UALR Research and Creative Works Expo 2015 Winners

The Expo held on April 13 had a great turn out. Winners and Honorable Mentions from undergraduate and graduate categories were awarded on April 15.

Undergraduate
Arts and Humanities

Winner: Project #10
Natural Language Processing in the Study of Literature
Savannah Adams (English)
Mentor(s): Jeremy Ecke
ABSTRACT
My project will explore how open-source text taggers can be used to facilitate literary analysis through computational methodology. Specifically, I will use the taggers to investigate the texts from the English Broadside Ballad Archive for recurrent names and locations, in order to determine the functionality of linguistic text tagging in literary analysis. I will apply these findings further in my Cooper Honors Project to explore questions of authorship and stylistic and thematic connections between the texts.

Honorable Mentions: Project #1
Evocations of Baudelaire in the Photography of Clarence John Laughlin
Jennifer Bass (Art History)
Mentor(s): Floyd Martin
ABSTRACT
I began this study during the History of Photography and Film course last summer, and I continued researching during the fall for my Studies in the History of Art course. My work focuses on the influence of Baudelaire on the photographer Clarence John Laughlin. Using A.J. Meek’s claim that Laughlin’s Flowers of the Night Land illustrates Baudelaire’s Flowers of Evil, I bring forth the question do the images illustrate or evoke Baudelaire’s poetry? I make parallels between specific photographs and specific poems from Flowers of Evil as well as Laughlin’s captions for his photographs and other writings to support my claim that the photographs evoke rather than illustrate the poetry. I compare lines from Baudelaire’s poems with the images as well as Laughlin’s own descriptions to expose the correlation between the two works.

Honorable Mentions: Project #9
Exploring the Effects and Use of Language in Neighborhood Characteristics of Hillcrest through Linguistic Landscapes
Kelly Singer (English & French)
Mentor(s): Jeremy Ecke
ABSTRACT
Linguistic Landscaping studies how language is used in signs seen from the street in an attempt to identify relationships with other characteristics about a particular neighborhood, such as multilingualism, education, socioeconomics, and demographics. This landscape of the Hillcrest neighborhood in Little Rock explores the nature of language in the signs that line its streets, searching for telling information of the neighborhood’s demographics and socioeconomics. A historical comparison will accompany the modern analysis to show the ways in which Hillcrest has morphed over the last fifty years.

 

Social Sciences

Winner: Project #29
Al Baleed: Archaeological Excavations at a Medieval Port City
Deanna Holdcraft (Anthropology)
Devin Sorrows, Anthropology
Mentor(s): Krista Lewis
ABSTRACT
During the summer of 2014, UALR anthropology students Devin Sorrows and Deanna Holdcraft participated in an archaeological investigation of the medieval port city of Al Baleed in Salalah, Oman. Several decades of excavations and material analysis have revealed that Al Baleed was occupied during the years 500-1700 AD. This site played an influential role in the Arabian Gulf Trade Network. Materials recovered from the port city suggest that the network may have extended as far as the Americas. Al Baleed is best known for its signature export, Frankincense.
Devin Sorrows and Deanna Holdcraft were tasked with investigating one of the larger structures within the archaeological site by utilizing established procedures for excavating, recording, collecting, and analyzing archaeological data with the expressed goal of understanding the daily activities of the people who lived and worked in Al Baleed.
Funding: UALR Middle Eastern Studies Program

 

Life Sciences

Winner: Project #11
Simulated Microgravity’s Effect on Multiple Inositol Polyphosphate Phosphatase Expression in Mammalian Cells.
Bryan White (Biology)
Mentor(s): Nawab Ali
ABSTRACT
Recent research has shown that simulated microgravity perturbs cytoskeleton protein expression in mammalian cells. Physiological changes that include fluid and organ shifts occur in the human body when exposed to microgravity during space flight. Microgravity acts as a type of stressor that cells respond and adapt to by way of physical and biochemical changes. Previous research from our lab involving mouse osteoblasts (MC3T3) showed that under experimental conditions (cells grown in a High Aspect Rotary-wall Vessel (HARV), which simulates a low gravity environment), morphological changes occur. These experimental conditions also showed a change in the expression of the protein actin. This leads to an interest in gaining more of an understanding of the changes that occur on the cellular level. It is known that Multiple Inositol Polyphosphate Phosphatase (Minpp1) is overexpressed under stress conditions. That is, endoplasmic reticulum stress causes an overexpression of this enzyme. Since microgravity acts as a type of stressor that the cell responds to both physically and biochemically, we are interested in knowing whether or not microgravity would have an effect on the expression of Minpp1. Currently these experiments are underway. The changes in Minpp1 expression under microgravity conditions will be compared to that expression under normal conditions. The results are relevant to the understanding of the physical and biochemical changes that occur in the human body as a result to subjection to lower gravity.

