to the nature of the starting material.

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Calculating the Nielsen Number on the Double Torus

(38) Ha Vu Colgate University Mentor: Evelyn Hart Nielsen theory is a branch of mathematical research in topology. The Nielsen number is the number of Nielsen classes of fixed points of a continuous function from a topological space to another. There have been intensive research about algorithms to calculate the Nielsen number for different topological spaces, but none has been completed for the Double Torus. In this research, we developed methods to identify Reidermeister equivalences in the Fox Trace for specific forms of homomorphisms in the fundamental group of the Double torus, which results in the completion of an algorithm to find the Nielsen number for such cases.

Is Vitamin C Necessary for Proper Growth and Development in Manduca sexta?

(39) Alex Jones, Osaruese Odeh and Ryan Hobson Hamilton College Mentor: Herm Lehman Ascorbic acid (AA) – commonly known as Vitamin C – is an enzymatic cofactor and antioxidant with many physiological functions that include synthesis of collagen, carnitine, tyrosine, and neurotransmitters, mediation of hypoxia, and modulation of immune function. Moreover, many organisms, including humans, primates, guinea pigs, and most invertebrates, are unable to synthesize AA; thus, this vitamin is essential for proper growth and development of cells and organisms (Kramer, 1982). However, it is not clear how AA promotes and supports early development. Based upon this and other background knowledge, we have characterized the role of AA in the growth, development, and metabolism of M. sexta using a series of feeding experiments. In addition, AA is necessary for the proper synthesis of the neurotransmitter octopamine (OA) and OA plays a role in growth and development (Lehman et al., 2000; Ohhara et al., 2014); therefore, we have tested the notion that the absence of AA results in diminished OA levels that lead to diminished growth. Indeed, the presence of OA in an AA deficient diet appeared to partially rescue the lack of growth present in AA deficient animals. The OA synthetic enzyme tyramine- β-hydroxylase is inhibited by the catecholaminergic antagonist nepicastat (NEP). Our results also suggest that the presence of NEP in a diet containing AA appeared to hinder growth in M. sexta reared on such a diet. Increasing the concentrations of OA and NEP in our feeding experiments may reveal a more robust effect. Future studies will focus on the cellular and molecular events that underlie the importance of AA in animal growth.

Disrupting Protein Interactions in Spinocerebellar Ataxia Type 1

(40) Donna Nguyen and Spencer Lowry Skidmore College Mentor: Sarita Lagalwar Spinocerebellar Ataxia type 1 (SCA1) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by the degradation of cerebellar Purkinje cells and results in problems with coordination and gait. It can also result in loss of fine motor skills, speech, and swallowing. SCA1 is progressive disease and usually proves to be fatal within 20 years after the first symptoms start to appear. SCA1 usually shows genetic anticipation within a family, meaning that SCA1 symptoms will appear earlier than the previous generation. SCA1 is caused by a poly-CAG extension in the ATXN1 gene which, leads to a build-up of misfolded ATXN1 protein in the nucleus. When ATXN1 protein is phosphorylated it binds to 14-3-3, which stabilizes it. R18 inhibits 14-3-3 ligand interactions, preventing ATXN1 stabilization, leading to a possible treatment for SCA-1. In order to determine the effects of R18, cerebelli were removed from 4 mice, separated into cytoplasmic and nuclear fractions and treated with and without R18. Western Blots were used to detect the protein bands. The ataxin-1 protein did not appear, making the effects of R18 inconclusive.

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The Processing of Blend Words in Visual Word Recognition

(41) Sarah Rose Slate Skidmore College Mentor: Rebecca Johnson Previous research has found that blend words (a word made up of two separate words; e.g., spork) are processed more slowly than non-blend words in a lexical decision task. The present study examined whether there are significant differences in accuracy and speed in the vocalization of blend words versus non-blend words. Participants were randomly shown blend words and matched control words and asked to speak the word into a microphone as quickly as possible. Reaction time was recorded and measured both manually by examining waveforms and electronically by microphone. Blend words were significantly slower to name than their matched control words on both measurements. Blend word accuracy was also significantly lower. The results suggest that blend words are more difficult to process than non-blend words.

