Visual impairments are widespread in the population due to common retinal ailments such as macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and visual decline with age. Unfortunately, humans lack the ability to regenerate damaged retina tissue and therefore, research exploring gene regulation in regenerative animals can provide important insight to combat retinal diseases. At day four of embryonic […]
B48-P: The Interplay of Music and Alcohol in Regulating College Students’ Mood
Alcohol is a public health concern across university campuses and is known to regulate individuals’ mood. It has been evidenced that alcohol’s impact on mood yields negative consequences such as impaired judgment and an increase in drinking to cope. Drinking to cope is very common among college students and has been shown to increase one’s […]
C43-P: The Joys and Pains of Popular Science Writing
Efficient communication to a non-scientific audience requires unique skills, as the author must ‘translate’ complex scientific findings in an understandable fashion for the public. This skillset is captured in popular science writing, a writing subdiscipline where scientifically literate authors attempt to communicate scientific principles and discoveries to the general public. The Microbiology Club undertook a […]
A01-T: The Culture of “Devadasis” in India
My family was always reluctant to answer questions that I had about the stories of Devadasis. Therefore, their reluctance led me to research more on them. With the help of my supervisor, I started reading the book, Given to Goddess by Lucinda Ramberg, who had researched specifically on the culture in the Ashrams (Religious shrines) […]
C06-P: MBLinhibitors.com, a Website Resource Offering Information and Expertise for the Continued Development of Metallo-β-Lactamase Inhibitors
Metallo-β-Lactamases are enzymes that bacteria produce to protect themselves from various β-Lactam antibiotics. As a result of the growing antibiotic resistance crisis, new compounds have been developed to try to inhibit these enzymes and slow the spread of antibiotic resistance. In an effort to facilitate the discovery of new, improved inhibitors of the metallo-β-lactamases, a […]
C03-T: Sequence Stratigraphy of the Albian-Cenomanian Naturita Formation and Lower Mancos Shale, Eastern Utah and Western Colorado
The late Albian-Cenomanian Naturita Fm. and lower Mancos Shale in eastern Utah and western Colorado are interpreted as containing three unconformity-bound depositional sequences. The first Naturita sequence (Kn1) consists of fluvial channel conglomerates/sandstones and overbank mudstones deposited above a regional erosion surface above the Albian Ruby Ranch Member of the Cedar Mountain Fm. The second […]
C41-P: The Effect of Stressor Predictability on Stress Enhanced Fear Learning
While fear can be adaptive by inhibiting pain and eliciting defensive behavior, long lasting fear can have negative effects on overall health, including psychological disorders, such as PTSD (Harris & Seckl, 2011; Bolles & Fanselow, 1980). Unpredictability of an aversive event can sensitize the fear circuitry causing an increase in one’s stress response later in […]
B25-P: A Novel Circuit Controlling Motivation
To maximize rewards, one must learn what specifically causes those rewards. This learning process is disrupted in numerous psychological disorders, including depression and substance use. Understanding the systems responsible for these processes is key to developing future treatments for psychological diseases. The serotonin and dopamine systems play critical roles in learning and motivation. While these […]
A43-P: A System for Fluorescence-based Metabolic Sensing for Cells embedded in Collagen
Thomas Finn, Nick Mayer, and Dr. Urayama, with the help of Taylor Phillips, Bibek Dhakal, and the Department of Physics, elaborate on the next steps of metabolic sensing using autofluorescence in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, baker’s yeast. A turbid mixture of baker’s yeast cells in Phosphate-Buffered Saline was excited using a nitrogen-gas discharge laser with a 1-nm […]
A31-P: Computational Analysis of the Structure of Fluorinated o-Phenylenes
Ortho-Phenylenes have been found to take on conformations similar to those found in biological secondary structures, classifying them as a type of molecule known as foldamers. The goal of studying this class of molecules is to eventually use this simple structure in 3D molecules that mimic biological systems. Past studies have been done to investigate […]