Oral Presentations Session 2

One of the most important problems in astrophysics today is the mystery of dark matter. A class of dwarf galaxies known as Almost Dark Galaxies (ADGs), which contain a high percentage of dark matter and little to no starlight, are the ideal laboratories to study this mystery. I developed two distinct methods for automated detection of ADGs in the Sloan ... Read More

Our brains are arguably the most crucial organ in our body, comprehending what we see and sense. Yet for the great majority of human history, it has been incredibly difficult to look into it and perceive exactly what is happening. This has changed with the invention and popularity of the functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) machine; using fMRI, researchers are ... Read More

The potential impacts of future invasive species in habitat restorations and preservations can be better understood through examining the effects of a non-native species in a remnant prairie plant community. This study will accomplish this through testing the competitive exclusion principle, creating an environment where Echinacea purpurea and Echinacea angustifolia , a non- native species and a native species, are ... Read More

The purpose of this investigation was to design a way to connect an Ocean Optics Red Tide USB650 spectrometer to a 12 inch Meade LX200GPS Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, so that astronomical spectra could be gathered. The other purpose was to show that with relatively simple equipment, most schools that have a telescope can do this. First, in order to accomplish this, ... Read More

The W-Curve Theory of Adjustment describes a student's varied emotional stages upon entering a residential academic setting for the first time. While the W-Curve Theory is founded upon research studies surrounding adults in new environments, it has never been proven to be accurate to high school students. We are setting out to determine whether the W-Curve is an accurate description ... Read More

The purpose of this investigation is to improve the accuracy of the software used in recognizing patient activities in physical therapy in order to allow for the collection of objective and continuous activity data in a manner which is convenient for the subject. Patients’ activities are traditionally predicted simply using static classifiers such as Support Vector Machines (SVMs). Studies have ... Read More

The purpose of this investigation was to determine if the PAISLY (Paired-agent imaging of sentinel lymph nodes) was an effective method to non-invasively detect the presence of tumor cells in the sentinel lymph node. In this investigation, human breast cancer cells were grown in female nude mice, until the tumor cells metastasized into the lymphatic system. Fluorescent anti-EGFR antibodies were ... Read More

It is estimated that 8% of US children have food allergies. Despite the high prevalence and risk associated with food allergy, the mechanisms that drive this disease are unclear. B cells play many important roles in all allergic diseases; however, the role of B cells in food allergy has not been studied. We sought to determine whether B cell function ... Read More

Using genome data to predict cancer type is an increasingly relevant practice as it provides a direct, noninvasive strategy to analyze genetic predisposition to malignant cancer types. More specifically, analysis of gene expression data across the genome can provide insight into the underlying gene interactions that propel the progression of tumors. A database containing expression levels for 16,063 genes was ... Read More

Quench degradation properties are important issues in understanding the stability of high-temperature superconductors (HTS). With a growing interest in Ag-alloy- sheathed BiSr2Ca2Cu3O8+x (Bi2223) as an implementable HTS for commercial applications in high-field magnets, it is crucial that its quench behavior and degradation limits, including conditions that decrease its critical current, are well understood. However, there still is a knowledge gap ... Read More

Microbial dysbiosis; triggered by diet, environment, and host genetics; is associated with extra-intestinal disorders. Preliminary data showed that high fat diets significantly increased the abundance of the family Clostridiaceae in the small intestine and that diet-mediated dysbiosis drives lipid absorption in the small intestine causing increased adiposity. Therefore, it was hypothesized that Clostridium scindens would directly impact expression of fatty ... Read More

Microtubules (MTs) are polymers of tubulin that exhibit highly dynamic instability and play a critical role in the eukaryotic cell cycle. MT dynamic instability, which is the fluctuation between growth and shrinkage of MT ends, allows cells to undergo constant, rapid structural reorganization to perform various cell functions. MT plus-end tracking proteins (+TIPs) are a type of microtubule- associated protein ... Read More

G-Protein Coupled Receptors are seven-transmembrane receptors known to be the target receptors of onethird of all prescribed medicines, which demonstrates their importance in the pharmaceutical and pharmacological context. When activated, these receptors signal through stereotyped intracellular signaling pathways, demonstrating the ligands’ effects. We used the Tango assay which relies on a modified beta-arrestin recruitment signaling pathway, ours specifically targeting the ... Read More

Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) has an average survival rate of 12 months, making it the most aggressive form of brain tumor, and unfortunately it is also the most common brain tumor found in humans. GBM can also occur in any lobe or structure of the brain, which could possibly have an effect on the patient’s long term survival. We pursued this ... Read More

