Undergraduate Research Posters 2016

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  The Effects of Superior Laryngeal Nerve lesion on Swallowing Kinematics and Airway Protection

  Saja Abid and Rebecca Z. German

  The superior laryngeal nerve (SLN) carries sensory information from the mucosal tissues of the pharynx superior to the vocal folds, and carries motor signals to the cricothyroid muscles. It also provides partial innervation to the thyroarytenoid and posterior cricoarytenoid muscles. Finally, the SLN initiates the swallow. When a food or liquid bolus is swallowed, the epiglottis and the false and true vocal folds work together to seal off the airway and allow the bolus to pass through the esophagus. If the SLN is damaged, it usually leads to dysphasia in ... Read More

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  Effect of parental communication on adjustment of typically developing children with an atypically developing sibling

  Christina Adkins and Meghan Murray

  Disorders comprised of intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) as a group are comprised of autism spectrum disorders, Down syndrome, and various genetic conditions that stunt the intellectual and functional development of an individual. These disorders affect roughly 14% of families in the US (Boyle et al., 2011), which approximates to seven million households in the US. The presence of IDD in a child is often associated with increased stress for the parents, given that IDD is often accompanied by behavioral problems in the affected child. Surprisingly, relatively little work has ... Read More

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  Synchronization of Cell Growth Makes Capture of G2 Phase Cells Possible

  Maryam Assar and Noopur Joshi

  During meiosis, homologous chromosomes, one set maternal and the other set paternal, pair with one another. Pairing is a prerequisite for crossing over, where allelic regions on homologs break and recombine with the corresponding homolog. This crossing over results in recombinant chromosomes that in turn increase genetic diversity. What causes the homologs to pair at specific sites is unknown. We are investigating whether specific DNA sequences are involved in pairing. Our first step to identify pairing sites involves mitotic cells of budding yeast in order to isolate pairing regions in ... Read More

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  Prediction of Muscle Torque Production for the Control of a Paralyzed Arm

  Andrew Aylward and Kyra Ruby

  Functional electrical stimulation (FES) is a method of restoring function to muscles using electrical pulses delivered through an implanted controller. FES has shown potential for enabling people with high spinal cord injuries to perform basic reaching motions essential to everyday tasks. In order to determine the necessary muscle activations an FES neuroprosthesis must produce to cause a desired arm motion, we must first be able to predict the amount of torque that muscles can produce at each joint. The torque production varies depending on the state of the system. Gaussian ... Read More

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  Privacy-Aware Human Tracking Using Kinect and Android Smart Watches

  Mudenda Martin Bbela

  Using the Microsoft Kinect® in conjunction with an Android Wear device, this project aims to design a Privacy Aware 3D motion tracking application with haptic feedback functionality used to reduce prevalence of Back Injuries in Caregivers. The System will use a registration method to ensure the caregiver is both uniquely tracked and abstract from most of the information used by the application.

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  Effect of Salt Concentration on the Composition of Elastin-Like Polypeptides in the Condensed Coacervate Phase

  Louise L. Beckstrom, Adam Maraschy, and Daniel P. Miller

  Elastin-Like Polypeptides (ELPs) are thermo-responsive polymers which could potentially be used as vehicles for drug delivery. The nanoparticle vehicles are called micelles and the basic structure is made of ELP-foldon. This ELP-foldon has a head group (foldon) that is hydrophilic and three tails (ELP) that are hydrophobic. Above a certain temperature, the transition temperature (Tt), the hydrophobic tails aggregate together to form spheres with the hydrophilic headgroups on the outside. Inside the micelles, linear ELP and drugs can be captured. Although micelles can form without linear ELP, they are bigger ... Read More

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  Effect of p38 kinase and cell cycle position on the expression of the pro-apoptotic Bcl2 family member PUMA in skeletal myoblasts