Honorable Mentions: Project #16
Effects of Nicotine on Expression of Membrane Cofactor Protein CD46 in Human ARPE-19 Cells
Xeniya Rudolf (Biology)
Mentor(s): Nalini Bora
ABSTRACT
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) causes vision loss and is associated with malfunction of the complement system. Nicotine is a risk factor for AMD but its impact on retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) is not well understood. The effects of nicotine on the expression of the complement system regulator, CD46, were evaluated in two experiments including RPE cell treatment with nicotine and combinations of nicotine and complement depleted or complement sufficient 10% normal human serum. Western blot and immunofluorescent analyses were used to evaluate levels of CD46 and cellular localization in hARPE-19 cells. Three isoforms of CD46 occurred in all experimental groups. We suggest that hARPE-19 cells produce full isoform (52 kDa) and two soluble isoforms (38 kDa and 45 kDa). No effects of nicotine on the expression of CD46 isoforms were detected. Our findings suggest that expression and localization of CD46 on hARPE-19 cells is independent on complement activity, nicotine, or their combination.

Honorable Mentions: Project #17
High Light Induced Phenylpropanoid Variation in Wild and Domestic Tomato Varieties
Dane Hudson (Biology)
Aaron O’Neal, Biology
Mentor(s): Stephen Grace
ABSTRACT
High light stress causes dramatic changes in phenylpropanoid metabolism in plants. However, the physiological significance of these changes is not well understood. Understanding the natural variation of phenylpropanoid pathway responses and how they relate to the physiology of plants with a higher fitness for such conditions can help plant breeders develop more stress tolerant crops. In this study we measured phenylpropanoid profiles in leaves of 10 tomato cultivars and three wild species (Solanum chmielewskii, S. pimpinellifolium, S. habrochaites ) using HPLC and fluorescence microscopy. Plants were grown under moderate light conditions and transferred to high light conditions (750 mol photons m-2 s-1, 14 h photoperiod) for one week to induce phenylpropanoid metabolism. There was a surprising degree of variation in both the type and amount of phenylpropanoid metabolites accumulated among the different varieties. Certain genotypes tended to accumulate chlorogenic acid and related hydroxycinnamate esters while others accumulated rutin and other flavonoid glycosides. We assessed the localization of phenylpropanoids using the fluorescence indicator diphenylboric acid 2-amino ethyl ester (DPBA). Under low light conditions flavonoids were present in epidermal cells only, whereas upon transfer to high light there was a rapid accumulation of flavonoids in mesophyll tissue, consistent with a role in photoprotection. Photosynthesis was measured in several varieties to determine relationships between phenylpropanoid metabolism and tolerance to high light stress.

Physical Sciences

Winner: Project #26
Chemical and Adsorption Behavior of Weathered Coal Combustion Products
Kellylinh Ho (Earth Sciences)
Mentor(s): Laura Ruhl
ABSTRACT
Previous studies have shown that coal combustion products (CCPs) can impair water quality by increasing the concentration of contaminants such as As, Se, B, Sr, and SO4. This study evaluated CCP samples from a ruptured coal ash pond. Each sample was leached with deionized water at a liquid to solid ratio of 10:1 for one hour, one day, one week, thirty days, and sixty days. The ash/sediment samples were imaged using an SEM with backscattered electron imaging to understand morphology and surface adsorption before and after leaching, while mineralogy before and after leaching was determined with an XRD. Concentrations of contaminants released from the sediment/ash were measured using an ion chromatograph and an ICPMS. This study reveals that despite leaching the released ash continues to pose a threat to the water quality.