Terroir and the Culture of Local, Sustainable Food Ways: Predicting and Protecting the Future of Food in NYS

(42) Emily Moschowits Hamilton College Mentor: Alex Plakias This project is the culmination of my food filled summer. I have traveled far and near trying to understand what the future holds for the fate of our food. I lived in upstate, getting to know my local farmers, trying to maximize my food experiences, learning to maneuver farmers markets and local restaurants. I spent two weeks in Italy, the Mecca of the Slow Food world, trying to understand their food culture and look for clues as to why it is so much more favorable for local agriculture. I even took an “unrelated” trip to Iceland, which ended up providing me with more ideas for the future of food than anyone would probably have expected. Overall, what I found surprised me. My project detail lessons I’ve learned throughout my journeys and ideas I gathered from experts along the way.

Metagenomic Characterization of Bacteria Belonging to the Candidate Phylum Atribacteria (OP9/JS1) in Sediments of Green Lake

(43) Eric Nieminen Hamilton College Mentor: Michael McCormick Green Lake in Fayetteville, NY was formed 13,000 years ago by a glacial waterfall that carved out this 175-foot deep basin. The lake is meromictic, divided into two distinct and non-mixing layers. The top layer, the mixolimnion, experiences seasonal turnover and is oxygenated but nutrient-poor. The bottom layer, or monomolimnion is anoxic, nutrient-rich, and sulfidic. The boundary between these two layers, called the chemocline, exhibits a dramatic shift in lake chemistry within a short depth range. The microbial populations also exhibit dramatic shifts in composition that reflect the changes in chemistry. This summer we sampled the entire water column and collected a sediment core for geochemical and DNA analysis of lake water, pore water, and sediments. Prior work in our lab quantified the relative abundance of 16s genes in Green Lake sediments and showed Atribacteria to be the dominant microbial taxa with the relative abundance of Atribacteria increasing with depth (29% of all sequences at 30 cm sediment depth). Shotgun sequences acquired from this same depth were processed using the publically available metagenomic analysis tools provided by Argonne National Laboratory (MG-RAST). A large fraction of the metabolic genes appear to be associated with carbohydrate processing and fermentation. This is consistent with recent genomic studies of Atribacteria that suggest a possible role in hemicellulose hydrolysis and fermentation of sugar monomers. Sediment cores from Green Lake occasionally show horizons that appear to contain pulpy/fibrous material presumed to be wood degradation products. In this work we compare our metagenomic data to the

33 metabolic models proposed in these prior genomic studies and speculate on the function of Atribacteria in the carbon cycle of Green Lake.

Tyramine β- Hydroxylase- Related Protein: An Agent in Search of a Mission

(44) John Bianco Hamilton College Mentor: Herman Lehman Hydroxylation is a vital post-translational modification for protein activation, solubility, and hormone synthesis. Copper type II ascorbate-dependent monooxygenases are a class of hydroxylating enzymes requiring copper as a cofactor, ascorbate as an electron donor, and oxidizing specific substrates leading to the hydroxylation of the product (Prigge et al., 2000). Members of this enzyme class include dopamine β-hydroxylase (DBh), tyramine β- hydroxylase (TBh), and peptidylglycine alpha-amidating monooxygenase (PAM) (Southan & Kruse, 1989, Robertson et al., 1994, Monastirioti et al., 1996, Kolhekar et al., 1997). Our laboratory described a family of invertebrate genes encoding proteins with high similarity to TBh. For example, Drosophila TBh is 32% identical to Drosophila tyramine β-hydroxylase-related protein (TBHR). Vertebrate proteins, similar to TBHR, have been described. Human monooxygenase X (MOX) encodes a protein 25% similar to human DBh (Chambers et al., 1998). There is a high degree of similarity between DBh/TBh and MOX/TBhR; including, 14 conserved Cys residues involving disulfide bonds, 5 His residues and a Met residue necessary for copper binding, and two Tyr resides for enzymatic activity (Lehman et al, in prep). We speculated TBhR plays a role in cellular proliferation and examined the influence of a TBhR inhibitor on Drosophila S2 cell proliferation. Results suggest no differences between S2 cells treated with a vehicle control and Nepicastat, an alleged TBhR inhibitor. Results indicate Nepicastat did not affect cell death rates using confocal microscopy methods. This leads us to believe TBhR does not influence cell proliferation and are exploring putative functions of this protein family.