  Victoria Bensimon and Briana Boslett

  Skeletal muscle regeneration relies on myoblast stem cell differentiation and is a crucial response to muscle injury caused by trauma and numerous diseases. In skeletal myoblasts, cell death and differentiation are mutually exclusive biological endpoints that are both induced by culture in differentiation media. MyoD, the master muscle- specific transcription factor, is well-known to regulate the expression of muscle specific genes such as myogenin and the ensuing differentiation. However, we have previously reported that MyoD also plays a critical role in the expression of PUMA and apoptosis, rather than myogenin ... Read More

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  The Relationship Between Observed and Perceived Measures of Balance Stability

  Lrenzo Bianco, John DeMarco, and Sarah Gualtier

  Introduction Injurious falls have risen significantly in the past decade, raising concerns about the efficacy of fall prevention programs. The purpose of this study was to analyze the correlation between perceived and observed balance measures used in a falls prevention program. Methods Subjects (S) were 70 (F), 59 (F), and 73(M). They were taught the Rate of Perceived Stability (RPS), a perceived measure of balance intensity and completed the Berg Balance Test (Berg), Timed up and Go (TUG), and Activities Specific Balance Confidence Scale (ABC). The Berg and TUG are ... Read More

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  Bent Knee Adaptor for Experimental Testing of Prostheses

  Santino Bianco

  Novel prosthetic devices must undergo testing as part of their development. Testing with amputees is problematic at the development stage due to safety and administrative burdens. A bent-knee adaptor allows able-bodied individuals to wear a prosthesis and facilitate prototype testing. An existing bent-knee adaptor was used as a basis to design an improved device. The existing adaptor did not preserve alignment between thigh and prosthesis, resulting in unnatural walking. 3D scanning and printing technologies were used to design the new adaptor. Solid modeling was used to verify that the new ... Read More

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  Effect of hypoxic conditions on skeletal myoblasts

  Abdo Boumitri and Shuai Zhao

  Ischemic injury in skeletal muscle caused by hypoxic (low oxygen) conditions occurs in response to vascular and musculoskeletal traumas, diseases and following reconstructive surgeries. Thus, a thorough understanding of the effect of hypoxia on skeletal myoblasts is warranted to identify potential therapeutic targets. We have determined that treatment with cobalt chloride (to mimic hypoxic conditions) leads to decreased numbers of viable (attached) skeletal myoblast over time and an increase in the percentage of detached myoblasts. To determine the contribution of apoptosis (cell death) to this increase in detached myoblasts, we ... Read More

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  Elimination of Acoustic noise in STM Analysis of Polymer Crystallization on Au (111)

  Mark Bowling and William Myers

  Organic molecules offer a potentially cheap and environmentally friendly alternative to traditional silicon based electronics. The main limitation is that they are not as conductive as their inorganic counter parts. By crystalizing organic molecules, it is possible to increase the conductivity so that they can be more competitive with silicon electronics. This project examines the crystallization of polymers through selfassembly on the Au(111) surface reconstruction. The success of the crystallization is characterized with scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). In order to achieve high resolution STM images, we examined acoustic isolation by ... Read More

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  Cloud Overlap of Cumuliform Clouds in the Shallow Boundary Layer

  William Calabrase

  Cloud albedo, or the proportion of sunlight reflected by a cloud, has a significant impact on the Earth's radiation budget and is strongly influenced by cloud shape. It is a major source of uncertainty in climate modeling. To characterize the shape of shallow cumulus clouds we study the behavior of the cloud overlap ratio, the ratio between the average cloud fraction and projected cloud cover. In this study, we use a high resolution computer model (LES) to 1) determine how the cloud overlap ratio of a cloud field is related ... Read More

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  Correcting Reaching Movements Using Force Sensors and Robot Simulation

  Megan Carrick

  People who have suffered high spinal cord injuries are unable to move their limbs. Functional electrical stimulation (FES) activates paralyzed muscles by electrical current and is a way to restore some function to a paralyzed arm. This research was conducted to develop a way for a caregiver to correct reaching movements to a person with paralyzed arms. We asked participants to take part in this study to help obtain data to test the learning feedback system. We represented a paralyzed arm with a Barrett Medical Proficio robot. The robot is ... Read More

