Undergraduate Research Posters 2015

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  Effects of Accelerometer Based Feedback on Clinical Measures and Paretic Upper Extremity Amount of Use in Subjects Chronic Post-Stroke

  Amber Kuehn, Nathan Pohl, and Mishgan Abdullah

  Purpose/Hypothesis: To determine the effects of accelerometer based feedback on clinical measures of paretic upper extremity (UE) recovery in people post-stroke and examine the relationship between these changes and paretic UE amount of use (AOU) measured by an accelerometer. Subjects: 7 people chronic post-stroke (5 males, 2 females; aged 62.03 ± 11.33 years) with an Upper Extremity Fugl-Meyer score range of 10-63 were included for this poster. Materials/Methods: Subjects wore wrist accelerometers for 3 weeks in the home. Clinical measures (Motor Activity Log, Stroke Impact Scale, Chedoke Arm and Hand ... Read More

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  Characterization of the detailed interaction interface between T. brucei telomere proteins TRF and TIF2

  Jennifer Kungle, John Sabljic, and Tia Nikova

  The protozoan parasite Trypanosoma brucei causes fatal African trypanosomiasis in humans and nagana in cattle. T. brucei switches its variant surface glycoproteins (VSGs) inside the mammalian host, evading the host immune response. VSGs are expressed monoallelically from subtelomeric expression sites, and telomere proteins regulate VSGs. We previously found that telomere protein TbTIF2 interacts with TbTRF (TTAGGG-repeat binding factor) and plays important roles in VSG switching regulation. TbTRF maintains the telomere terminal structure. TbTIF2 is essential for subtelomeric integrity and suppresses VSG switching by inhibiting subtelomeric gene conversion. Depletion of TbTIF2 ... Read More

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  The Catalytic Gasification of Waste Polymers: Determining the Kinetics of the Sabatier Reaction

  Eric M. Lange, Samuel O. Sanya, Aliandra Barbutti, Stephen A. Reeves, and Joshua M. Cmar

  This research focuses on advancing the knowledge of a catalytic gasification process as a potential in-situ resource utilization and waste management alternative. This research has significance in a variety of engineering applications, but it is of particular relevance towards reducing landfill waste or as an in-situ resource generation system for space exploration beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO). This process evolves through a reaction mechanism consisting on two liquid-phase oxidation reactions of long-chain polymers, complemented by two gas-phase reactions. This project focusses on one of the gas phase reactions: one of ... Read More

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  Experimental Analysis of Catalytic Gasification of Polyethylene

  Eric M. Lange, Samuel O. Sanya, Aliandra Barbutti, Stephen A. Reeves, Joshua M. Cmar, and Jade Moten

  Over the last century there has been a global interest in reducing/recycling waste material as well as creating energy from renewable and more eco-friendly sources. Catalytic gasification is one effective method that can promote low-temperature conversion of solid waste to energy, also referred to as “gasification”. The gas mixture produced by gasification of long-chain polymers using ruthenium (or platinum) catalysts consists of hydrogen, methane, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and water. Product mixtures of gasification experiments were analyzed by Gas Chromatography (GC) and post-processed using statistical analysis. Using fundamental reactor design ... Read More

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  Can we increase the intensity of pro-active balance exercises?

  Joshua Lilly and Elizabeth Antonik

  Balance training has been shown to be effective in preventing or lessening the severity of falls among older adults. This training can be proactive or reactive; however, the relative effectiveness of each and the necessary dosages are not known. The purpose of this research was to adapt an existing protocol for slip testing (reactive training) and video-game balance training (proactive) to better accommodate the abilities of older adults. We tested iteratively the initial protocols, set-ups, and equipment with a group of adults age 55 years and older and devised new ... Read More

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  TMCO1 mediates cancer cell migration through regulating microtubule assembling

  Pau Romaguera Llacer, Qiaoxia Zheng, and Qiaoyun Zheng

  Transmembrane and coiled-coil domains 1 (TMCO1) is highly conserved in amino acid sequence among species and ubiquitously expressed in all human tissues. Homozygous frameshift mutation in TMCO1 causes distinctive craniofacial dysmorphism, skeletal anomalies, and mental retardation. However, its physiological functions, particularly in cancer biology, are largely unknown. In this study, we have found that knock down of TMCO1 in HeLa cells, a human cervical cancer cell line, and U2OS cells, an osteosarcoma cell line, remarkably inhibited their migratory capability; TMCO1 was highly expressed in the cells of the invasive front ... Read More