Maybe Your Body is Telling You Something: The Association Between Circadian Rhythms and Physical Activity

(45) Gian Sepulveda, Gillian Murray and Ellen Hutchinson Colgate University Mentor: Krista Ingram The focus of our research was on the human circadian rhythm and its effect on workout performance. To clarify, various daily physiological processes are influenced by the circadian rhythm, also referred to as the body’s internal clock. Several peripheral clocks exist in humans and these clocks are governed by the “master clock”, also known as the SCN (suprachiasmatic nucleus). The oscillations in the expression of certain “clock genes” such as Period3 and Nr1d2 control this internal clock. Individuals exhibit different rhythms/oscillations of these genes and therefore experience different timings of their everyday activities. Thus, humans often display a preference for activity in either the morning (larks) or the evening (owls). Here, we aim at understanding the differences in physiological performances during workouts while considering chronotypes, genotypes, and the rhythmic expression of clock genes. Participants were asked to complete a morningness-eveningness questionnaire (MEQ) and a survey with questions regarding their workout (i.e. tiredness, hardness, duration) (See 1). After the brief survey, the participants consented to a DNA hair pull (See 2). Furthermore, depending on the score of their MEQ, “extreme” participants were chosen to collect hair follicle samples for observing their expression of the clock genes (See 3). Participants were then asked to complete a second survey after a workout during the opposite time of day (i.e. If the first survey was filled out during the morning, we asked the participant to complete the second survey post-afternoon workout). Using the data from both surveys, DNA from the hair pull, and the RNA samples from the select participants, we aimed to find associations between the participants workout preference and genotypes,, in addition to their rhythmic gene expression.

34 Hard and Thermal Photon Absorption in a Quark-Gluon Plasma and Hadron Gas

(46) Eric Palmerduca Colgate University Mentor: Rainer Fries The direct photon spectrum in nuclear collisions is of interest as it holds information such as the temperature of the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) and of the hot hadron gas (HG) created. Re-interactions between emitted photons and the medium are often omitted in calculations due to the assumption that these photons’ mean free path is significantly longer than the spatial dimensions of the fireball. This study tests the validity of this assumption by modeling hard and thermal photon reabsorption in a rapidly expanding and cooling fireball. Thermal photon production rates, calculated using complete leading order perturbative quantum chromodynamics (pQCD) for QGP and state-of-the- art rates for HG, are used to compute absorption rates of hard and thermal photons. The hot fireball of QGP and HG is simulated by ideal hydrodynamics. The spectrum and elliptic flow of these photons are calculated and compared both to p-p collisions and to data from ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions (URHIC) at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) and the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

“South Africa Belongs to All Who Live in It”: Congolese refugee notions of belonging and social cohesion in Durban

(47) Madison Paulk Colgate University Mentor: Mary Moran This research analyzes findings on notions of belonging, citizenship and social cohesion of Congolese refugees in Durban through the theoretical framework of transnational migration theory and the South African constitution. I argue that although demographically South Africa is a melting pot country, and despite forming livelihoods and networks, the ability for refugees to integrate is seemingly unachievable. This is a result of pervasive structural inequality and pro-nationalism as exhibited by many black South Africans. Data for the study was compiled through ten in-depth interviews with Congolese refugees, along with participant and non-participant observations conducted while interning at the KwaZulu-Natal Refugee Council. The largest themes presented surround issues of a challenging of the South African concept of ‘The Rainbow Nation’, economic instability and structural exclusion as the root causes of xenophobia, notions of belonging and citizenship, interpretations of social cohesion vs. government action toward integration, and a reimagining of ‘home.’ The purpose of this research is not to vilify any specific group as perpetrators of anti-foreigner sentiments, but it is significant in that it underscores the effects of limited remedying of structural inequality and social cohesion initiatives by the State on refugees senses of belonging and identity. Furthermore, in a geopolitical context, this study draws attention to the transnationality of the refugee experience. Limited social cohesion and integration efforts in South Africa has led individuals to feel unwelcomed—they neither belong here nor there, dislocated from home but living on the fringes of social, political and economic life in the host country.

