Cover Art by Michelle Lozano, Psychology (2014) Carroll and Adelaide Johnson Scholarship/Provost Fellowship Poster Session 2, Poster 66

WELCOME TO LOYOLAS 2014 UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH & ENGAGEMENT SYMPOSIUM

On behalf of the Center for Experiential Learning and the Loyola Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (LUROP), we are pleased to welcome you to the Undergraduate Research & Engagement Symposium, celebrating Loyolas mission of expanding knowledge in service to humanity through learning, justice, and faith. The powerful words enlighten and engage are brought to life by the work of Loyola students here. By definition, enlighten means to impart knowledge upon; give intellectual or spiritual light to; and engage means to occupy the attention of or efforts of. As you visit with students and learn about their research or community -based projects, I invite you to reflect upon how these students have enlightened and engaged in the creation of knowledge and in community work. During Loyolas Weekend of Excellence, the theme of Celebrating Transformative Education is demonstrated by the students projects and presentations at this symposium. These undergraduate students, from all disciplines across the university, spend hours outside of their classes to conduct hands -on, original research and communityengaged projects that not only escalate their own learning, but also advance knowledge in their disciplines and impacts the communities with whom they have worked. The Center for Experiential Learning team continues to be impressed with growing participation in this event from students who are advancing knowledge through research fellowships, capstone projects, internships, and service learning experiences at Loyola and across Chicago. We are responding to this growth, in part, by expanding to two poster sessions, increasing our offerings of oral presentations, and integrating community engagement projects. We encourage you to take advantage of the wide array of student presentations in all symposium sessions. We are very grateful to the faculty, alumni, staff, partners, and graduate students who are serving as evaluators this year and ensuring an enriching experience for our undergraduate students. We would like to thank all of the faculty, staff, and community partners who mentored and advised the impressive undergraduate students whose work is showcased here. To learn more about the undergraduate research program or the funded fellowships through LUROP, please visit www.luc.edu/lurop. For more information about Loyolas Center for Experiential Learning, which sponsors high impact, engaged learning opportunities for students across the curriculum, visit us at www.luc.edu/experiential.

In Service,

Patrick Green, Ed.D. Director, Center for Experiential Learning

SCHEDULE
Poster Presentations and Community Engagement Forum (CEF): Session 1 ......... 11:00-12:30 (Mundelein Auditorium) Oral Presentations ...................................................................................................... 12:50-2:00 (Mundelein Classrooms, Floors 2-5) Poster Presentations and Community Engagement Forum (CEF): Session 2 ............. 2:00-3:30 (Mundelein Auditorium) Awards Ceremony and Reception ............................................................................... 3:30-4:30 (Sullivan Center, Galvin Auditorium/Lobby)

Outstanding Loyola Undergraduate Researcher Award Langerbeck Award for Undergraduate Research Mentoring Graduate Student Mentor Award Hayes Award for Advising and Mentoring Loyola University Libraries Undergraduate Research Paper Award Community Engagement Award for Social Justice Community Engagement Award for Innovation in Sustainability Community Engagement Award for Impact

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Community Engagement Forum: Session 1 ..................................................................... page 5 Research Poster Presentations: Session 1 ......................................................................... page 7 Oral Presentations ........................................................................................................... page 28 Community Engagement Forum: Session 2 ................................................................... page 39 Research Poster Presentations: Session 2 ....................................................................... page 42 Index of Presenters ......................................................................................................... page 63

LOYOLA UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES PROGRAM (LUROP)

In addition to hosting the 2014 Undergraduate Research & Engagement Symposium as part of the Center for Experiential Learning (CEL), the Loyola Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (LUROP) offers guides for external research opportunities, travel grants for conference presentations, workshops on research and presentation skills, and more. You can find these resources at www.luc.edu/ lurop. In addition, LUROP coordinates or supports sixteen undergraduate research fellowships. Many, though not all, of the students presenting at the symposium received support from these fellowships.
Biology Research Fellowship Program The Biology Research Fellows Program funds long-term research projects under the direction of a faculty mentor in the Department of Biology. Students work for two years on their respective projects during the academic year and in the intervening summer. Biology Summer Research Fellowship Program The Biology Summer Research Fellowship funds summer research projects under the mentorship of a faculty member from with Department of Biology. Carbon Undergraduate Research Fellowship The Carbon Fellowship offers a full two -year, interdisciplinary research opportunity for science and math majors to work closely with two faculty mentors. This program is designed for students who plan to pursue research in graduate or professional schools. Carroll and Adelaide Johnson Scholarship The Carroll and Adelaide Johnson Scholarship offers rising juniors a two -year scholarship to support a research project on women, leadership, and social justice under the mentorship of a Loyola faculty member. Center for Urban Research and Learning (CURL) Fellowship The CURL Fellowship is intended to facilitate involvement of students in collaborative research projects with community-based organizations, social service agencies, health care providers, businesses, and government. Fellows are active participants in efforts to improve the quality of life of all members of the Chicago metropolitan community. Institute of Environmental Sustainability (IES) Undergraduate Research Fellowship Formerly known as the CUERP Fellowship, the IES Fellowship is for students to conduct interdisciplinary research on issues related to unsustainable natural resource uses in the greater Chicago land region. The Center encourages research projects to combine elements of ecosystem structure and function, impacts on human health, public policy, behaviors, and other environmental factors. The Joan and Bill Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage (CCIH) Undergraduate Research Fellowship The Joan and Bill Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage (CCIH), in support of the Catholic Studies minor, offers a research fellowship to undergraduate students who are currently enrolled in the Catholic Studies minor program. This fellowship is dedicated to support for CCIH -funded faculty research projects, as well as CCIH's international research projects. McNair Post-baccalaureate Achievement Program The Loyola University Chicago McNair Scholars Program is an independent program that prepares qualified undergraduate students for graduate study at the doctoral level. Students participate in scholarly activities during the 3