Honorable Mentions: Project #24
Novel Phosphorus and Nitrogen Co-Doped Carbons for Utilization in Supercapacitors
Zachary Hicks (Chemistry)
Mentor(s): Tito Viswanathan
ABSTRACT
Traditional capacitors have long been used as a means of storing energy for electronic devices. Supercapacitors, otherwise known as ultracapacitors, are an emerging solution to efficiently store greater amounts of energy. Supercapacitors exhibit both the characteristics of batteries (high energy density) as well as capacitors (high power density). They are unique in that they utilize a porous carbon material and thinner dielectric, in order to greatly increase their overall capacitance. Novel phosphorus and nitrogen doped carbon materials (PNDC) prepared in our lab have been used to fabricate supercapacitors and evaluated for their energy storage characteristics. The PNDC-containing supercapacitors have shown to out-perform non-doped carbon supercapacitors. Our PNDC material is important to green energy research, because it is made from the readily abundant, renewable resources of tannin and used coffee grounds. This represents environmentally friendly alternate energy storage devices.

Honorable Mentions : Project #27
Graphene-Enhanced Cobalt(III) Electrocatalyst in Oxygen Reduction Reaction for Fuel Cell Applications
Zachary Smith (BA-Chemistry)
Joshua Park, BA-Chemistry
Phuc Tran, BS-Chemistry
Charlette Parnell, PhD-Applied Science
Andrew Brandt, MS-Chemistry
Yahya Albkuri, PhD-Applied Science
Bijay Chhetri, PhD-Applied Science
Mentor(s): Anindya Ghosh
ABSTRACT
A nanocomposite of dichloro-amido-macrocyclic cobalt(III) complex (1) and graphene was developed and characterized using various microscopic and spectroscopic techniques such as XPS, TEM, SEM and Raman spectroscopy. The nanocomposite was evaluated for electrocatalytic activity towards oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in fuel cell applications and showed efficiency in wide range of pH (acidic and basic) for successful ORR. The ratio of electrocatalyst 1 to graphene was varied for developing the optimal ORR catalyst. The use of graphene along with 1 resulted in increased current density and a positive shift of the reduction potential by 140 mV (with respect to Ag/AgCl reference electrode). Investigation of the catalytic mechanism using rotating disk electrode and rotating ring-disk electrode studies revealed its mechanism in acidic and basic conditions to be a four-electron process. A high rate constant of 3.85 X 105 mol-1s-1 indicates the advantage of using both 1 and graphene for fuel cell applications.
Funding: National Science Foundation

 

Engineering and Technology

Winner: Project #5
Airless Tire Design for Low Gravity Surface Mobility – Spring Tires
Joshua Shaw (Systems Engineering Mechanical)
Mentor(s): Andrew Wright
ABSTRACT
Abstract: A variety of designs and technologies have been proposed for space compatible tires to be used for low-gravity lunar and planetary surface exploration, including NASA’s current Spring Tire design. In this research, we aimed to improve upon the current Spring Tire design by developing and testing multiple airless tires composed of a mesh of interwoven metal springs. Our research focused on two main design areas: the outer wall of the tire, and a new spoke system design. After testing and analysis, no solid conclusions can be drawn as to which design is better due to the fact that the 3D printer hub used to hold the spokes begins to fail before the tires themselves fail.
Funding: Arkansas Space Grant Consortium

Honorable Mention: Project #2
American Red Cross Seismic Retrofit Study
Sarah Brown (Civil and Construction Engineering)
Josh Hendricks, Civil and Construction Engineering
Essie Whitmore, Civil and Construction Engineering
Esteban Rodriguez, Civil and Construction Engineering
Whitney Montague, Civil and Construction Engineering
Angela Matika, Civil and Construction Engineering
Mentor(s): Bray Hollis
ABSTRACT
Each year, students in their final year of the civil and construction engineering program at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock prepare for engineering practice by designing a major civil/construction engineering project, based on knowledge and skills acquired in earlier course work and incorporating appropriate engineering standards and multiple realistic constraints. This year, the seniors are working under the guidance of Cromwell Engineers and CDI on a jointly designed engineering problem examining the impact of updated seismic considerations on an existing structure.
This building, the Arkansas Red Cross headquarters in Little Rock, consists of an original building designed and constructed in the early 1960’s and a major addition constructed in the late 1980’s. The building was designed and constructed before the introduction of seismic design in the building code for the state of Arkansas. Due to its use for blood supply and as a disaster coordination center, the building could now be considered an essential facility.
The project will consist of modeling the existing building using a structural modeling program and comparing original designs with the existing code requirements from ASCE 7-10, designing seismic upgrades, and determining a construction cost to do the upgrades.

