2024 Undergraduate Exhibition

College students' alcohol use is a public health concern with physical, social, and risk-related consequences. Consequences like hangovers, unwanted sexual situations, and embarrassing oneself may be associated with alcohol use disorder (AUD) symptoms. Electronic surveys spanning six weekends assessed college students' (N= 462, 51.7% female, 87.7% White, Mage= 20.1) drinking behaviors and consequences. This project uses linear regression analysis to examine the extent to which alcohol-related consequences are associated with AUD symptoms among college students.

Current statistical/computational advances in network analysis lack the ability to understand the interconnectedness between network nodes in a tactile manner. The overall research goal is to design-develop-demonstrate-evaluate a novel data visualization method that brings together data analytics, augmented reality (AR), and 3D Printed Electronics (3DPE). Our approach can yield novel image-derived phenotype (IDP) biomarkers for complex diseases as well as provide pleiotropic gene targets for drug repurposing.

This question of why some people possess populist attitudes and others don’t, will be explored through survey research. A survey was distributed through Meta advertisements in order to reach social media users directly. Respondents were asked a variety of questions regarding their social media use, such as how long they use social media, how often they use it for news, and to gauge their political participation through commenting and reposting. Afterwards they are then asked a variety of questions gauging different populist attitudes as established by current literature. 

The goal to improve well-being for Penn State students initiated an explorative research study into smart mirror design and its current integration in student’s daily activities. This study is inspired by a multi-stage framework to achieve a healthy lifestyle through technology. The study was informed by both a university-wide survey and cognitive walkthroughs of the mirror prototype. Findings include design considerations for balancing student interest in cognitive load and challenging users to engage in self-improvement.

Microstegium vimineum (microstegium), also known as Japanese Stiltgrass, is an invasive grass that plagues Pennsylvania forests. Microstegium outcompetes native speacies to decrease species biodiversity and available foodstocks for wildlife. Previous studies in Pennsylvania have examined prevention and other studies in different parts of the U.S. have described factors affecting that area. None have discussed the specific factors leading to the population densities found in Rothrock State Forest. Data was obtained in association with the Deer Forest Project. Field measured values as well as GIS calculations were used. Results will be discussed further.

ADSSL1-Myopathy is an ultra-rare muscular disorder caused by a mutation in the purine nucleotide cycle (PNC) gene, ADSSL1. ADSSL1-Myopathy had been hard to characterize on a molecular level due to a lack of adequate models for its study. We are investigating the functions of ADSS using C. elegans and are exploring the use of PNC substrates as a potential therapy. We have established movement phenotypes associated with ADSS function that can be rescued by adenylosuccinate.

Adolescence is a transitional period during which a child undergoes social and emotional changes, adding a layer of vulnerability to increased anxiety symptoms. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted many lives, confining adolescents to their homes and inducing external stressors for parents. For this study, we found that less parental support of adolescents’ reappraisal was associated with higher levels of adolescent anxiety. This effect was more significant among families who were highly impacted by the pandemic.

This poster reviews presently existing literature about triangulation, which in the field of human development and family studies refers to when two caregivers/parents are engaged in a conflict and they recruit one of their children to mediate, take a side, or offer their opinion. Of interest, I examine whether a child's triangulation exposure influences positive prosocial development and whether a triangulated child is empathetic towards peers.     

Learning flexibility is vital to overcome challenges for survival. My experiment tested the learning flexibility in Bluebirds through a reversal learning puzzle by using a wooden trapdoor lever mechanism; switching the active lever’s location between left and right.  I used BORIS software to measure the frequency and length of different bluebird and nestbox interactions. Information from analysis will help demonstrate the Bluebird’s environmental adaptability.

The theoretical perspectives of allostatic load and cumulative disadvantage can be used in tandem to consider the impact accumulated early and adult adversity has on health. We tested associations between early life and adulthood adversity on inflammation in the Einstein Aging Study (N = 205, Age Range = 70-89) with race as a moderator. Using regression and correlational models, significant effects were seen for adult/early life adversity and IL6, TNF- Î±, race modified associations. 

Biofilters, columns of support media colonized by methane oxidizing microbial communities, can be used to mitigate low-concentration methane. While pilot-scale biofilters show potential, little is known about their effectiveness when scaled for industrial use. Not enough research has been conducted on their environmental feasibility when scaled up to effectively put biofiltration to widespread use. We discovered that methane biofiltration may reduce total dairy farm emissions by 37% if applied to treat enteric and manure-related emissions.  

One way that humans can comprehend sentences is by anticipating or predicting upcoming words in the sentence. The present study builds on these findings to explore how people listen to and comprehend English sentences under conditions of babble versus silent background conditions using eye-tracking. Results show that under adverse speaking conditions, listeners find it more difficult to make predictions about upcoming input.