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  Explaining Simulator Sickness

  Jonathan Cohen

  Subjects who participate in driving simulation experiments often experience symptoms similar to motion sickness, called “simulator sickness.” However, the exact cause of these symptoms is unknown, which makes it difficult to predict whether a subject will experience them, or to warn them of the likelihood of experiencing those symptoms. A possible relationship between motion sickness and simulator sickness has been conjectured, based on the similarity of the symptoms, but not proven. In this study, we examined whether subjects in CSU simulator experiments who reported a history of motion sickness were ... Read More

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  Understanding the expression and trafficking of Plasmodium falciparum Maurer’s clefts proteins

  Sophia DeGeorgia, Katharine Komisarz, Ashka Patel, and Raghavendra Yadavalli

  Malaria is a potentially fatal disease caused by parasites in the genus Plasmodium. Of the five species that cause human malaria, P. falciparum causes an estimated 1 million deaths annually, particularly in young children in sub-Saharan Africa. Plasmodium falciparum is most commonly found in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. After invasion into human red blood cells, parasite induced transport structures known as Maurer's clefts, are formed within red cells. In previous studies, two Maurer's clefts proteins were identified; an approximately 130 kDa peripheral membrane protein and a 20-kDa ... Read More

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  Optimizing Dynamic Light Scattering for the Analysis of Anisotropic Nanoparticles in Solution

  Tony Dobrila

  To further understanding of light scattering on solution of anisotropic hard-to-image soft particles such as elastin-like polypeptide micelles the light scattering characterization of anisotropic easy-to-image inorganic gold nanoparticles was undertaken. We used Depolarized Dynamic Light Scattering (DDLS) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) to study commercial gold nanoparticles: nanospheres, nanorods with aspect-ratio=3, and nanorods with aspect ratio=7. According to SEM particles appeared to be larger than manufacturer specs, namely 2R=18.9±1.3nm, (26.1±4.1)x(65.5±9.5)nm, and (16.3±2.2)x(103.6±16.7)nm, respectively. DDLS on nanospheres showed no rotational diffusion (VH) signal, q dependence of decay rate consistent with that ... Read More

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  Variation of bone microarchitecture within and among contemporaneous species of fossil horses: Feasibility

  Emily A. Edwards

  Mesohippus, Miohippus, and Merychippus are extinct horse species that date back fifteen to thirty million years ago, which spanned over three time periods in North America. Each of the horses habituated different terrains from wet to dry. The third metacarpal became the prominent one-toe of horse evolution and is the specimen of this study. The aim is to determine if reorientation, segmentation, correcting size differences, and isolation are feasible. Horse fossils are extensive, documented, and are used as an analogous fossil lineage to humans for this study. Imaging of the ... Read More

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  Biostatistical Analysis on the Effects of the Circadian Clock & Glucose Genes on Different Feeding Regimens

  Rana Faraj and Nikkhil Velingkaar

  Circadian clocks are internal biological systems that control many physiological processes. The circadian clock is considered to be the master regulator of metabolism in mammals. The molecular metabolism is not very well known. The circadian clock regulated expression in metabolic enzymes and in turn, diet also regulates circadian clock on a molecular level. To better understand the interaction between circadian clock and metabolism, mice were subjected to different feeding regimens and metabolic tissue, such as liver and skeletal muscles, have been collected across the circadian cycle. Expression of genes have ... Read More

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  Glycerolipid Analysis of Adaptation to Saline Changes in the Culture Conditions of Algae, Scenedesmus dimorphus, by GC-MS

  Tyler Fitzgerald, Satya Girish Chandra Avula, and Chandana Mannem

  Since fossil fuels are decreasing over time an alternative energy source will be soon required. The algae, Scenedesmus dimorphus, grows in freshwater and is known for its fast growth of glycerolipid content which is used for biodiesel production. After the algae is grown in optimal conditions, the released fatty acids and glycerolipids are transformed into fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) which are used as biodiesel. The FAMEs were quantitatively determined by gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS) to determine the total glycerolipid content in the different algae samples. The samples that ... Read More