academic year and over the summer. An integral component of the McNair program is the summer research internship through which students conduct research under the tutelage of a faculty mentor. Molecular & Computational Biology Summer Research Fellowship Students in this program study a special class of viruses, called bacteriophages, that preys on bacterial hosts in Lake Michigan. These students look into the impact that these viruses have on the bacterial levels in the lake. This effort combines both molecular and computational biology. Mulcahy Scholars Program The Mulcahy Scholars Program supports over 50 College of Arts and Sciences majors in the hard sciences who are working on an individual research project with a faculty mentor, serving as a research assistant, or engaging as a member of a collaborative research team to support ongoing faculty projects throughout the academic year. Provost Fellowship for Undergraduate Research The Provost Fellowship supports over 60 undergraduate students in any academic discipline across the university conducting research with the support of a faculty mentor. Research Mentoring Program (RMP) RMP is designed to partner graduate students who are working on their dissertation research with undergraduates who are interested in participating in research. This summer program is designed to support doctoral students in their dissertation research while providing an opportunity for undergraduates to learn more about graduate studies and graduate-level research. Ricci Scholars Program The Ricci Scholars Program is an innovative research and cultural immersion program organized around the theme of the meeting of East and West. The program awards selected students with scholarships for travel, research and exploration during a junior year of study divided between two of the worlds most important cities: Rome, Italy, and Beijing, China. Rudis Fellowship Program The Anthony and Mary Rudis Fellowship provides scholarships to students whose research focuses on the comparative study of constitutions. Recipients of the scholarship will write a 20-25 page research paper during the academic year under the guidance of a faculty member in the Department of History or the Department of Political Science. Social Justice Research Fellowship Starting this summer, the Social Justice Research Fellowship will be the newest LUROP Fellowship. It will support students conducting faculty-mentored research that explores issues of social justice or contributes to social justice. Women in Science Enabling Research (WISER) The oldest undergraduate research fellowship at Loyola, WISER is designed for undergraduate women seeking to explore research science, work closely with faculty, learn how laboratory work is conducted, and build a sense of community.

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT FORUM: SESSION 1

*CEF POSTERS ALONG MUNDELEIN AUDITORIUM WALLS Poster 1 Loyola 4 Chicago: Promoting Community Engagement, Social Analysis, and Meaningful Reflection though Ongoing Service Emily Cybulla, Biochemistr y (2015); Bianca Grove, Ecology (2015) Community Partner: Big Brothers Big Sisters; Centro Romero; Chicago HOPES for Kids; Chicago Youth Program; Howard Area Community Center; Jordan Community School Homework Help; Misericordia; Neumann Family Services; North Side Housing and Supportive Services; Sarah's Circle Loyola 4 Chicago volunteers commit to weekly service with community partner organizations for a full semester. During the 2013-2014 academic year, Loyola students served populations experiencing homelessness, adults with developmental disabilities, immigrants, and at-risk youth in the Rogers Park, Edgewater, and Uptown communities. The program looks to expand and deepen students understanding of social justice and the ways in which direct service transforms not only the communities that we serve but the volunteers whose undergraduate experiences are shaped by weekly service.

Poster 2 Bringing It Back Home: Loyola's Alternative Break Immersion Program, Jesuit Education, and Community Engagement Emily Cybulla, Biochemistr y (2015); Michelle Peters, Envir onmental Studies/Theology (2015) The Alternative Break Immersion (ABI) program is committed to providing structured service immersion opportunities for over one-hundred students. ABI participants, student leaders, and staff members travel to seventeen domestic and three international partner sites over the winter, spring, and summer breaks to explore and embrace four pillars: community, justice, simplicity, and faith. During more than a week of intentional living and learning, these immersions seek to extend students understanding of Loyolas Jesuit values beyond the classroom. By treading lightly and working in solidarity with both urban and rural communities, participants strive to grow as men and women for and with others.

Poster 3 Conservation in Belize: A Neotropical, Biodiverse Country Julia Coppi, Biology (2014) Course: ENVS 398 Mentor: Stephen Mitten S.J., Biology In ENVS 398, Conservation of Neotropical Ecosystems, we had the privilege to spend 10 days over spring break traveling around the Central American country of Belize. We partnered with 4 organizations: The Biodiversity and Environmental Resource Data System of Belize (BERDS), the Sibun River Watershed Association, the Community Baboon Sanctuary, and the Belize Audubon Society. Our service work included water sampling to examine pH, alkalinity, dissolved compounds, and nitrogen load, as well as cataloging different bird species throughout our travels. In only 10 days, we identified almost half of all the 500 plus bird species found in Belize!