Characterization of the Arabidopsis Serine Hydroxymethyl Transferase Gene Family

(48) Hawer Conteh Hamilton College Mentor: Rajinikanth Mohan SHMT (serine hydroxymethyltransferase) plays an enzymatic role in the cells of all organisms, catalyzing the interconversion of the formation of glycine and a one-carbon side product. The one-carbon product of this reaction is used to make purines, pyrimidines, and N-formyl methionine, which are all necessary materials for constructing DNA and proteins. The enzyme also assists in photorespiration in plants, breaking down a toxic by-product of photosynthesis, phosphoglycolate, into non-toxic products. The model plant, Arabidopsis has seven genes (isoforms) for SHMT. SHMT1 is involved in photorespiration, but the function of the other six genes, some of which are involved in one-carbon metabolism, is less clear). In our study, phylogenetic analysis and prediction of subcellular

35 localization revealed that these seven genes are clustered into four different groups distinguished by their subcellular localization. As the next step, the function of the Arabidopsis SHMTs will be characterized using knock-out mutants. This will enable us to understand the different functions of SHMT enzymes that have evolved in plants.

Effect of Subminimal Inhibitory Concentrations of Antibiotics on Biofilm Forming Bacteria

(49) Cadence Trapini St. Lawrence University Mentor: Lorraine Olendzenski Although antibiotics have been historically used to inhibit bacterial growth, recent studies have found that antibiotics also function as signaling molecules to initiate regulation of homeostasis in bacteria. In the presence of antibiotics, certain bacteria have been found to produce biofilms as a regulatory response. Biofilms are extracellular secretions of polysaccharides and proteins that help protect aggregates of bacteria from the host and antibiotics, and also allow them to adhere to various surfaces. Biofilm producing bacteria are often responsible for causing chronic infections such as upper respiratory infections, sinusitis, ear infections, and device-related infections. This study focuses on 26 different bacterial isolates obtained from pig farm soils in Northern New York, and which have been found to produce biofilms. To determine the effects of different doses of antibiotics on biofilm formation, these isolates were grown in the presence of therapeutic and subtherapeutic doses of tetracycline, as well as in the absence of tetracycline. Of the 26 isolates, 6 were found to exhibit a hormetic response, producing significantly more biofilm at low doses of tetracycline when compared to treatments of high doses of tetracycline and the absence of tetracycline.

Development of an Automated Fluorescence Detection Device Using Microfluidic Chips and Raspberry Pi®

(50) Kelly Cantwell and Julie Bryant Skidmore College Mentor: Kimberley Frederick Traditional scientific equipment is not practical for use in under resourced areas; it is expensive, delicate, and immobile. Microfluidic devices have re-invented lab instruments in both size and needs. Unlike many of the instruments used in laboratories, microfluidic platforms use significantly less sample, and analysis can be done on site. Our lab is working to develop an automated, inexpensive, and portable “Lab-on-a-CD-player.” This device will be compact enough to take into the field, and will have a user-friendly interface, allowing people with little to no prior training to operate it with ease. Using a Raspberry Pi, we are able to create a centrifugal microfluidic platform which will detect fluorescence in samples and can be used in many capacities—from detecting malaria to monitoring water for contaminants.

A Community Based Approach to Trauma Healing and Advocacy in Nakivale Refugee Settlement, Uganda

(51) Emily Luba Colgate University Mentor: Ellen Kraly This research highlights the resilience and agency of individuals from Nakivale Refugee Settlement in Southwestern Uganda. Its objectives are to: (1) analyze how refugees cope with trauma though occupying themselves with activities such as art, athletics, faith and business in Nakivale and (2) examine how these occupations are used as platforms for advocacy by refugees in the settlement. The arts, athletics, faith and/or business additionally can also act as platforms to spread awareness: (1) for advocacy surrounding social issues and (2) for expression of the refugee experience. It is important to note these awareness platforms can also assist with trauma healing, as it is common to gain personal benefits while bringing benefits to the larger community. Causes which groups and individuals work for include promotion of education, prioritization of health (including HIV/AIDs prevention), gender equality (such as ending gender-based violence and sexual gender-based violence), and positive values.