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  Tuning the Size of Elastin-like Polypeptide Nanoparticles

  Adam Maraschky

  The ability to control the size of biologically-based, environmentally-sensitive colloidal nanoparticles can advance their application in areas such as drug delivery, tissue engineering, and biosensors. Controlling size is a primary task in engineering nanomaterials because many of their properties depend on size. With the aim of fine- tuning the size of particles, we characterize mixtures of two elastin-like polypeptide structures: a linear and a trimer configuration. Both constructs undergo aggregation above their inverse transition temperatures, but the linear ELP forms large aggregates which coalesce into a protein-rich phase, while the ... Read More

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  Characterizing Stimuli-Responsive Materials for Drug Delivery: Interactions with Model Compounds and pH Responsive Behavior

  Ryan Martin and Eric Helm

  Stimuli responsive elastin-like polypeptide (ELP) nanoparticles are a promising platform for targeted drug delivery. Our laboratory has developed ELP nanoparticles that can specifically target cancer cells and provide contrast for MRI imaging. In order to utilize this system for drug delivery, the ability to carry and release drugs needs to be determined. Partition coefficients of drugs in ELP systems are one important measure of a system's ability to transport drugs, while a pH response mechanism can be utilized to provide selective drug release. In this study, we investigated the partition ... Read More

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  History Speaks: Using Oral History to Teach Historical Thinking

  Victoria McDonough and Christopher Morris

  This research project sought to enhance the viability and usefulness of existing oral history interviews in a classroom setting and to develop best practices and resources for teachers to use in lesson planning. We sampled a collection of oral history interviews from the Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection according to a list of search terms pertaining to content standards typically taught in a high school classroom. After listening to these interviews, we created shorter segments called story clips which highlighted a particular event, topic, or concept. The essays and lesson ... Read More

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  Control of Meiotic Cell Divisions in Presence of Unrepaired chromosome breaks

  Francisco Monge, Jesus Monge, Andrew Reville, and Rima Sandhu

  Chromosome miss-segregation during meiosis is a major factor contributing to birth defects as well as many genetic anomalies through the formation of aneuploid gametes, i.e. gametes with a deficit or surplus of one or several chromosomes. The synaptonemal complex (SC) is a major protein structure assembled with the synapsis of homologous chromosomes and is conserved from unicellular yeast to humans. One of its major roles during prophase I in meiosis is providing a structural framework for the maintenance of synapsis to facilitate the completion of reciprocal crossover events. Failure to ... Read More

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  Role in Recombination of Genes That Control Meiotic Cell Divisions

  Francisco Monge, Jesus Monge, Andrew Reville, and Rima Sandhu

  The production of gametes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae via meiosis is under strict regulatory control where proper segregation of homologous chromosomes into gametes requires physical linkage via crossovers. Cells that initiate meiotic recombination but do not process programmed double strand breaks into crossovers enter meiotic arrest. The main goal of the current project was whether overexpression of gene Y is sufficient to bypass the meiotic arrest in prophase I exhibited by dmc1 deletion and a zip1 mutant that carries an internal deletion. DMC1 is a recombinase that promotes homologous recombination. ZIP1 ... Read More

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  Cultural Differences in Coping and Depression between Individuals of Middle-Eastern and Non-Arab Backgrounds

  Khadeja Najjar

  The Middle Eastern (Arab) demographic is a growing, yet neglected cultural group in mental health research. While Arabs are more predisposed to depression than other ethnic groups in US, little is known about mechanisms that account for this risk. One set of mechanisms may be the use of ineffective (maladaptive) coping or insufficient use of effective (adaptive) coping responses, which are robust predictors of depression in US samples, but virtually unexamined in Arabs. Further, the effect of a coping is influenced by culture, which, for Arabs, may change as a ... Read More