Organic Light-Emitting Diodes (OLEDs) are more efficient versions of the common Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs), but are difficult to mass produce. Another problem with OLEDs is that blue OLEDs are not as efficient as other colors, making them unreliable. One way to combat this issue is through the use of host layers in these devices to increase the efficiency of the ... Read More

Guanosine penta/tetraphosphate ((p)ppGpp) plays an influential role in the stress response exhibited by bacteria cells. Not only does it prevent the production of GTP, but it also helps to prevent cellular death. ppGpp induction is found under the presence of amino acid starvation and also inhibits GTP biosynthesis enzymes. Furthermore, there is a direct correlation between cell death and the ... Read More

Ask a scientist, and they’ll tell you “love is really just biology.” Ask a hopeless romantic, and they’ll tell you that love is an unexplainable, all- consuming force that can only be understood as fate. By comparing papers from scientific studies and writings by philosophers, poets, and social scientists, this study investigates both sides of the story. Topics covered include ... Read More

The human adaptive immune system relies on T cells, lymphocytes which recognize pathogens through antigen receptors on their surfaces. To initialize the immune response, T cell receptors (TCRs) bind to pMHC complexes, consisting of the antigenic peptides of a pathogen and the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) of an antigen presenting cell. The binding process triggers the beginning of the adaptive ... Read More

Previous studies have indicated the potential of head-mounted displays such as the Oculus Rift for use as education tools, due to increased immersion and perception of realism within virtual settings compared to standard digital displays such as computer monitors and TVs. 3-dimensional models of architecturally significant areas in the Academy building were modeled using Blender and Google Sketchup, two architectural ... Read More

This investigation focuses on Eve, Sarah, Miriam, Delilah and Esther in the Old Testament. It asks the question, to what extent does Eve serve as a paradigm for other women of the Old Testament, and what is the role of these women in the Bible’s providential narrative? This investigation was based upon extensive reading and analysis of both primary and ... Read More

The detection of pharmaceutical compounds, pollutants, and biological molecules plays a critical role in industrial analysis and water quality regulation. In particular, the effective determination of estrogen metabolites, a class of endocrine- disrupting compounds and potential urinary predictors of breast cancer, has great medical and environmental significance. High performance liquid chromatography with electrochemical detection (HPLC-ECD), a method which utilizes the ... Read More

Tutoring and academic advising serve important roles in determining the academic achievement of at-risk students in a post-secondary learning institution. This study was conducted at a small university in Chicago with undergraduate students who are considered to be a part of at-risk populations including ethnic minorities, students with disabilities, students of low socioeconomic status, probationary students, or are otherwise academically ... Read More

The unfolded protein response (UPR) is a protective response which helps the cell adapt to intracellular stressors. Recent data indicates that the UPR affects hepatic lipid and glucose metabolism. This study analyzes how the individual and combined effects of bile acid feeding followed by fasting or non-fasting periods affect phosphorylated inositol requiring enzyme 1 alpha (IRE1α), a UPR protein. Cre+ ... Read More

The present laboratory-based study investigates associations between spouses’ genuine and non-genuine smiles during a marital conflict discussion and well-being (i.e., life satisfaction; marital satisfaction). Fourteen married couples (N = 28 spouses) engaged in 10-minute video-recorded conversations about a disagreement in their marriage. Two trained raters coded the frequency of genuine (i.e., Duchenne) and non-genuine (i.e., non-Duchenne) smiles during the conversation ... Read More

Heart failure, a chronic condition caused by the gradual degradation of the heart muscle over time, is one of the leading causes of death in America. Despite its prevalence, a cure has not been discovered, though palliative measures may be taken. It is speculated that heart failure is caused by the deterioration and loss of t-tubules in cardiomyocytes, which results ... Read More

The interstellar medium is full of cool clouds, around 100°K, made of atoms, molecules, and dust particles. Mysterious components of these clouds are carriers of diffuse, unidentified interstellar bands (DIBs). Because they are too broad to be caused by atoms, they are thought to consist of over 400 nonterrestrial molecules. I tried to observe the behavior of DIBs around the ... Read More

Mu2e is an experiment at Fermilab that will investigate the neutrino-less conversion of muons to electrons. The necessary muons will be generated by a relativistic proton beam hitting a tungsten target, which is expected to result in radiological hazards in the experimental hall. To model the emission of radioactive particles, we developed an algorithm in C++ as an extension to ... Read More

Diabetes Type II affects at least 382 million people worldwide. One of the long-term complications of diabetes is diabetic neuropathy which leads to higher mortality and morbidity with painful diabetic neuropathy (PDN) as the most common cause of such pain, affecting about a quarter of diabetic individuals. Using Nav 1.8/cre X tomato reporter mice on a high fat diet which ... Read More