Honorable Mention: Project #4
Mining Twitter to Identify How Video Game ESRB Rating Correlates with the Language Content of Authors of Tweets of Video Games over a Period of Time
Jermaine Marshall (Computer Science)
Mentor(s): Keith Bush
ABSTRACT
There has been much research done on the effects that Mature Rated Games have on people. It would be useful to know whether these correlations extend to larger, broader contexts. My hypothesis is: The language content of posts retrieved from Twitter that reference high-maturity video games will contain significantly higher frequencies of ESRB-category words than posts that do not reference video games, even when generated by the same author.
To explore this hypothesis, I will finds the user ids of the authors that used a set of violent or sexual test words in the tweet referencing the mature rated video game Vs. those that did not and clarify a correlation between the number of words they used based off of the ESRB categories and their playing of E for Everyone rated games and T for teen rated games with respect to mature rated video games over a distinct period of time.

 

Graduate
Humanities

Winner: Project #25
The Learning Disabled Student in College Composition
Madison Hedrick (Professional and Technical Writing)
Mentor(s): Joanne Matson
ABSTRACT
Colleges and universities are seeing an increase in students seeking accommodations for non-visible disabilities, like attention deficit disorder (ADD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and dyslexia. To better understand the expectations of learning disabled students, instructors of First Year Composition (FYC) courses as well as faculty and administrators are in need of information to help understand the problems affecting this population of students and the best way to teach them and know what to do. To better address this need, we designed a survey, distributed it to the learning disabled students on campus at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) and analyzed the results to look for patterns. The results show that faculty play the most important role in the collegiate success of LD students and are seen by many students as the most useful educational resource for accommodation.
IRB: 14-044

Honorable Mention: Project #26
Alla Prima: Experimenting and Developing Expressive, Realistic Oil Paintings that Are Started and Finished in One Painting Session
Tessa Davidson (Studio Art (Painting))
Mentor(s): Eric Mantle
ABSTRACT
Alla prima comes from Italian, literally meaning “at once.” This oil painting technique was pioneered in the 1600s, and has been the painterly pursuit of great artists over recent centuries. Due to the extreme demands of this technique, alla prima painting is considered to be very challenging even for advanced painters, requiring every stroke to count and not later reworked. This technique contrasts with the common practice of using under-paintings and layering the work up gradually. The goal of this creative research was to learn and develop the techniques required for this method of oil painting and to apply these techniques on a contemporary form of self- expression. By experimenting with a variety of alla prima techniques, this project offers creative insights and exposes new possibilities for one to achieve a fresh spontaneity in representational art.

 

Social Sciences

First Place Winner Project #48
Predictors of School Violence: Are Parents the Source?
Kristen Sobba (Criminal Justice)
Mentor(s): Shaun Thomas
ABSTRACT
School violence has gradually increased as a problem among our youth and adolescents. In 2012, over a million documented cases of school violence were recorded in the United States. Current research on this topic reveals that there are several potential predictors of school violence. In addition, many studies have been completed describing how parents impact the severity of this issue. The current study addresses parental factors in relation to the schools themselves not the individuals.

Second Place Winner Project #44
The Sexual Exploitation of Adolescent Males: A Hidden Population
Brittani McNeal (Criminal Justice)
Mentor(s): Tusty ten Bensel
ABSTRACT
Juveniles involved in CSE/prostitution face a number of concerns such as health risks, psychological difficulties, and the possibility of long-term stigmatization by family members, friends, and the community as a whole (Farley, 2004; Farley & Kelly, 2000; Vanwesenbeeck, 2013); yet, research on adolescent males has been relatively absent. This research examined risk factors using a sample of adolescent who engaged in sex for drug or money and compared findings with a control group of adolescent males who indicated never exchanging sex for drugs or money.Negative binomial regression models concurred with previous findings relation to family, sexual activities, and substance abuse risk factors. Overall, differences between adolescent males who indicated exchanging sex and those who did not were smaller for risk factors related to background characteristics, delinquency, and parental measures. Although there is an awareness of juveniles involved in CSE/prostitution, we conclude that more research needs to be conducted on to understand the hidden population of youth that did not come into contact with the justice system and social services will be less likely to meet.Juveniles involved in CSE/prostitution face a number of concerns such as health risks, psychological difficulties, and the possibility of long-term stigmatization by family members, friends, and the community as a whole (Farley, 2004; Farley & Kelly, 2000; Vanwesenbeeck, 2013); yet, research on adolescent males has been relatively absent. This research examined risk factors using a sample of adolescent who engaged in sex for drug or money and compared findings with a control group of adolescent males who indicated never exchanging sex for drugs or money.Negative binomial regression models concurred with previous findings relation to family, sexual activities, and substance abuse risk factors. Overall, differences between adolescent males who indicated exchanging sex and those who did not were smaller for risk factors related to background characteristics, delinquency, and parental measures. Although there is an awareness of juveniles involved in CSE/prostitution, we conclude that more research needs to be conducted on to understand the hidden population of youth that did not come into contact with the justice system and social services will be less likely to meet.
IRB: 13-317