Poster 4 Birds, Belize, Biodiversity Monique Sosnowski, Envir onmental Studies/Psychology (2016); Theresa Curran, Biology (2015); Katie Pacholski, Environmental Science (2015); Katie Dreas, Environmental Studies (2014) Course: ENVS 398 Mentor: Stephen Mitten S.J., Ecology Faculty and Spiritual Director Community Partner: BERDS (Biodiversity and Environmental Resource Data System of Belize); Sibun Watershed Association; Belize Audubon Society; E-Bird (Project of Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology and National Audubon Society)

Our class, Conservation and Sustainability in Neotropical Ecosystems, travelled to Belize during spring break to study terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, ecotourism, and local conservation practices. We worked with the Biodiversity and Environmental Resource Data System of Belize (BERDS), the Sibun Watershed Association, the Belize Audubon Society, and E -Bird by contributing data from our citizen science, daily bird counts, and water testing. Studying and being a part of Belizes conservation efforts allowed our class to gain knowledge of the countrys ecosystems as well as understand social, cultural, economic, political, and various other aspects of conservation.

Poster 87 Lessons in Urban Politics: The Cataloging and Archiving of the Helen Shiller Papers Matthew Jenkins, Histor y/Philosophy (2014) Course: HIST 398 Mentor: Kyle Roberts, History In the Spring of 2013 my partner and I completed an internship through Loyola University of Chicago's Department of History to organize and catalogue documents from Helen Shiller's long political career as Alderman of the 46th Ward. This presentation provides a highlight of some of the many lessons on urban politics and governance I gained as a result of this internship.

Poster 88 Little Bees In The Big City: Urban Beekeeping Leah Weiss, Envir onmental Studies (2015); Brittney Rooney, Political Science (2014); Kelly Hof, Envir onmental Studies (2015); Jared Brocklehurst, Envir onmental Science (2015) Course: ENVS 350F Mentor: Kevin Erickson, Institute of Environmental Sustainability; Lane Vail, Institute of Environmental Sustainability Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) is an environmental epidemic that is affecting bee populations across the world. The purpose of this project is to begin addressing this problem by providing Loyola University Chicago and the surrounding Rogers Park community with pollinators that will improve local food systems and awareness of the importance of honeybees.

Poster 89 Aquaponics: Tilapia Breeding Program Danielle Dubiel, Envir onmental Science (2014); Tyson West, Envir onmental Science (2016); Laura Ruelle, Biology (2015); Christine Dam, Biology (2016) Course: ENVS 350F Mentor: Kevin Erickson, Institute of Environmental Sustainability; Lane Vail, Institute of Environmental Sustainability The purpose of our project is to develop an on-site breeding program for the Tilapia included in Loyola's Aquaponics system.

Poster 90 The Chicago History Museum and History Through Social Media Liam Grogan, Histor y (2013) Course: HIST 398 Community Partner: Chicago History Museum The Chicago History Museum collections department has been developing new ways to introduce our city's history to a wider audience. Through social media sites like Twitter and Tumblr we told the story of Shoeless Joe Jackson and the 1919 Black Sox Scandal. Through images from the museum's archives and research, Joe was brought back to life through this project and reintroduced to baseball fans across the country and the world.

RESEARCH POSTER PRESENTATIONS: SESSION 1

Poster 5 Synthesis of Novel N-heterocyclic Iron Catalysts: Routes to Isoprene Oligomerization Colin Gallagher, Biochemistr y (2015) Mulcahy Scholar s Pr ogr am Mentored by Chad Eichman, Chemistry Isoprenoids are precursors to a wide variety of molecules ranging from fragrances to drugs to many other bioactive molecules. A cheap and selective pathway to these precursors would be of great value. Many current synthetic sequences are long, multi step pathways that are inefficient, unselective and/or costly. Iron catalysts with N -heterocyclic skeletons have shown the potential for efficient, selective and cheap isoprene oligomerization. This project is focused on finding new methods and pathways for the synthesis of a variety of novel N-heterocyclic iron catalysts.

Poster 6 Role of Ventral Tegmental Area and Rostromedial Tegmental Nucleus Muscarinic Cholinergic Receptors in Opiate-induced Locomotion Ekamjeet Dhillon, Biology/Psychology (2014) Pr ovost Fellowship; Natasha Sharma, Psychology (2015) Mentored by Stephan Steidl, Psychology This study explored muscarinic cholinergic contributions to increases in open field locomotion following administration of the addictive drug morphine. Morphine infusions into either the ventral tegmental area (VTA) or the rostromedial tegmental nucleus (RMTg) increased locomotion in mice. Co-treatment with atropine, a muscarinic cholinergic receptor blocker, in the VTA strongly attenuated morphine-induced locomotion. By contrast, co-treatment with atropine in the RMTg increased morphineinduced locomotion. These data suggest that cholinergic receptors in both brain sites play important but opposite roles in mediating opiate-induced locomotion. Muscarinic receptor mechanisms may thus provide a new target in the treatment of opiate addiction.

Poster 7 Herbs from Home: South Asian Herbal Healthcare in Chicago Naushin Vahora, Anthr opology/Biology (2014) Mentored by Ruth Gomberg-Munoz, Anthropology As the immigrant population grows in the United States, it becomes increasingly important to understand their cultural customs. When it comes to healthcare practices, South Asian's utilize homeopathic remedies to cure a plethora of ailments. This study examines the diasporas of South Asian communities and traditional South Asian herbal healthcare practices that survive today within the Chicagoland area . This ethnography allows insight into how South Asian health care practice are being utilized away from its country of origin, the South Asian perspective on Westernized medical treatment, as well as addressing the generational differences that transpire in practicing cultural customs.