Organic LEDs (OLEDs) are better versions of the well-known LED that have many more practical applications, but are more expensive to produce and difficult to test at this time. Small batches of tris(bipyridine)ruthenium(II) complex ion and polyvinyl alcohol solutions are mixed and then spin-coated onto a 1” by 1” Indium-Tin oxide glass slide, which has a conductive layer on one ... Read More

All living organisms have biological sensors that receive signals and regulate cell functions in the presence of oxygen. One of these particular sensor proteins, Direct Oxygen Sensor Phosphodiesterase (DosP) from E.coli, works with a partner protein to regulate the presence of cyclic-di-GMP, an important dinucleotide second messenger. In this investigation, the oxygen sensing module of DosP, referred to as DosP ... Read More

Rollercoasters are a definitive means for stimulating excitement, and, thus, a great medium to use for determining a quantifiable value for excitement. This value has not been previously quantified in this manner. To do this, I compiled a collection of data on five aspects of four rollercoasters at Universal Studios in Orlando. I then compared the data with the relative ... Read More

In schizophrenia, many patients take medications in order to relieve their psychotic symptoms. However, the effects of these antipsychotics on the connections within the brain are not completely understood. Many of these connections are associated with the thalamus, making it an important subcortical region to analyze when measuring connectivity throughout the brain. This study aimed to see if there was ... Read More

Camp has made a difference in many children’s lives, however some parents choose not to give the experience to their children. In this investigation, a child’s leadership skills, friendship making skills, and independence were examined to see the effects that attending a residential summer camp had on the child. To collect the data a survey was created that was 14 ... Read More

With the recent shift in molecular biology to the study of proteins not as individual elements but as nodes in a larger network, the question arises of the impact of a central protein or gene in these networks. Previous studies have suggested that highly-connected proteins play a more important role in organism fitness. In this investigation, I examined the most ... Read More

Already there is a large consumer market on devices that track steps and other standard measures. However, there are many more movements that can be quantified by wearable devices. This can be particularly useful to motivate a physical therapy patient’s compliance. This system was designed to be flexible enough to handle multiple movements of exercise. Wearable devices with accelerometers were ... Read More

Oil dispersants are among the most common methods of oil spill cleanup yet they are not strictly regulated. A list of some ingredients, without concentrations, has only recently been released making testing on these ingredients crucial to leaning oil dispersant’s effect on ecosystems. We used a Michigan Center Foundation-7 (MCF-7) immortal cell line to test the toxicity of five ingredients ... Read More

This study looked at the motivational factors of gifted and talented Latino males and females, who are enrolled in the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (IMSA), involved in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics education (STEM). The study explores the reasons behind IMSA’s Latino students being involved and engaged in STEM. Since there are not many Latinos engaged in STEM, this ... Read More

The Globus Pallidus External (GPe) receives input from the Striatum (Str) as well as projects back to its spiny projection neurons (SPN). This pallidostriatal pathway was historically difficult to study due to technological restrictions. Recent advances in transgenic technologies allowed for the creation of a new mouse line to be combined with optogenetics, a genetic technique which causes specific cell ... Read More

As we investigated last year, the benefits of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can be massive. While organizations such as the military utilize them rather extensively, UAVs can also improve the lives for the general public from lowering taxes to potentially saving lives. The aircraft tested last year was fully capable of carrying a modest payload of a camera and live ... Read More

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is an inflammatory bowel disease that affects the colonic mucosa. One of the treatments for UC is a surgical procedure that involves creating an ileal pouch from the large intestine that is called ileal pouch anal-anastomosis (IPAA). In some cases this ileal pouch becomes inflamed: a condition called pouchitis. Pouchitis is hypothesized to occur in genetically susceptible ... Read More

Little is known about the molecular mechanisms involved in cocaine addiction. An understanding of the mechanism at the level of protein expression would be potentially useful for coming up with a treatment. This study analyzed the proteins from brains of cocaine treated (dose of 20 milligrams per kilogram of body weight) and control (treated with saline) BALB/cByJ mice using a ... Read More

Understanding the spatial organization of genome is key to gaining insights into nuclear events that cause diseases such as cancer. Experimental techniques such as chromosome conformation capture and its derivatives (3C/4C/5C and Hi-C) provide a wealth of information on organization of genome in the nucleus by quantifying the frequency of DNA interactions between restriction enzyme fragments in a population of ... Read More