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  Statistical Analysis of DASI Questionnaire and Modeling the Prediction of Heart Failure Risk in Patients

  Christian Negron

  9,880 patients were asked to complete the DASI questionnaire along with other questions to assess the predictability of heart failure risk. In this paper we attempt to reduce the amount of questions asked by hierarchical clustering of the question responses to determine if there is a change in the predictability of heart failure risk in patients. The data was modeled using Cox hazards multiple regression and validated through ROC and AUC. Our validation models show there is no difference between the usage of 12 and 6 DASI questions, therefore improving ... Read More

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  Enhancement of Solar Energy Conversion in Bio-derived Cells via Side Selective Modification of Photosystem I

  Uchechukwu Obiako and Evan Gizzie

  Deleterious effects of some methods used to harness energy from the environment today have garnered the exploration of safer and more reliable options, specifically solar energy conversion. Current solar cell technology has yielded quantum efficiencies commonly in the range of 10-20% but is limited by extensive processing methods, high cost, and need for rare materials. However, bio-derived solar cells containing Photosystem I (PSI) address these problems as PSI is highly abundant, very efficient, and low-cost. PSI acts as a biomolecular photodiode through rapid photoexcited charge separation, making it very promising ... Read More

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  Case Transition Format and Lexical Decision Performance: Does Spacing Reduce the Benefit of Orthographic Regularity?

  Kristyn Oravec, Maryam Assar, and Hannah Princic

  Some models of visual word identification propose that identification is analytic— mediated exclusively by letter identification. However, some studies have shown that there are phenomena that suggest a route to word identification involves holistic stimulus properties. In previous research, using a lexical decision task, in which participants are asked to determine whether letter strings are words or nonwords, we have found that response times to orthographically regular words (i.e., lowercase, uppercase, and initial uppercase formats) are faster than those to orthographically irregular words (i.e., words that include a case transition ... Read More

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  Assaying the Splicing Activity of Novel Human Disease Variants of U4atac snRNA

  Maitri K. Patel and Rosemary C. Dietrich

  In eukaryotes, pre-messenger RNA (pre-mRNA) splicing is an essential process in gene expression. Splicing is carried out by a dynamic multi-megadalton RNA-protein complex known as the spliceosome. Sequential transesterification reactions catalyzed by the spliceosome convert pre-mRNA to mRNA by removing the intervening sequences (introns) and joining the coding sequences (exons) together. Small nuclear RNAs (snRNAs) are essential splicing factors. Biallelic mutations of the human RNU4ATAC gene, which codes for U4atac snRNA, have been identified in patients diagnosed with Microcephalic Osteodysplastic Primordial Dwarfism type I (MOPD I). MOPD I is an ... Read More

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  Integrating an Android Device into Embedded Computer Systems

  Eric Payne

  An embedded system is a computer system designed to perform a specific set of tasks such as a GPS device or a digital camera. An embedded system is composed of three major parts: a processor (CPU), input devices, and output devices. The input devices are peripherals to take user command (switches and keypad) and sensors to measure environmental conditions (barometer and accelerometer). The output devices are actuators that generate light and sound (LED display and amplified speaker) and moving parts (servo motor). An important step in prototyping an embedded system ... Read More

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  Selective Plane Illumination Microscopy

  David Ian Pendleton

  Selective plane illumination microscopy (SPIM), or light sheet microscopy, is a microscopy technique that allows you to acquire high resolution fluorescence images of biological samples by illuminating the sample with a thin plane from the side, instead of along the imaging axis as in traditional transillumination or epi-illumination. The purpose of this SPIM research assignment was to combine two previously built systems, an inverted SPIM and a tunable lens system. This report includes use of optics, coupling lasers and proper technique to building optical systems. Programming in Matlab, LabVIEW, and ... Read More

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  Feasibility and Effects of Accelerometer Based Feedback on Paretic Upper Extremity Amount of Use in the Home Setting in Subjects Chronic Post-Stroke