Poster 8 Fluorescent Labeling of HIV-1 Abdel Zakieh, Biochemistr y (2016) Resear ch Mentor ing Pr ogr am Mentored by Zana Lukic, Cell Biology The purpose of my project was to create a more efficient way for lab members to generate doubly fluorescent HIV -1 virus by using three plasmids instead of four. First, we generated S15-mCherry and S15-GFP in pCAGGS, which allowed us to create stable cell lines of 293T (human embryonic kidney) cells that expressed S15-mCherry or S15-GFP. The S15-mCherry/S15-GFP were cloned into a pCAGGS plasmid using standard molecular cloning techniques (PCR, restriction enzyme digestion, ligation,

transformation and screening). Finally, we used these cell lines along with the three plasmids (GFP -Vpr/Cherry-Vpr, VSVg and R7 provirus) to generate doubly labeled viruses.

Poster 9 Unearthing Genomic Fossils: Designing a Novel Tool for the Detection of Horizontal Gene Transference Jonathon Brenner, Bioinfor matics (2015) Car bon Under gr aduate Resear ch Fellowship Pr ogr am/Pr ovost Fellowship Mentored by Catherine Putonti, Biology; George Thiruvathukal, Computer Science Horizontal gene transference (HGT) serves as a novel source of genetic information from the typical mode of vertical (parent to offspring) inheritance. The ubiquity of symbiotic relationships throughout evolutionary history amongst prokaryotes and eukaryotes suggests it should be occurring with greater regularity than currently detected. This discrepancy can be largely placed on current comparative genomic tools being ill adapted for the constraints of this unique problem; new resources must therefore be developed around reworked foundations to properly address this task. New data structures and algorithms are thus in development to facilitate identifying HGT events in eukaryotes.

Poster 10 Youths Perception of Community Violence within Little Village Maureen Burns, Psychology (2014) Pr ovost Fellowship; Nisha Patel, Psychology (2014) Mentored by Maryse Richards, Psychology While much data are available regarding community violence in Chicagos Little Village neighborhood, youths perspectives of their own community remain unknown. Little Village is the largest Latino neighborhood in the Chicago metropolitan area and also faces high crime rates and gang related violence (Forrest, 2011). The community is comprised mostly of Mexican - Americans under the age of 25 (Enlace, 2013). This community based participatory research study seeks to address the differences between how Mexican-American youth, age 12-18, describe community violence and how the statistics published by the Chicago Police Department (CPD) describe violent incidences within the community of Little Village.

Poster 11 A Structural Dissection of the Enzymatic Actions of a Quorum Quenching Lactonase AiiA Paul Wadsworth, Bioinfor matics (2014) Car bon Under gr aduate Resear ch Fellowship Pr ogr am Mentored by Dali Liu, Biochemistry; Ken Olsen, Chemistry N-acyl homoserine lactone hydrolases (Lactonases) are quorum-quenching enzymes that can disrupt the bacterial cell-to-cell communication by degrading the quorum sensing signals. These naturally occurring enzymes have potential to be novel antimicrobial reagents combating persistent human infections such as the secondary infections in patients suffering Cystic Fibrosis. To fulfill their clinical potential, we need to understand the detailed mechanisms of their catalysis and substrate recognition. Thus will lay a foundation for modifying the lactonase potency and specificity for clinical use through protein engineering. X -ray protein crystallography was used as an effective mechanistic technique studying the reactions catalyzed by lactonase AiiA from Bacillus thuringensis. With high-resolution X-ray diffraction data, electron density maps obtained can help to identify the chemical species (of both ligands and enzymatic groups) that play critical roles in the reaction. Although one crystal structure is considered as a single static snapshot in a dynamic process, we have trapped and detected several transient steps (or analogous structures) of the lactonase reaction in a series of crystal structures. Collectively, a series of static structures can work like motion pictures depicting the key dynamic stages of the enzyme actions. Aided by Molecular Dynamic (MD) simulation, our results give a comprehensive understanding of the protein actions of AiiA during the whole reaction.

Poster 12 Phylogenetic Analysis of HIV-1 Thomas Hatzopoulos, Bioinfor matics/Computer Science (2016) Mulcahy Scholar s Pr ogr am/Pr ovost Fellowship

Mentored by Catherine Putonti, Bioinformatics The HIV virus displays rapid evolutionary change due to its high mutation rate level and short generation times. Understanding the evolutionary constraints of this virus may provide the insight needed to more rapidly diagnose and potentially inhibit HIVs spread. Using the wealth of sequence data publicly available, sequences are parsed, allowing to expose this data in the form of a RESTful web service, allowing for users to query the data based on several parameters, including country of isolation, collection date, and gene. We are now able to observe how sequence conservation varies with respect to distribution throughout the world.

Poster 13 Mycorrhizal Communities on Loyola University Chicago's Green Roofs Emily Sandall, Biology (2013) Mentored by Bala Chaudhary, Environmental Science Green roofs are being increasingly utilized on urban buildings for their ability to retain storm water, insulate buildings, and cool urban heat islands. Strong soil health is required for such services, yet few studies have examined the soil biodiversity and functioning in green roofs. Mycorrhizal fungi are an indicator of soil health, forming a symbioses with plant roots, enabling nutrient and water absorption as well as carbon sequestration. Using a biological assay, we examined the abundance of mycorrhizal fungi in soil samples across ten green roofs on two Loyola campuses. Mycorrhizal fungal propagule abundance was found to be present in an average of 75% of the roots from the biological assay. The Loyola green roofs were also found to differ in the amount and type of plant coverage and soil depth over time. These results indicate that even with minimal maintenance, the green roof soil at Loyola University Chicago can sustain a variety of plants and its mycorrhizal community is sustainable, warranting green roof implementation.