For the past 40 years, humans have been seeing a significant increase in obesity. While a part of this is contributed to environment and monogenic obesity, polygenic obesity, where multiple genes affect the phenotype, is a more unexplored avenue of research. From a genome-wide association study, RUNX2 and TMEM151B have been correlated to an increase in obesity. These findings were then replicated in c. elegans to show that this correlative increase is causative of BMI increase.

Bacterial lipoproteins are recognized by the human immune system receptor TLR2, resulting in a response dependent upon the acylation pattern of the N-terminal cysteine residue. Gram-positive Firmicutes, a dominant phylum of the gut microbiome, demonstrate a wide variation of lipoprotein acylation patterns. Bifidobacterium breve is a member of the Firmicutes associated with anti-inflammation. Characterizing unknown lipoprotein acylation patterns and associated enzymes can lead to distribution of new probiotic species to treat symptoms of inflammatory diseases. 

Cell walls are composed of many polymers and have great potential to be sources of energy. Extraction of proteins using a column from various plants and different classes of xylanases with cell wall substrate were used to analyze how well XIPs can inhibit the breakdown of cell walls. Results demonstrated that xylanase inhibitor proteins decrease xylanase activity.

Microbial communities have major impacts on the health of their host, but the process of microbiome assembly is not yet understood. The symbiosis between Vibrio fischeri and Euprymna scolopes is an excellent model for microbiome assembly.  The role of competition in community establishment was tested in this project through competitive assays between Vibrio fischeri ES114 and five novel strains isolated from wild squid. These competitions will inform further studies of virulence factors in community establishment.

China is suffering from an invasive species called Pomacea Canaliculata, commonly known as apple snails. Apple snails have now been spreading across P.R. China for three decades. These pests did not come on their own, this snail was put into Southeast Asia on purpose, for a couple nutritional purposes. However, years after, damage to crops and ecosystems became apparent (Joshi & Sebastian, 2006). Although these insects started out intentionally, they are no longer wanted, and change is necessary to save Chinas production.  

YfbS is a sulfate transporter found in many marine Vibrionaceae. It functions to import sulfate from the marine environment for the bacteria to grow and survive. YfbS contains two RCK domains, a broad class of domains known to control nutrient import. While RCK domains are well characterized in K+ channels, their function and mechanism remain unclear in YfbS. This work shows that the RCK domains are important for YfbS function of importing sulfate.

The aim of this study was to understand the effect COVID induced isolation had on political ideology. We hypothesized that increased levels of isolation would predict increases in socially conservative attitudes, manifesting as support for voting restrictions, and increases in anti-immigrant attitudes. Using NationScape cross-sectional data from January 2020-January 2021, we find through regression analyses that COVID isolation had a liberalizing effect among Republicans. Likewise, we find that increased levels of isolation predicted more favorable attitudes towards immigrants, lowered belief in a stolen election, and increased support for vote by mail. Both isolation and left media consumption were significant drivers of these effects. 

The main protease (Mpro) plays a major role in SARS-CoV-2 replication. Mpro cleaves the polyprotein to make multiple functional proteins or nonstructural proteins (nsps) that would come back together to make the replication transcription complex (RTC), which allows the virus to replicate itself. Thus, determining a structure for the polyprotein in complex with Mpro is a major area of interest in understanding the Mpro cleavage mechanism for developing more effective drugs against SARS-CoV-2.

Brain size is widely variable among species, but its genetic basis is not well-understood. Stickleback fish brain images from an F2 generation of 80 males (descended from populations with different brain sizes) were measured for whole and regional brain size. Fiji software was used to conduct the measurements, which will be added to a previous sample of 80 brains to enhance the understanding of the genetic basis for brain size.

Asthma is linked to multiple comorbidities (Heckking et al. 2017). Interestingly, the top five comorbidities of asthma are also linked to sleep disorders (Madrid-Valero et al. 2020). We hypothesized that these disorders may share common underlying mechanisms and we reviewed the literature to determine if there is support for this idea. Shared mechanisms could be clinically-relevant leading to improvements in treating both disorders (Lee et al., 2017); sleep interventions should be considered when treating asthma. 

To investigate ways of promoting healthier aging in an increasingly older world population, this study focuses on essential coenzyme, Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide (NAD+), which has been implicated in aging and stress. Increased occurrence of Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) is associated with both aging and decline of NAD+ pools throughout the body. Whole body metabolic profiling amidst AKI reveals various deficiencies in NAD+ synthesis and an accelerated consumption rate, offering insights for potentially targeting age-related diseases.

50-70 million Americans suffer from sleep deficiency which is linked to adverse conditions including increased pain. As a mechanism, we hypothesize that caffeine intake will be inversely related to pain threshold, tolerance, and sleep quality. We will collect data on daily caffeine intake throughout the study. We will then assess pain at baseline and post a one-week sleep extension.  The results of this study on caffeine-sleep-pain dynamics may help alleviate the burden of sleep deficiency.