2018 Undergraduate Exhibition

For the past two years, Penn State Altoona has conducted a pilot program of students presenting their internships at undergraduate research fairs. This is novel territory with virtually no research to guide presenters. Our research team will determine 1) what visual qualities of a research poster translate into award-winning presentations and 2) if these winning qualities of traditional research presentations translate into successful internship presentations.

The twister ribozyme's self-cleavage mechanism is hypothesized to use substrate-assisted catalysis. RNA hexamer models were designed from those detailed in a previous paper whereby RNA hexamers engaged in specific self-cleavage around CA and UA motifs. Experimental results and a recent study discussing Tudor SN that cleaves about these motifs indicates that these linkages may possess no intrinsic reactivity. We conclude that the full twister active site is needed for any detectable level of specific cleavage.

This research focused on modeling some of the stormwater best management practices on campus in the Stormwater Management Model. This model was used to calculate the efficiencies of some of the practices. It was also used to determine which practices can and should be used for future developments to the campus.

The MLL complex is a histone methyltransferase complex that plays a key role in transcriptional activation by covalently modifying the nucleosome. However, our knowledge of its structure and mechanism is limited. We hypothesize that the MLL complex has a precise binding interaction with the nucleosome that can be determined via X-ray crystallography. Solving the structure of this complex bound to its nucleosome substrate will inform us of its mechanism of chromatin regulation.

Antennas are widely used and are of upmost importance. To allow easier and cheaper research of the materials that constitute these devices, the sol-gel autocombustion and tapecasting processes are coupled and optimized. This grants researchers the opportunity to create new compositions, characterize them, and cast them within one lab.

Floods are becoming increasingly common and severe in Harris County, Texas, as there is less permeable land cover in the Houston metropolitan area to absorb flooding impacts. This project identifies areas where reinstating native wetlands in Harris County would be feasible in order to partially absorb flooding. Through a suitability analysis, the project located areas of prime wetland implementation. Subsequently, it presents scenario maps that test wetland absorption performance during a 500-year storm event.

The focus of this project was to create a new medium to describe basic principles of physics theories in order to spark creative learning in what is normally an algorithmic study. The medium consisted of a painting that illustrated the basic concepts of invisible forces within physics such as string theory, electromagnetic theory, and atomic theory. Artistic movements such as cubism and futurism were used as a source of reference in determining optimal painting techniques.

The prlF1 mutation and overexpression of the genes ptsN and yhbW have been found to allow E.coli to survive when sE is absent. These genes also have the ability to alleviate the effects of lamB-lacZ hybrid jamming in secretion machinery and OmpC overexpression, both of which are toxic. We hypothesize that all of the suppressor pathways that allow for survival when sE is absent, require the lon gene.

This project 1) identified transcriptionally active endogenous retroviruses within a population of Wyoming (WY) mule deer and 2) compared the diversity of transcriptional activity across two populations of mule deer that differ in their virus integration profile. This project was completed with Theodora Maravegias and Lei Yang under Dr. Mary L. Poss (maryposs@gmail.com). This project is intended to be submitted within the Department of Biology and presented from 5-7pm.

*Abstract to come

Extracurricular STEM programs for girls in middle and high school are rapidly gaining visibility and popularity. However, research into how effective these programs are in encouraging girls to enter STEM fields is limited to the programs' own internal reports. Through surveys and interviews of Penn State undergraduates who participated in these programs, I seek to determine how effective they are at encouraging girls to pursue STEM degrees as undergraduates and how they could be improved.

The role that iron plays in affective outcomes is not well studied in women of reproductive age. The hypothesis is that iron supplementation will improve overall mood and quality of life and decrease feelings of stress compared to placebo. Participants recruited from Penn State were categorized as iron depleted or sufficient. Iron treatment improved feelings of Physical and Social Functioning and decreased feelings of Bodily Pain, Stress, Tension, Anger, Depression, Confusion and Total Mood Disturbance.