Poster 14 What Makes a Good Learner? Neural Evidence for Variation in Encoding Strategies William Beischel, Psychology (2014) McNair Scholar s Pr ogr am/Pr ovost Fellowship; Bianca Wells, Biology (2014); Izabelle Rymut, Biology (2014) Car r oll and Adelaide J ohnson Scholar ship Mentored by Robert Morrison, Psychology Successful encoding is critical for long-term memory and is an important variable in understanding successful learning. In this study we used a retrieval practice paradigm in conjunction with EEG to examine the neural correlates of encoding throughout face-name association learning. Participants were divided into high and low performers based on final recall test performance after learning. High and low performers showed differences in the N400 and the late positive complex, with high performers exhibiting more efficient re-encoding. These results suggest that allocating encoding resources during iterative learning opportunities may differ according to learning ability.

Poster 15 Viral Adaptation of phiKZ and PP7 in Host Competition Monica Janeczek, Biology (2014) Mulcahy Scholar s Pr ogr am Mentored by Catherine Putonti, Biology In the proposed work, two viral strains were studied, phiKZ and PP7, in the presence of a single host, Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The relative amounts of the two bacteriophages were analyzed over time to determine which phage was most fit in the given environment. The phage ratio was assessed quantitatively by random sampling of viral plaques and amplification of extracted DNA by PCR. Pseudomonas aeruginosa is resistant to many antibiotics and is currently treated using bacteriophage therapy. The results can, therefore, give insight into more effective anti -Pseudomonas treatment.

Poster 16 Temporal and Spatial Variation of Bacterial Species within Lake Michigan Kema Malki, Biology (2015) Molecular and Computational Biology Resear ch Fellowship Mentored by Catherine Putonti, Biology Freshwater lakes are home to bacterial communities with thousands of interdependent species. Although Escherichia coli and other fecal bacteria indicators are often monitored in the nearshore waters of Lake Michigan, the complex dynamics of the microbial communities in this freshwater ecosystem are not understood well. Given this incredible level of biodiversity and the difficulty of growing certain species in monoculture, culture-independent methods of study are optimal for examining microbial biodiversity. Through next-generation sequencing technology and computational techniques, it is possible to establish a comprehensive representation of biodiversity.

Poster 17 Effects of Nanotitanium on Benthic Algae Erika Vigen, Biology (2014) Mulcahy Scholar s Pr ogr am Mentored by Christopher Peterson, Environmental Science The rapidly growing use of nano-scale TiO2 in manufactured products has recently raised questions about their effects on aquatic ecosystems. This project studied the effects of this engineered nanotitanium on algal colonies that lie at the very bottom of stream beds. The effects have been evaluated by observing changes in benthic algal communities growing in artificial streams treated with nanomaterials.

Poster 18 Syntheses of Potential Inhibitors of DapE Enzymes Mouneeb Choudry, Biology (2014) Car bon Under gr aduate Resear ch Fellowship Pr ogr am Mentored by Daniel Becker, Chemistry The endpoint of this research is to create, synthesize, and test inhibitors of the dapE enzyme from Haemophilus influenzae with antibiotic activity. The main goal for this project: (I) To construct highly potent small molecule inhibitors of dapE enzymes. It has been proven that DapEs are vital for cell growth and proliferation. For this reason, deletion of this gene would cause cell death. The DapE gene has been identified in several pathogenic Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria such as Mycobactrium tuberculosis. In order to define inhibitor binding to the dapE, an interdisciplinary approach will be applied, uniting organic synthetic methods with biochemical, spectroscopic, and X-ray crystallographic methods. Advances are anticipated from the success of this work, since the creation of antibiotics that are effective against antibiotic resistant strains is a major health concern.

Poster 19 What N3-CTV Has to Teach Us Elizabeth Spaargaren, Biology (2014) Mulcahy Scholar s Pr ogr am Mentored by Daniel Becker, Chemistry; Douglas Steinman, Chemistry My research is with N3-CTV, a cyclophane that is related to CTV, a scaffold with many uses researched in Dr. Beckers lab, but which is much more versatile due to its ability to be functionalized on its apical nitrogen atoms. Applications of this molecule include areas of biology, chemistry, pharmaceutical and medical imaging. I have learned the chemical, physical and structural features of these chemical molecules that I have been synthesizing and purifying. The past few years in this chemistry lab have taught me many valuable lessons as well that I will be sharing at the symposium this year.

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Poster 20 Deficit in Synaptic Transmission in Alzheimer's Neurons: A Mechanistic Study with Whole Cell Patching Emily Lenczowski, Biology (2014) Biology Summer Resear ch Fellowship Mentored by Hui Ye, Biology Neurons communicate via transmission of chemicals across the synaptic cleft, the gap that separates the two neurons. In Alzheimers disease (AD), this communication is impaired, which may be responsible for the damaged cognitive and emotional function observed in AD patients. The neuro-pathological mechanism of such impairment is not completely clear, which hinders the development of effective medical treatments to rescue this pathological deficit. This project is specifically designed to answer the question: is the communication deficit in early AD between two neurons caused by pathological changes in the signal sending (presynaptic) neuron, or the signal receiving (postsynaptic) neuron, or both?