  Nathan Pohl, Amber Kuehn, and Mishgan Abdullah

  Purpose : to (1) evaluate the feasibility of using accelerometers in the home to quantify how much subjects chronic post-stroke (PS) use their upper extremities (UE), (2) measure differences between amount of UE movement in subjects PS and a healthy control group (HC), (3) determine the effects of accelerometer based feedback on paretic UE use in subjects PS, and (4) determine if those effects are retained over time. Methods : Six subjects PS wore accelerometers for 3 weeks with two feedback sessions given during week two. Seven HC subjects wore ... Read More

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  Autonomic Nervous System response to interpersonal exclusion in Borderline Personality Disorder

  Ilona Ponomariova, Brock Bodenbender, Khadeja Najjar, and Elizabeth Golias

  Intense emotional reactions to interpersonal rejection reflect the core of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). These reactions supported by the autonomic nervous system (ANS), which has been linked to neural regions that undergird emotional experience and regulation that are affected among individuals with BPD. Despite such links, relatively few studies have examined ANS functioning among BPD populations. The few studies that have primarily focused on the independent activity of the two sympathetic (SNS) and parasympathetic (PNS) ANS branches during resting states or in response to emotion evocative films, rather than to ... Read More

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  Prosthetic Socket Surface Initialization – For Future Use in Subject-Specific Socket Optimization

  Brahm Powell

  For persons with lower limb amputations the human-prosthesis interface, termed the “prosthetic socket,” remains an area of ongoing research. Patient satisfaction is closely tied to the physical comfort of the device, which includes performance factors such as fit, moisture management, stiffness/rigidity, stress concentrations, range of motion, etc. An imbalance in these factors may result lack of mobility for the patient or worse, pressure sores, a precursor to debilitating deep tissue ulcerations. Ulcerations are well documented and current socket fitting techniques, as performed by a “prosthetist,” are largely subjective, relying on ... Read More

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  Optimizing the design and potency of diterpenic acid derivatives to improve cell membrane permeability and Hsp27 targeting characteristics

  Aicha Quamine

  Heat shock protein 27 (Hsp27) acts as a protective protein allowing it to play an integral role in aiding cancer cell resistance. Stress-induced Hsp 27 overexpression aids in the stabilization of partially denatured proteins to establish protein refolding resulting in thermotolerance, inhibition of apoptosis, cytoprotection, etc. As a result of rapid proliferation and general instability, cancer cells exhibit increased dependency on the support of Hsp 27 and it’s chaperone proteins, therefore generating an ideal target for anticancer therapy. Copalic acid, a clerodane diterpenoid, has already been confirmed in effective chaperone ... Read More

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  Digital Archiving of the Dance Artist’s Creative Process and Vision

  Rafeeq Roberts and Danielle Davis

  Cleveland has a rich history in the development of modern dance. Because dance is mainly experienced in the here and now, the collective knowledge and artistic skills of many dance artists are mostly shared with viewers of their live performances or those who they mentor. This project uses video documentation to explore the approaches and insights of a choreographer and dancers in the creative process. The resulting piece of videography will inform the design of a future digital archive of many dance artists associated with CSU and the greater dance ... Read More

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  Dual Stimuli Response Frequency and Stimulus Choice of the African Clawed Frog, Xenopus laevis, when presented with two stimuli

  Mingo Rolince, Heidi Pignolet, and Alexa Hoy

  This preliminary study examines responses of African Clawed Frogs to simultaneous presentation of two stimuli. Frogs were tested in a round arena with water 4 cm deep. Four stimulus rods driven via computer-controlled stepper motors were concealed in a screen suspended above the water. These rods could present a lateral line stimulus, a visual stimulus, or a combination of both. Overall, reactions and no reactions were evenly distributed--51.1% and 48.9%, respectively. Frogs responded more frequently to rostral than caudal stimuli (chi-squared 20.8, df=11, p < 0.04). Frogs reacted more to ... Read More

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  Computer Vision and Route Planning for Humanoid Robots

  Brandon Rutledge and Mike Iannica

  Today humans control robots. Eventually, robots will control other robots. This research is a step in that direction. The goal of this research is to enable the NAO humanoid robot to take a picture of a VEX mobile robot and a colored cube, and analyze the picture so that the NAO can control the VEX to fetch the cube. The picture is examined by the NAO one pixel at a time. Using predetermined color values, the cube, along with the front and back of the VEX, are located, and the ... Read More