Third Place Winner: Project #47
Hispanic Population Concentration and Political Participation: A Macro-level test of the Hispanic Paradox and Minority Threat Perspective
Brenda Branham (Criminal Justice)
Mentor(s): Emily Berthelot
ABSTRACT
Hispanic communities face disadvantages that, based on social disorganization theory, might lead one to believe concentrations of Hispanic populations result in increased crime rates. Despite living in disadvantaged neighborhoods, they tend to have higher levels of two parent families and more consistent labor market participation, which may provide a buffer against higher rates of criminal activity. One potential barrier to these stabilizing mechanisms is the potential lack of political capital within Hispanic communities. Based on minority threat perspective, the group in power maintains control over legislation and, in turn, who is considered criminal. The current study examines the effect of Hispanic population concentrations and political involvement on rates of violent and property crime in U.S. counties. Preliminary results indicate a consistent attenuating effect of political participation that is robust across all violent and property crimes examined in the research, while predictors of social disorganization consistently predict increased rates of crime.

 

Life & Physical Sciences

Winner: Project #35
Application of a Cobalt(III) Complex Supported on Carbonaceous Nanomaterials for Electrochemical Sensing of Hydrogen Peroxide
Charlette Parnell (Applied Science-Chemistry)
Mentor(s): Anindya Ghosh
ABSTRACT
Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) detection was electrochemically monitored using a non-enzymatic cobalt(III) complex (2) of an amidomacrocyclic ligand (1). The metal complex was characterized using analytical techniques such as 1H-NMR and ESI-MS and the composite material of the catalyst supported on multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) with XPS and TEM. Using different carbonaceous nanomaterials, varying catalyst:nanomaterial ratio and changing the pendant groups on the ligand moiety of the complex, we found that a dichloro substituent (2a) supported on MWCNTs as the most effective H2O2 sensor. From these studies, a low detection limit (5.0 X 10-8 M) and a wide detection range was obtained. Electrochemical studies indicated 2a and MWCNTs worked synergistically to detect the presence of H2O2. UV/Vis of 2a indicates formation of an intermediate species following addition of H2O2 to 2a. 2a was also able to electrochemically determine the concentration of H2O2 present in several commercial products.
Funding: National Science Foundation

Honorable Mentions: Project #36
A Novel High Light Inducible Carotenoid Binding Protein Complex From Synechocystis 6803
Soumana Gaoh Mahaman Tachiou Daddy (Applied Sciences)
Mentor(s): Qingfang He
ABSTRACT
Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 is a model cyanobacterium extensively used to study photosynthesis. Here we reveal a novel high light-inducible carotenoid-binding protein complex (HLCC) in the thylakoid membranes of Synechocystis PCC 6803 cells exposed to high intensity light. Zeaxanthin and myxoxanthophyll accounted for 29.8% and 54.8%, respectively, of the carotenoids bound to the complex. Using Blue-Native PAGE followed by 2D SDS-PAGE and mass spectrometry, we showed that the HLCC consisted of Slr1128, IsiA, PsaD, and HliA/B. The expression of genes encoding the protein components of the HLCC was enhanced by high light illumination and artificial oxidative stress. Deletion of these proteins resulted in impaired state transition and increased sensitivity to oxidative and/or high light stress, as indicated by increased membrane peroxidation. Therefore, the HLCC protects thylakoid membranes from extensive photooxidative damage, likely via a mechanism involving state transition.
Funding: NSF