Poster 21 Electric Field Guided Neural Stem Cell Migration Through a Three-Dimensional Matrix Mitchell Nohner, Biology (2014) Mulcahy Scholar s Pr ogr am Mentored by Hui Ye, Biology The induction of neural stem cell migration via exposure to an electric field (EF) provides a solution to one of the primary obstacles preventing the viability of neural stem cell transplantation: accurate and efficient migration of the transplanted cells to the effected area. The mechanism underlying this EF-guided movement remains unknown however. We began to explore this process by culturing neural stem cells in a three-dimensional matrix and exposing them to a DC-EF for extended periods of time in both calcium rich and poor environments. To help determine the movement mechanism, morphological and kinetic analyses were performed.

Poster 22 Modularity and Integration In Pelvic Morphology of the Short Tailed Possum (Monodelphis domestica) Ryan Schmelter, Biology (2015) Mentored by James Cheverud, Biology Modularity is the idea that a group of traits are all interdependent on one another, but show no interaction with traits outside of their given module. The bones of the pelvis arise from different biochemical pathways and we should expect to see individual modules exist between bones. This experiment examines the pelves of the South American marsupial species Monodelphis domestica. After measuring a variety of linear distances of 433 individuals, a correlation matrix was produced and different hypotheses of modularity were tested against it. In contrast with the original hypothesis, results showed no significant signs of modularity, meaning that there were no observable interactions between the traits of each module.

Poster 23 Characterization of Benthic Microbial Communities in Highly Urbanized Streams Maggie Sladek, Biology (2015) Biology Resear ch Fellows Pr ogr am Mentored by John Kelly, Biology; Timothy Hoellein, Biology To explore the relationship between urban stream syndrome and benthic microbial communities, we analyzed samples from nine sites within the northern section of the Chicago River System that receive inputs from combined sewer overflows and a large municipal wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). Results showed that the WWTP was a significant point source of inorganic nutrients, including ammonium, nitrate and phosphorous, and that the increased nutrient concentrations immediately downstream of the WWTP were linked to higher rates of denitrification. However, bacterial abundance and respiration rates were not stimulated by the nutrients provided by the WWTP.

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Poster 24 Aquatic Insect Community Structure of Coastal Wetland Ponds in the Wrangell-St. Elias National Forest, Southcentral Alaska Kerilynn Deegan, Biology (2014) Mentored by Martin Berg, Biology Coastal wetland ponds of southcentral Alaska are critical habitats providing food, primarily aquatic insects, for migrating and nesting birds. These habitats, however, are threatened by climate change, which is most pronounced in these higher latitudes. This baseline study of aquatic insect community structure in coastal wetland ponds will be used to forecast potential alterations in food resources for birds under a climate change scenario. Aquatic insect community structure and diversity were assessed using samples collected from ponds in different landscape types near Yakutat, Alaska. High variability across landscape types suggest future studies must account for this high variation.

Poster 25 Qualitative Analysis of Metacognitive Strategies in the Introductory Chemistry Lab Camellia Hilker, Biology (2014) Resear ch Mentor ing Pr ogr am Mentored by Mary Van Opstal, Chemistry Metacognition refers to being aware of what one knows. I have been researching students described use of metacognitive skills in two chemistry lab formats: traditional cookbook labs and the Science Writing Heuristic (SWH). SWH provides an inquiry based approach, allowing for more peer collaboration and reflection, which help to promote metacognitive strategy use. My research focuses on the qualitative analysis of student interviews using the coding software NVivo. This helps reveal how firstyear chemistry majors are aware of self-learning and study methods. Through statistical analysis of these codes, I am also looking for a possible variation between SWH and traditional labs.

Poster 26 The Importance of Inhibitory Control During Relational Processing in 9-29 Year-Old Women Elise Gagnon, Psychology (2014) Car r oll and Adelaide J ohnson Scholar ship; Sarah Zaza, Biology (2015) Mentored by Robert Morrison, Psychology Effective analogical reasoning is critical in both everyday and formal learning environments and has been shown to be particularly important for learning and discovery in math and science, two areas where women are frequently underrepresented. Morrison, Doumas, and Richland (2011) have argued that inhibitory control in working memory can explain developmental patterns in analogy in young children, as they have in older adults (Viskontas et al., 2004). In this study, we looked at how young womens ability to discover and map relations with a Relational Integration task may be impacted by distraction and thus depend on the development of inhibitory control.

Poster 27 Role of the Pedunculopontine Tegmental Nucleus in Reward-Seeking Behaviors Dave Gabbert, Biology (2015) Mulcahy Scholar s Pr ogr am/Pr ovost Fellowship Mentored by Stephen Steidl, Psychology Our goal is to identify the Pedunculopontine Tegmental Nucleus (PPTg) as an important area in the neural circuitry of reward and as a possible treatment area for recovering drug addicts. We examine the role the PPTg inputs to the Dopamine system of the Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA) in coding for reward-predictive stimuli in a rat model of human drug addiction.

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Poster 28 Optogenetic Investigation of Mesopontine Projections to the Ventral Tegmental Area Kevin Veverka, Biology (2014) Mulcahy Scholar s Pr ogr am; Aleah Martin, Psychology (2015) Mentored by Stephan Steidl, Psychology Brain dopamine systems are critically involved in mediating appetitively motivated behaviors, such as the approach toward and the consumption of natural rewards and drugs of abuse. We studied the role of the laterodorsal tegmental nucleus (LDTg), a major source of excitatory input to the ventral tegmental area (VTA), in motivated behaviors. We show that selective optogenetic excitiation of LDTg inputs to the VTA reinforces operant behavior in rats in a dopamine -dependent way. Understanding the role of LDTg inputs to the dopamine system allows us to better understand and better design treatment for drugs of abuse.

