2024 Undergraduate Exhibition

In pastoralist Kenyan communities, meeting water needs can be a struggle for families. The responsibility of collecting water often falls upon the women of the house. This poster examines water insecurity in rural Daasanach communities and addresses the role of gender, as well as explores how water insecurity impacts women’s ability to breastfeed. Using data from a cross-sectional survey collected in summer 2023, we found that women  experience more water insecurity.​

Extracellular signals and other cellular cargo are required for cell survival. Mechanisms of cargo internalization are needed in order to uptake these materials. Although events upstream and downstream of cargo intake in axons and the cell body of neurons are known, these events are not understood as well in dendrites. Using genetic manipulation in Drosophila and confocal microscopy techniques, we find that sites of endocytosis concentrates at dendritic branch points and act upstream of microtubule nucleation machinery recruitment, introducing a new importance of cell surroundings in neuron injury responses.

The importance of microtubules in neurons lies in their role of providing a highway network that is used to carry molecular components to various locations within the cell. Microtubule-severing proteins are responsible for regulating these microtubules to tailor the highway network to a cell’s needs. Kat60L1, one such severing protein, is being examined using in vivo live imaging in a Drosophila system to gain more insight into the specific functions of this poorly studied protein.

Cellulose is one of the main structural components in the primary cell walls of plants that provides plants with the mechanical strength to withstand external environmental forces. This biopolymer is synthesized at the plasma membrane (PM) by cellulose synthase complexes (CSC), which are made up of cellulose synthase proteins (CESA). Previous research has shown that CSC complexes and CESA proteins are found in the plasma membrane during synthesis; however, the assembly and trafficking of the CSCs to the PM are poorly understood1. TRAPP complexes are highly conserved protein complexes that may play a role in controlling the intracellular trafficking pathways2,3. In this study, we investigate the role Tca17, a TRAPPII and TRAPPIII specific subunit, may play in regulating CSC dynamics and compare its subcellular dynamics to Trs85, a TRAPPIII specific subunit4. Discovering a reduction in seven-day-old hypocotyls, a lower crystalline cellulose content in four-day-old hypocotyls, and no affect on the YFP-CESA6 particle density at the PM in prc1-1 tca17 mutant suggests that Tca17 is involved in cellulose synthesis at the PM, but in an independent role of Trs85.

The main goal of this presentation is to highlight the benefits of the strategic location of Panama and the Panama Canal. The planned highlighted areas are as follows: benefits to the economy, benefits to corporations and businesses, and the internal benefit to the culture of the country its self.

Thermodynamic stability of an RNA duplex is impacted by its environment and the imperfections within the duplex. To explore the effects of RNA structure on stability bulges and internal loops were incorporated into the duplex. Two environments were studied: 1M NaCl and artificial cytoplasm of Eco80 (80% Escherichia coli metabolites) which is an approximation of cellular conditions. Results indicate that structural imperfections are more readily tolerated under in vivo-like conditions.

The type VI secretion system (T6SS) is a molecular weapon which allows bacteria to compete with nearby cells through contact dependent killing activity. While T6SS has a well-defined function, the full extent of impacts to symbiosis establishment in V. fischeri is still unknown. This poster serves to convey data on how two T6SS positive strains interact and impact each other in vitro.

The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission has taken an interest in documenting reproducing populations of Brook Trout. To discern which streams were inhabited by reproducing populations of Brook Trout, the PFBC compiled a list of unassessed streams to be surveyed. Out of the many unassessed trout streams, we sampled 80 streams during the summer of 2023. If streams showed reproducing populations, the PFBC would take the necessary steps to manage these populations.

People recognize emotional prosody in foreign languages; aspects of emotional prosody has universal qualities (Paulman & Uskul, 2014; Pell et al., 2009). Participants more accurately recognize emotions in their native than a foreign language(Pell et al., 2009). We studied these same accuracies for bilingual individuals. Also, the physical overlap of competing signals makes target speech more difficult to understand (Mattys et al., 2012). Thus, this we also investigated how background babble may affect emotion recognition.

Cover crops (CC) play an important role helping farmers retain efficiency and yield while promoting sustainable agricultural practices. By understanding how CC allocate their biomass we can better predict their ecosystem service provisioning (e.g., nitrogen retention). Through this research, I analyzed above and below-ground allocation changes in four CC species in monocultures and mixture treatments. Insights from this work can aid growers in optimizing their planting techniques to yield specific service packages from CC.

For my presentation, I created a logistic regression model based on gender and ethnicity in order to predict the success of women in entrance to STEM major classes at Penn State. Real-life data from Penn State Undergraduate Education was used to make this model. I completed the variable selection process, validity assumptions, and demonstrated how the model could be used to predict the success of an undergraduate STEM major based on demographic factors. However, these models proved that Gender is not a statistically significant predictor of success.

Self-reported intake and availability of fruits and vegetables has been shown to have low reliability for both children and adults. One solution is to measure polyphenols, which are naturally occurring compounds found mainly in fruits and vegetables. Derivatives of polyphenols can be measured using urinary metabolite analysis. We will compare polyphenol concentrations and parent-reported child consumption of fruits and vegetables to validate this approach in children.

Currently, exoplanets are classified into four differentcategories based on their size: terrestrial, super-earth, Neptunian, andGas Giants. According to Kepler’s Third Law of planetary motion, thesquares of the orbital periods of these planets are directlyproportional to the cubes of the semi-major axes of their orbits. Thepurpose of this research is to investigate whether this law alwaysapplies to each category of exoplanets. If not, the research aims tounderstand the factors that could cause a divergence from therelationship, and whether those differences are a trend in thatparticular exoplanet type. It is expected that exoplanetary systems willfollow Kepler’s Third Law if: 1. the exoplanets are much less massivethan the parent star, 2. gravitational influence between the planets isnot significant, 3. the stellar system is clear of dust and debris, and4. the system does not contain multiple stars. Our preliminary resultsshow that there are several systems of exoplanets that deviate from suchKepler’s Third Law with majority being among the terrestrial type.Further, this research aims to explore the factors that could cause thisshift, whether it be experimental errors or the existence of a hiddencelestial body in the planetary system influencing the orbit of aparticular planet.