Honorable Mentions: Project #31
Novel P, N Co-Doped Carbon from Spent Coffee Grounds Synthesized by Microwave Technique for O2 Reduction Reaction
Sunil Kumar Ramasahayam (Applied Science)
Mentor(s): Tito Viswanathan
ABSTRACT
Spent coffee grounds, the solid residual wastes from coffee industry is an inexpensive, abundantly available renewable resource material. Every year about 6 million tons of this waste is generated worldwide. This work represents an efficient way of transforming spent coffee grounds to hetero-atom doped carbon to replace expensive metal based catalysts as electrodes in fuel cells. Unlike other techniques for preparing heteroatom doped carbon which involves prolonged time, special apparatus and reducing gases, the microwave technique employed for the synthesis affords unique high surface area carbon structures with exceptional properties. Also there is no need for the use of reducing or inert gases during the carbonization process. Ammonium polyphosphate is utilized to aid in the carbonization process and also to create defects in carbon lattice. The as-synthesized P, N co-doped carbon (PNDC) exhibited high BET surface area of ~507 m2/g. XPS revealed the material to contain about 1.90 % N and 3.02 % P. PNDC exhibited an intense O2 reduction peak in alkaline media. The mechanism of O2 reduction was discovered to be a 4 e-mediated process based on Rotating Disk Electrode studies. Also, the material exhibited good electrochemical stability which enables it to find practical applications in fuel cells.

 

Engineering & Technology

First Place Winner Tie: Project #10
Modeling the Antipodal Connectivity Structure of Neural Communities
Bayazit Karaman (Computer Science)
Mentor(s): Coskun Bayrak
ABSTRACT
Positive electrical charges in a solid conductor generate an outward electrical field emanating from the charged conductor. In this context, overall cognitive decisions, which were initiated by the electrical activities of neural modules at different parts of the cerebrum, are completed at the highest spatial and hierarchical level. EEG systems are capable of detecting these electrical activities; however; a unified mathematical model of these highest-level cognitive interactions has not yet been stated. In this study, the highest spatial and hierarchical level of connectivity of neural communities is mathematically modeled integrating the “antipodal points” concept of the Borsuk-Ulam theorem. In order to apply the Borsuk-Ulam theorem and Riemann’s stereographic projection to the EEG data, a sophisticated computational tool was developed called COGSIP. COGSIP analyzes the degree of similarity of the transformed EEG data pairs in a 3D environment to detect antipodal points which are defined as Antipodal Connector Nodes (ACNs).
IRB: 15-060

First Place Winner Tie: Project #11
Chatter that Matter: A Framework for Collecting, Extracting and Managing Event Identity Information from Short Social Media Text
Debanjan Mahata (Integrated Computing, Information Quality Track)
Mentor(s): John Talburt
ABSTRACT
With the popularity of Twitter, there has been voluminous growth in the digital footprints of real-life events in the Internet. The references to different types of events in Twitter have the potential to provide extremely valuable information to researchers and organizations, which could be mined and analyzed for making major decisions. There are tremendous applications in the areas of real-life event analysis, opinion mining, reference tracking, online advertising, recommendation engines, cyber security, event management, enterprise data integration, among others. Thus, there is a need of a generic framework that can collect different event references, extract identity information of the events from them and maintain the information persistently for resolving new references to the events and provide updated analytics. The presented research establishes the design and implementation of such a framework from the perspective of Event Identity Information Management (EIIM) in the domain of Twitter. The paper introduces the problem of EIIM in Twitter, discusses the prevalent challenges and proposes the design of a framework capable of managing persistent identity information of pre-specified set of events. We explore the applications of the research, validate the different components of the framework and conclude with our comments on various criteria showing high efficacy and practical utility of our proposed framework.