Poster 29 Caudal Fin Ray Development in Esox lucius Joshua Hittie, Biology (2015) Mentored by Terry Grande, Biology The focus of this research project is to examine the development pattern of the caudal fin rays in Esox lucius specimens. Starting with specimens approximately 80 hours old, developments in the caudal fin and the caudal fin rays have been tracked. Additional metrics including total length, standard length, caudal fin shape, dorsal fin ray, and anal fin ray counts have been taken to further track and assess the development of the fin rays of the specimens.

Poster 30 An Exploration of Precedence and Recency Effects on the Basis of Interaural Differences of Time Jacquelyn Hill, Psychology/Biology/Classical Civilizations (2014); Thomas Serena, Psychology (2014) Mentored by Raymond Dye, Psychology Lateralization performance based on interaural differences of time was compared for trials on which the information was carried by the first vs. second clicks (randomly determined) as a function of the interval between the two. Precedence was found at intervals shorter than 10ms; recency was observed at longer intervals.

Poster 31 Guidance of Sensory Axons Via Ephrin-A/EphA Interactions David Cho, Biology (2015) Mulcahy Scholar s Pr ogr am Mentored by William Rochlin, Biology We use sensory innervation of the tongue as a model for learning about axon guidance. Ephs and ephrins are cell surface proteins that guide axons in much of the nervous system, but their role in guiding sensory axons in the tongue has not been studied. High levels of Ephs and ephrins are associated with repulsion between cells, while low levels may cause stabilization, adhesion, or branching. I used antibodies to localize ephrin-As and EphAs in the tongue and in sensory neurons and used coverglasses coated with ephrins to determine if ephrin-A/EphA signaling may guide sensory axons in the embryonic rat tongue.

Poster 32 Effect of Dissolved Organic Carbon and Alkalinity on Copper Toxicity to Pomacea paludosa Dureshahwar Ali, Biology (2014) Mentored by Tham Hoang, Ecotoxicology Florida apple snail (Pomacea paludosa) is not a standard species for toxicology testing. However it plays an important role in the ecosystem and serves as a main food source for many higher trophic organisms, especially the snail kite. Earlier studies found that the Florida apple snail was sensitive to copper (Cu). This study determined the effect of dissolved organic carbon

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(DOC) and alkalinity on Cu toxicity to the Florida apple snail to test the assumption of the Biotic Ligand Model (BLM) that increasing alkalinity and DOC concentration of test water decreases the toxicity of Cu to freshwater organisms. Results of this study indicated that DOC decreased Cu toxicity to apple snails. However, alkalinity had no effect on Cu toxicity to apple snails. This suggestion should be taken into account for the BLM.

Poster 33 EphB/ephrinB Signaling Repels Sensory Neurites in Vitro, but not in Vivo Randall Treffy, Biology/Biochemistr y (2016) Biology Summer Resear ch Fellowship/Mulcahy Scholar s Pr ogr am Mentored by William Rochlin, Biology Axons are guided to their targets by a variety of repulsive and attractive cues. EphB/Ephrin -B signaling mediates contact dependent repulsion and, less commonly, growth promotion, branching, or stabilization throughout the nervous system, but its role in guiding oral sensory axons is unexplored. In vitro, I found that high levels of ephrin -B repel taste and somatosensory neurites. However, even though ephrin-Bs are expressed in target epithelium during innervation, EphB knockout mice had decreased taste bud innervation in vivo and ephrin-B1 knockout mice displayed no difference in innervation compared to controls. This suggests that target-derived ephrin-B/EphB signaling does not repel taste or somatosensory axons in vivo, but may have a stabilizing role.

Poster 34 Alignment of Students' Problem Solving Strategies with Expert Practices and Instruction in General Chemistry Classrooms Thomas Sullivan, Biophysics (2014) Mulcahy Scholar s Pr ogr am; Phillip Nahlik, Chemistr y (2015); John Tednes, Anthropology (2015) Mentored by Patrick Daubenmire, Chemistry Novices and experts differ in their knowledge frameworks and approaches to content. This investigation focused on students use of problem solving strategies in general chemistry and measured the alignment of these strategies to those of expert chemists who are also general chemistry instructors. Using a combination of surveys and a think -aloud protocol with eye-tracking, the perceptions and execution of problem solving strategies of students and instructors were measured. The results of this preliminary study indicate a possible disconnect between the problem solving strategies some experts use and the strategies that they teach students to use in the classroom.

Poster 35 Effects of Anthropogenic Contaminants on Benthic Microbial Communities in Freshwater Ecosystems Sana Iqbal, Biology/Histor y (2015) Biology Summer Resear ch Fellowship/Mulcahy Scholar s Pr ogr am Mentored by John Kelly, Biology Recent studies suggest that discharge of wastewater effluent can have significant impacts on organisms in the receiving streams. This project assesses the effects of effluent on stream bacterial communities by comparing three streams in Baltimore, MD that vary in the intensity of anthropogenic inputs. Although no significant difference was observed in the abundance of bacteria between these three sites, the composition of the microbial communities differed. Specifically, the abundance of nirS, a key gene involved in the denitrification pathway, was significantly different. These results provide valuable insight into the ecological degradation of freshwater ecosystems as a result of anthropogenic contaminants.