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A Culture of Respect

(52) Joy Gitter (HWS) and Dylan Colbert (Skidmore) Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Skidmore College Mentor: Jack Harris This project consists of three deliverables: a ten-thousand-word narrative detailing the history of human rights struggles for various groups the research area; a database listing the geographic and contact information, as well as service beneficiaries and service types, for over 450 organizations; and an interactive GIS map of the aforementioned organizations. A Culture of Respect is meant to provide a working resource for educators and community members to further integrate the complex histories various groups’ fight for equality and rights while providing tangible resources to continue the current human rights related work being done. The narrative found that, as national discourses increased in ease and speed, human rights initiatives became more interconnected across geographies, with more concerted efforts and agendas beginning to phase out strategies and leaders unique to cities or small regions. Both the narrative and database (and, subsequently, the map) reaffirmed that concentrated areas of population coincided with concentrated human rights efforts: by far the densest areas of both people and resources in the region are in the Rochester, Syracuse, and Albany areas. New York’s pre-Civil War history also shows large amounts of collaboration between human rights groups, especially between abolitionists, suffragettes, and religious groups.

The Effect of Garlic Mustard, Alliaria petiolata, on Soil Respiration (Poster #1)

(53) Samantha Mengual and Daniel O’Shea Hamilton College Mentor: William Pfitsch As invasive species become a more devastating problem, ecologists are turning their attention to ecosystem structure and how invasives influence understory composition. As a widespread and almost uncontrollable herbaceous plant, garlic mustard has been invading North American landscapes since 1868. Previous studies are unresolved regarding whether garlic mustard negatively or positively impacts understory vegetation growth. Garlic mustard, or Alliaria petiolata, both enhances soil isotope levels, which are essential to plant growth, and disturbs mycorrhizal fungi symbiosis with woody plants. At the beginning of our summer research, we hypothesized that garlic mustard would increase soil decomposition by adding to soil chemical compounds and increasing the understory community. To measure soil decomposition we sampled for soil moisture, organic matter, soil isotopes, and respiration. Therefore, higher soil decomposition should result in higher respiration values. We sampled seven stands of 30m2 containing plots with varying abundance of garlic mustard. Using a soil corer and a Li-COR 6400 with a respiration chamber, we collected our results. After analyzing the data, we found higher soil respiration values in control plots, not containing garlic mustard, which was the opposite of what we anticipated. Soil respiration rates were significantly, positively correlated with the organic matter content of the soil. Other variables that were significantly correlated with soil organic matter were percent carbon, percent nitrogen, ∂15N, and the soil carob to nitrogen ratio. There was no correlation between above-ground plant density and soil respiration, and we found a negative correlation between abundance of garlic mustard and soil respiration values.

Latino Immigrants and Migrant Workers in Upstate New York

(54) Geguel Landestoy Union College Mentor: Victoria Martinez

37 My research this summer was focused on learning more about the various working conditions endured by the immigrant populations in upstate New York. Over time, the populations of immigrants have increased in upstate New York communities and that has triggered an even higher demand for jobs. In my research I discuss and analyze the dairy, the meatpacking, the horse grooming, and the construction industries. All four industries have a high demand for immigrant workers. These industries do not offer the same workplace protections, in part because many workers are undocumented or do not have unions. As a result, these workers encounter a higher risk of fatality and harmful working conditions.