In order to study the plant immune system for benefits in crop production, a protocol was developed to effectively transform the 76R variety Rio-Grande tomato to express the HopZ3 effector protein which is found in Pseudomonas syringae, a bacteria which is pathogenic to plants. Cotyledons from the 76R variety were infected with Agrobacteria to insert HopZ3 bacterial genes into plant ... Read More

Obesity (excess fat) is a cause of breast cancer, but reasons for this are not understood. Peroxisome proliferator- activated receptor gamma (PPARɣ) is responsible for fat cell differentiation and is activated by fatty acids stored in fat cells. PPARɣ prevents breast cancer in humans. We hypothesized that excess fatty acids may reverse PPARɣ function to tumor promotion. To test this ... Read More

Final State Interactions are the interactions of particles created by previous particle interactions. Simulated Proton Final State Interactions for show large variations from experimental. Final State Interactions are difficult and expensive to examine through experiments, making further research prohibitively resource intensive. If simulated Final State Interactions more closely matched experimental data, more accurate observations may be made. An accurate simulation ... Read More

Many dental appliances are made from the polymer polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA); however, PMMA has a relatively soft surface that is susceptible to scratches. Bacteria enter the grooves and cultivate, increasing the risk of infection for the user. To prevent this, the PMMA is strengthened by the application of TiO2, which is deposited by Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD). Before deposition, we ... Read More

Femtocells, a type of small cellular tower, are becoming more commonly used by wireless service providers for their benefits over the traditional macrocells such as better data rates and indoor coverage. However, due to the limited range of femtocells, service providers must accommodate for users of both types of towers, resulting in a need for optimized bandwidth allocation. In order ... Read More

Shinto, the native religious traditions of Japan, has been around for millennia, and has thus become part of the way of life of most Japanese people. However, young people have become increasingly less religious, and therefore the beliefs of Japanese youth pertaining to Shinto, is a valuable field of study. I produced a survey and administered it on Japanese high ... Read More

In a prior study by Mishra et. al, numerous novel drugs were identified as possible ligands of the CXCR4 receptor, which plays many roles in diseases such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), Warts, Hypogammaglobulinemia, Infections, and Myelokathexis (WHIM) syndrome, and at least 23 types of cancer. This study takes a more detailed look into one of the prospective agonists found ... Read More

There is a common phrase time flies when you are having fun, and most people would agree with that. This study sets out to discover what effect certain aspects of tasks have on ones perceived passage of time. A survey comprised of a visual reaction test, a visual memory test, an auditory reaction test, and an auditory memory test was ... Read More

In 1945, America dropped two bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, leading to devastating effects. Many survivors’ stories have been written as cautionary tales in the hopes that this tragedy would not be repeated. I read John Hersey’s Hiroshima (1946) and Keiji Nakazawa’s children’s manga Barefoot Gen (1985) and watched Studio Ghibli’s Grave of the Fireflies (1988) before comparing how each ... Read More

Herpes simplex virus type-1 (HSV-1) is a widely prevalent virus and 67% of the world’s population is latently infected by the virus. One of the ways through which HSV-1 can spread is cell-to- cell fusion of infected and uninfected cells mediated by viral envelop glycoproteins. So far, there has been no cure against HSV-1 infection or its spread. Previous studies ... Read More

Most galaxies in the universe contain large amounts of dark matter. However, the presence of dark matter in dwarf elliptical galaxies has not been thoroughly investigated. This investigation took data from four different galaxies in the Virgo Cluster to search for the presence of dark matter by comparing the observed orbital velocities of approximately 150 globular clusters within the four ... Read More

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder of the basal ganglia. Within these nuclei, the dorsal striatum(dSTR) is innervated by the external globus pallidus (GPe) via an inhibitory pathway. However, specific striatal targets and locations of GPe- SPN contacts have not yet been described. We used transgenic mice and a technique called whole cell patch clamp recording, which allows filling ... Read More

Cyanobacteria are gram-negative prokaryotes that perform oxygenic photosynthesis by fixing carbon dioxide to produce oxygen. Multiple species, such as Anabaena sp. PCC 7120, of cyanobacteria are also capable of fixing N2 when nitrogen sources in the environment are scarce. Around 10% of the vegetative cells of the filamentous cyanobacteria Anabaena sp. PCC 7120 differentiate into heterocysts, cells that specialize in ... Read More

The PAX gene makes proteins that bind to certain segments of DNA controlling the activity of that gene. The transcription factor PAX3 over-expresses in melanoma cell lines, affecting the development of melanocytes. The question remains then how phosphorylation of the PAX3 protein affects the stability of the PAX3 protein level. To answer this, the half-life of the PAX3 level must ... Read More