Second Place Winner: Project #18
Architecture and Biological applications of Artificial Neural Networks: a
Tuberculosis Perspective
Venkata Kiran Kumar Melapu (Bioinformatics)
Mentor(s): Jerry Darsey
ABSTRACT
The ability of the human brain to learn, tolerate noise and error have attracted many researchers and gave an initiative to develop Artificial Neural Networks. Neural networks have the ability to derive meaning from complicated and imprecise data; it is used in detecting patterns, trends that are too complex for humans or other computer systems. Solutions to the toughest problems will not be found through one narrow specialization; therefore we need to combine interdisciplinary approaches to know the solutions to a variety of problems. Many researchers in different disciplines such as medicine, bioinformatics, molecular biology, and pharmacology have successfully applied artificial neural networks. We presented a brief outline of neural networks applications to medical diagnosis, drug discovery, gene identification, and protein structure prediction. Our study focusses on analyzing Tuberculosis (TB) data using neural networks, diagnosing active TB, and predicting chronic vs. infiltrative forms of tuberculosis.
Funding: National Institute of Health

Honorable Mention: Project #4
Flexible Elliptical Ring Monopole Antenna for DCS and UWB Applications
with Notch Suppression
Ali Hammoodi (Systems Engineering)
Ayman A. Isaac, Systems Engineering
Mentor(s): Hussain Al-Rizzo
ABSTRACT
The Ultra wide band (UWB) antenna has been used in many applications within different areas such in medical applications, multimedia connectivity, and personal communications, to mention a few, due to the design simplicity, low power, and high data rate transmission. In addition, the wearable devices technology requires a small size, high efficiency, and low profile antennas which are compatible for the aforementioned applications. Therefore, this paper is presented an elliptical UWB wearable monopole antenna printed on a Kapton flexible substrate with a length of 66 mm, width of 36 mm, and a thickness of 50.8-μm is a good candidate to operate for the DSC (1.61 – 2) GHz and UWB (3.1 – 10.6) GHz bands. This antenna is a good candidate for applications require flexible antennas in which the antenna should be fit to the operating device or the body under test.

Honorable Mention: Project #6
E-EYE : A Multi Media Based Unauthorized Object Identification and Tracking System
Tolgahan Cakaloglu (Computer Science)
Mentor(s): Coskun Bayrak
ABSTRACT
The systems that are related with identifying, focusing, tracking, and positioning have been implemented in many different areas independently or in different combinations. The compilation of these technologies into a hybrid system enhances the quality of life in a timely, reliable, and cost-effective manner in various fields. Some of these fields include vehicle theft, kidnapping, military operations, etc. Therefore, within the scope of this research, we developed a system called E-Eye: A Multi-Media based Unauthorized Object Identification and Tracking system that is able to identify the activities of objects through the use of readers, tags, multimedia composed of video cameras, global positioning systems, and a central interpreter system. The goal of this study is to identify the unauthorized or suspicious object when necessary by focusing on it through the use of the camera surveillance and/or RFID technology in terms of tracking and GPS in terms of positional coordinates. Last but not least, all of these processes are managed by a central interpreter system according to the collected information in real-time.

 

Health Sciences

Winner: Project #22
Synthesis and Cytotoxicity of Amino Acid Conjugates of Dehydroleucodine
Fatimah Al-Doori (Chemistry)
Mentor(s): Darin Jones
ABSTRACT
Dehydroleucodine (DHL) is a naturally occurring sesquiterpene lactone isolated from Gynoxys verrucosa. It exhibits a wide range of biological activities including anti-microbial and cytotoxicity. The potential therapeutic utility of DHL is hampered by poor physicochemical properties such as poor water solubility. A series of amino acid-DHL conjugates were prepared to improve the physicochemical properties. A discussion of the synthesis and cytotoxicity of the amino-conjugates will be presented.