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  "Say it in Polish!": The Role of Heritage Language in preserving culture among families of Eastern European Origin

  Beth Friedman-Romell, Taylor Darfus, and WanCheng Tsai

  This project is part of a larger qualitative research study exploring the relationship between Eastern European American parenting styles and children's academic achievement. Seven mothers who were either first- or second-generation Eastern European American participated in semi-structured individual interviews. This project focuses on heritage language preservation. It revealed motivations, strategies, and outcomes of parents' desire to transmit their heritage language to the next generation. All participants had at least one child between ages five and eighteen. Based on our findings, four themes have emerged: 1) Motivations for heritage language preservation; ... Read More

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  Protest Voices: Using Activist Oral Histories to Teach Historical Thinking

  Amanda Gedeon and Christopher Morris

  The goal of Protest Voices was to create classroom resources using oral history interviews for use in social studies classrooms. Oral histories remain underutilized as primary sources. In an effort to engage students with the historical thinking process, we created clips from oral history interviews of Cleveland-area peace activists and connected those clips to the Ohio Department of Education Social Studies standards. Our work focused on collecting interviews from individuals who were involved in antiVietnam protests and members of the Cleveland Latin American Mission team to El Salvador, as well ... Read More

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  Computing Human Arm Stiffness for the Purpose of Robotic Simulation

  Nicholas Gehler and Philip Sesco

  To replace a human during experiments, we've calculated the endpoint stiffness of a human arm to be simulated on a robot. The model used to calculate arm stiffness includes gravitational, short-range muscle, and muscle force-moment arm stiffnesses. The parameters of this model were estimated using data from the open source musculoskeletal MATLAB model, Dynamic Arm Simulator. The model will be used by a Barrett Proficio robot to simulate the stiffness of a human arm. The purpose of this human arm simulation is for experimentation during the development of a force ... Read More

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  Measuring Urban High School Student Outcomes in a Protein Design Course

  James Gillahan

  STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) focused high schools have previously shown promising outcomes in the urban districts, where low income students have lower graduation rates, college acceptance and less access to advanced fields of study as compared to students of wealthier school districts. Modeling a protein design course from a private school, we aim to develop curriculum for a biotechnology course for an urban high school. Biotech is an emerging multidisciplinary field that could have similar outcomes to STEM education. We also aim to measure outcomes including student perspective ... Read More

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  Characterization of Aerospike Nozzle Flows

  Donald Grimes, Maggie Kolovich, Justin Flaherty, Umesh Balar, and Hitarthsinh Chudasama

  Aerospike nozzles possess many qualities that make them more desirable and efficient than conventional bell-shaped rocket nozzles. Aerospike nozzles have been studied since the 1960s, but problems and limitations with experimentation often led to abandoning further efforts on aerospike nozzles and implementing much more familiar bell-shaped nozzles. In fact, aerospike nozzles have yet to be used in flight—they have only undergone ground testing. The goal of our research is to develop multiple additively manufactured aerospike nozzles and characterize the flow experimentally, numerically, and computationally. Schlieren photography and Particle Image Velocimetry ... Read More

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  Correlating Wet-sample Electron Microscopy with Light Scattering Spectroscopy on the Example of Polymeric Microgels

  Christian Gunder

  Amphiphilic cellulose-based microgels with a reversible volume-phase transition at around 40.5°C—the low critical solution temperature (LCST)—have been synthesized, characterized, and optimized. After carefully planned synthesis and filtering the samples with a 0.22μm filter microgels were characterized with dynamic light scattering (DLS), yielding reproducible results for the radii of particles around 100-120 nm below the LCST and 60-70 nm above it. Through the use of scanning electron microscopy (SEM), air dried samples and wet samples were also analyzed. Air dried samples were dried for 24 hours until all water was evaporated, ... Read More