Air pollution is a mixture of solid particles and gases in the air, causing air toxins, which are pollutants known or suspected of causing health issues. Water pollution is a mixture of particles not meant to be in water, leading to the water becoming toxic to drink. Some common air pollutants are ozone, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen dioxide. My goal ... Read More

People with advanced multiple sclerosis (MS) experience mobility impairment, which worsens with the natural muscle loss caused by aging. Progressive resistance training (PRT) is a possible treatment for alleviating the severity of mobility impairment in MS by increasing muscle mass and improving function. Twenty-five elder, severely impaired individuals with MS were recruited to participate in 6-months of home-based PRT that ... Read More

The purpose of this investigation is to discover critical experimental factors that could lead to the variation of time measurement by a time-to-digital converter (TDC) implemented on field-programmablegate- array (FPGA). Two pulses were generated by a pulse generator, and the second pulse was given a 20 nanoseconds delay. In an ideal experiment, the mean of the entry data would have ... Read More

Homeless youth populations are exposed to numerous external factors that impact their development. Heavy substance abuse, in specific marijuana use, is common in these populations. The purpose of this study is to examine the frequency of marijuana use and its impact on executive functioning and academic development in emerging homeless youth populations. Interviews were administered to one-hundred forty- eight individuals ... Read More

To reveal the molecular mechanisms of appendage diversity and the fin-to-limb transition, I am identifying the regulatory domain of Hox expression in skate fin development. Hox genes are essential to organismal development but the genetic loci responsible for Hox expressions shifts remain elusive. Potential enhancer sites in the skate genome were identified using Assay for Transposase-Accessible Chromatin (ATAC) sequencing, cloned ... Read More

Image recognition software attempts to identify similar or identical images by searching for and matching visual features of two sampled images. However, one issue when it comes to image processing is accounting for inconsistencies in viewing conditions. This investigation explored varying factors that could impact the effectiveness of the image recognition and tracking software, Vuforia, in the game engine Unity. ... Read More

The endothelial monolayer lining the vascular system maintains tissue-fluid homeostasis through selective permeability. This permeability is a result of inter-endothelial junctions such as adherens junctions (AJs), which provide a physical attachment of endothelial cells by extracellular Vascular- Endothelial (VE)-cadherin adhesion. Stability of AJs is regulated by anchorage of VE-cadherin complexes of associated alpha-, beta-, and p120-catenins to the actin cytoskeleton ... Read More

Polymers have potential in the medical field to be used for microfluidic devices and composite implant materials for tissue engineering. However, using polymers in the medical field has drawbacks; microbes can grow wherever there is moisture, heat and food, causing bacterial infection or biofilm formation. We hypothesized that the functionality of polymers could be increased by coating polymer with an ... Read More

The changes in gamma amino butyric acid-A (GABA-A) receptor function have been shown during acute and chronic ethanol exposure and its withdrawal. However, the changes in the mRNA levels of the GABA-A receptor subunits are less clear. In addition, ethanol withdrawal after chronic ethanol exposure shows an increase in histone deacetylase (HDAC) activity in the rat amygdala. We measured the ... Read More

The alignments of distant Kuiper Belt objects suggest the presence of another gravitational object in the Solar System, currently denoted as Planet Nine. The object has not been observed by current sky surveys, however given its predicted orbit, its location is likely to be in the observational limits of the future Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). The telescope will conduct ... Read More

Models are often used to analyze observational learning. Many of which study a decision making process in which Bayesian agents make binary decisions based upon observations of previous agents. These observations may mislead an agent from their initial decision causing what is known as an Informational Cascade. Formally, an Information Cascade refers to a time in which every subsequent agent ... Read More

Literature and culture can be analyzed alongside each other in order to determine the relationship between a work and its context of origin. By scrutinizing relevant sources, relevant data was collected for the purpose of exploring and articulating this relationship more precisely. Key sources included Joseph Campbell's Myths to Live By and The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Various works ... Read More

Ultrasonic thermometry uses precise ultrasonic time-of-flight (ToF) to remotely measure temperature in materials without direct access to a hot surface and without disturbing the thermal transport at that heated surface. This technique has been used to measure the internal barrel temperature during firing of large Navy guns with sensors attached to the external barrel surface. This technique has also been ... Read More

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is an autoimmune condition that results in inflammation of the intestines. Clostridium difficile is a bacteria that resides in the colon, occasionally resulting in serious infection. Our goal is to identify the role of C. difficile isolation in patients with IBD. At the University of Chicago IBD Center, subjects were recruited and completed an enrollment questionnaire ... Read More