Honorable Mention: Project #21
Reverse Effects of Caloric Restriction Reveal Roles of Vacuoles in Longevity
Thomas Hahn (Bioinformatics)
Mentor(s): Fusheng Tang
ABSTRACT
Caloric restriction (CR) extends the lifespan of many organisms. Multiple mechanisms including up-regulation of respiration are proposed to explain the longevity effect of CR. However, respiration alters the redox balance and potentially increases the level of the reactive oxygen species (ROS), a pro-aging factor. To better understand mechanisms of CR, we compared the replicative lifespan of different yeast mutants under normal and CR medium and identified a set of mutants with reversed CR effects. Among these were mutants defective in the endocytosis and other pathways toward the degradation organelle vacuole. To search for pathways responsible for these reversed CR effects, we selected two mutants, atg15-delta and erg6-delta, whose lifespan was severely shortened and intracellular ROS was up-regulated by CR, and compared their RNA profiles in response to CR with that of the wild type.
Atg15 is an intra-vacuolar lipase that degrades autophagic vesicles. More than 90% of atg15-delta’s and wild type’s responses to CR were the same. They mainly differed for mitochondrial respiratory chain, mitochondria organization, and mitochondrial protein localization. Erg6 is an enzyme involved in a late step of the synthesis of ergosterol, a critical lipid for membranes and vacuolar morphology. As such, deletion of ERG6 altered the CR responses of a much larger subset of pathways, most notably the cellular amino acid metabolic process, biosynthetic process, and sterol metabolism process. Inspection of carbon flow in the cytoplasm showed that erg6-delta weakened the production of NADH and NADPH in response to CR.
Parallel to these differential responses to CR, we previously observed that atg15-delta accumulates ROS in the cytoplasm while erg6-delta accumulates ROS inside vacuoles. It is likely that the inability of intra-vacuolar degradation of lipids in atg15-delta blocks autophagy and results in the accumulation of altered mitochondria and thus ROS in the cytoplasm. In erg6-delta, the compromised ability to remove ROS by NADH/NADPH increases ROS-damaged proteins and membranes, which are in turn transported into vacuoles by autophagy and other trafficking pathways toward vacuoles. Taken together, normal vacuolar functions including autophagy relieve the ROS stresses triggered by up-regulated respiration in CR and thus ensure the longevity effect of CR.
Funding: Supported by grants from NCRR (P20RR016460) and NIGMS (P20 GM103429) at NIH

Honorable Mention: Project #23
Surface Signature Analysis of anti-Leukemic Sesquiterpene Lactones
Paola Ordonez (Applied Sciences/Chemistry)
Mentor(s): Darin Jones
ABSTRACT
Dehydroleucodine (DHL) and parthenolide (PTL) are sesquiterpene lactones (SLs) with potent anti-leukemic activity. However, they have very considerable structural differences, for example PLT has a 10 member ring attached to 5 member ring, and DHL has one 5 member ring attached to a 7 member ring, attached to another 5 member ring. Nevertheless, the fact that they have the same mechanism of action and biochemically interact with the same targets, suggests that they must have some chemical similarities, recognizable by their targets. In order to identify those similarities we performed a surface signature analysis of both molecules using their X-ray crystal structures and the program MOLCAD as implemented in SYBYLX 2.1.1. The molecules were analyzed using their electrostatic and lipophilic potentials. Our study showed that both of these potent SLs have a characteristic surface pattern, namely a strong electron deficient area, susceptible to nucleophiles, in the middle of a strong lipophilic surface.

Honorable Mention: Project #24
Interaction of Multiple Inositol Polyphosphate Phosphatase1 (Minpp1) and Heat Shock Protein Hsp40 in Endoplasmic Reticulum (ER): Its Potential Implication in ER Stress
Surya Kilaparty (Applied Biosciences)
Meenakshisundaram Balasubramaniam, Qudes A.AL-Anbaky, Aparna Konidala, Megha Agrawal, William H Baltosser and Nawab Ali
Mentor(s): Nawab Ali
ABSTRACT
Inositol phosphates (InsPs) are naturally occurring compounds that play important roles in cell signaling. Multiple inositol Polyphosphate Phosphatase1 (Minpp1) is an endoplasmic reticulum (ER) luminal enzyme that dephospharylates higher InsPs such as InsP6 to lower InsPs at the 3-phosphate position. It has been shown that Minpp1 regulates cellular levels of InsPs that in turn regulate numerous cellular process including vesicular trafficking, calcium signaling and apoptosis. It is not known how ER resident Minpp1 brings about cytosolic InsPs metabolism and the regulation of cellular processes. Using yeast two hybrid screening, we have identified a number of potential Minpp1 interacting proteins including Hsp40. We pursued Hsp40 interaction with Minpp1 in detail because of its strong interaction based on beta-galactosidase reporter gene assay and its location in the ER. We verified this interaction computationally using molecular docking and dynamic simulation methods. There was a strong, stable and specific interaction between Minpp1 and Hsp40 as compared with its interaction to a related heat shock protein Hsp70. The Minpp1-Hsp40 interaction was further confirmed in a co-immunoprecipitation experiment in mammalian cells. Expression of both Minpp1 and Hsp40 were increased in response to heat shock suggesting its potential implication in the regulation of ER stress.
IBC: April 25 2012

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