The Effect of Garlic Mustard, Alliaria petiolata, on Soil Respiration (Poster #2)

(55) Marc Horschman and Zoe Tessler Hamilton College Mentor: William Pfitsch As invasive species become a more devastating problem, ecologists are turning their attention to ecosystem structure and how invasives influence understory composition. As a widespread and almost uncontrollable herbaceous plant, garlic mustard has been invading North American landscapes since 1868. Previous studies are unresolved regarding whether garlic mustard negatively or positively impacts understory vegetation growth. Garlic mustard, or Alliaria petiolata, both enhances soil isotope levels, which are essential to plant growth, and disturbs mycorrhizal fungi symbiosis with woody plants. At the beginning of our summer research, we hypothesized that garlic mustard would increase soil decomposition by adding to soil chemical compounds and increasing the understory community. To measure soil decomposition we sampled for soil moisture, organic matter, soil isotopes, and respiration. Therefore, higher soil decomposition should result in higher respiration values. We sampled seven stands of 30m2 containing plots with varying abundance of garlic mustard. Using a soil corer and a Li-COR 6400 with a respiration chamber, we collected our results. After analyzing the data, we found higher soil respiration values in control plots, not containing garlic mustard, which was the opposite of what we anticipated. Soil respiration rates were significantly, positively correlated with the organic matter content of the soil. Other variables that were significantly correlated with soil organic matter were percent carbon, percent nitrogen, ∂15N, and the soil carob to nitrogen ratio. There was no correlation between above-ground plant density and soil respiration, and we found a negative correlation between abundance of garlic mustard and soil respiration values.

High Altitude Muon Flux Detection and Solar Spectroscopy

(56) Christopher Demas Hobart and William Smith Colleges Mentor: Ileana Dumitriu RockSat-C is a NASA program that enabled HWS students to design and build a sounding rocket payload. On June 17th, the HWS team traveled to NASA Wallops Flight Facility base, in Wallops VA, to test and integrate the payload consisting of two muon detectors and a spectrometer into the Orion sounding rocket. The rocket was launched on June 25th, 2015 and recorded visible light spectra and muon flux as it passed through Earth’s atmosphere (~72 miles). Muons are generated by cosmic rays when high-energy photons and atomic nuclei come in contact with the atmosphere. Our research investigated the flux of muons at various layers in the atmosphere using two detectors: a solid-state scintillator detector and a Geiger-Müller detector. Our research strived to determine the baseline of muon flux in the upper atmosphere and determine if a muon flux exists in space. Additionally, a spectrometer interfaced with an Adruino platform collected and stored spectra (340 – 780 nm) throughout the atmosphere for chemical composition analysis and possible indication of Doppler shift. The instrument successfully collected data throughout the rocket’s ascent and descent. Due to the high speed of the rocket and the limited time spent in each layer of the atmosphere, it was difficult to get an accurate muon flux baseline at all altitudes. However, the data collected from both muon detectors indicate that there is a difference in muon flux throughout the atmosphere and in space. Also, spectral analysis revealed different characteristics depending on altitude.

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Language Ecology: Indigenous Heritage and Discourses Invoking Ecological Metaphor

(57) Justin Long Hamilton College Mentor: Meredith Moss

Contemporary issues in language loss are often described using metaphors that are implicitly or explicitly related to issues of biological diversity and its loss. The goal of my research was to understand more fully the role of ecological metaphors in discourses on language loss, and to come to a more nuanced understanding of the ways in which they succeed and of their shortcomings in adequately describing complex sociolinguistic processes. My research consisted of reading scholarly articles and handbooks on language shift, keeping up with various social media accounts that identified themselves as speaking to cultural and linguistic issues relevant in the lives of First Nations peoples, attending a two-week Mohawk language class, and using collocation and concordance software to analyze metaphors related to language loss in discourses used in advertising. The research was broad in its scope, and as a result served more as an overview of contemporary issues in language shift rather than a specific and thorough investigation of one aspect. I also participated in Mohawk language classes, which served as a sort of informal fieldwork. These classes represent an opportunity that few undergraduate students in linguistics have access to: work with a known and respected language revitalization program. This is especially relevant since undergraduate research in the field of language revitalization is extremely rare. My involvement in the New York 6 has therefore not only allowed me to develop more fully as a linguist, but has also given me valuable experience and insights that will no doubt be extremely useful in my future career in academia. My research did deal with ecological metaphor in discourse on language shift, but it did not deal with the issue in as much depth as would have been possible if it were my only object of study. I plan to continue researching the use of ecological metaphors in my senior thesis, which I will be starting on this fall. The work I have done this summer will prove invaluable to my future undergraduate research.

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