Poster 36 The Diversity of the CRISPR/Cas, CAS1 gene in Lake Michigan Paul O'Malley, Biology/Finance (2014) Mentored by Catherine Putonti, Biology The CRISPR-Cas system is a complex mechanism in bacteria that provides immunity against invading nucleic acid through sequence specific targeting methods. The defense mechanism is completed in unison with Cas genes that are closely associated

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with the CRISPR loci that contain spacers with memory to foreign DNA. The cas1 gene of 921 base pairs in length in ubiquitous throughout the systems subtypes, making the gene ideal for assessing the systems diversity in Lake Michigan. Amplifying these variable regions from Lake Michigan isolates and subsequent sequencing of the gene will provide the data necessary for potential evolutionary and phylogenetic analysis.

Poster 37 Depression and Anxiety Differentially Impact Empathy and Prosocial Behavior Hadeel Barrawi, Biology/Psychology (2015) Car r oll and Adelaide J ohnson Scholar ship/Pr ovost Fellowship Mentored by Rebecca Silton, Psychology Depression and anxiety are associated with specific patterns of withdrawal and approach tendencies. Thus, they may be differentially related to empathy and prosocial behavior. This study examined the impact of depression and anxiety on empathy and prosocial behavior (N= 654 college students). Results showed that high levels of depression were related to lower levels of empathy, which predicted decreased prosocial behavior. With regard to anxiety, the results showed that higher levels of anxiety were related to higher levels of empathy, which predicted increased prosocial behavior. In summary, depression and anxiety distinctly impact levels of empathy and engagement in prosocial behavior.

Poster 38 The Effect of Semantic and Relational Similarity on the N400 Event-Related Potential in Verbal Analogical Reasoning Ryan Brisson, Biology/Psychology (2014) Mulcahy Scholar s Pr ogr am Mentored by Robert Morrison, Psychology Previous neuroimaging studies (e.g., Green et al., 2010; Kmiecik & Morrison, 2013) suggest the neurocognitive processes responsible for verbal analogical reasoning vary with the semantic distance between the source and target. In order to investigate this effect, we presented the terms of verbal analogies sequentially while participants judged whether the problems were valid analogies. Semantic distance was modulated using Latent Semantic Analysis. We recorded EEG to access the level of priming at various stages during reasoning. Our results suggest that relational priming impacts processing as early as the C -term, but becomes increasingly important as the D-term is presented.

Poster 39 Organic Acid Production in Bacterial Suspensions Containing MFP and NaF Aleksandra Wojtowicz, Chemistr y (2014) Mulcahy Scholar s Pr ogr am Mentored by Conrad Naleway, Chemistry Monofluorophosphate (MFP) and sodium fluoride (NaF) are clinically proven anticaries agents. There still remain, however, mechanistic questions regarding the bacteriological effects of both of these agents. Earlier studies have suggested that although both agents may influence the ability of Streptococcus mutans to metabolize sucrose and generate weak organic weak acids, the mechanisms may differ.On-going studies are examining the effects of both 2mM fluoride agents on two strains of S. mutans GS5 and S. mutans ATCC 25175. Studies are focusing on the effects of these agents on cell growth and metabolism. Growth curves for both strains of S. mutans have been monitored over 72 hours and samples collected to examine the relationship between pH and weak acid production.

Poster 40 Creating Metal Complexes of N3-CTV for Biomedical Imaging David Upp, Chemistr y (2015) Mulcahy Scholar s Pr ogr am/Pr ovost Fellowship Mentored by Daniel Becker, Chemistry The supramolecular scaffold tribenzo-1,4,7-triazacyclononatriene is of interest for a variety of applications, including biomedical imaging and metal scavenging. N3-CTV has a bowl-like conformation with amine groups at the apex, potentially allowing

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for the complexation of metals. A screening study was performed using over 70 metal salts, 20 of which showed positive results. The positive reactions were crystallized and an X-ray crystallographic analysis of these is currently underway. My research focuses on identifying and characterizing metal complexes of N3 -CTV that could be used for medical imaging, specifically positron-emission tomography (PET), or metal scavenging in reactions that use metal catalysis.

Poster 41 Determination of the Local Electronic Structure of Ag(111) in the Presence of Subsurface Oxygen Melissa Farmer, Chemistr y/For ensic Science (2014) Mulcahy Scholar s Pr ogr am/Pr ovost Fellowship Mentored by Dan Killelea, Chemistry The effect of subsurface oxygen on the electronic structure of a silver surface will be studied using Ultra High Vacuum Scanning Tunneling Microscopy. It is believed that Osub plays a key role by weakening the bond between the Ag and Oad, making the Ag surface an ideal one for the epoxidation of ethylene to form ethylene oxide. Osub may play a key role in maximizing efficiency further. I will use the atomic-resolved capability of UHV-STM to investigate how Osub moderates the reactivity of Oad by measuring the electronic structure of surface Ag atoms in the presence and absence of Osub.

Poster 42 Why Does the Gender Earnings Gap Exist in Self-employment in the United States? Madelaine L'Esperance, Economics/Finance (2014) McNair Scholar s Pr ogr am Mentored by Mine Cinar, Economics Much attention has been paid to the income disparity between men and women in paid employment. Yet the growing population of self-employed workers has not been studied extensively despite the wider gap than that of wage and salary employment. Self-employment earnings are evaluated using data from the Annual Social and Economic Supplement of the Current Population Survey to expose the gender earnings gap. Key human capital, work -life balance, and segregation factors that perpetuate the gender earnings gap are identified and their effect explored.

Poster 43 Invasion Rates of Zebra Mussels Across the Great Lakes Region Kevin Scheiwiller, Envir onmental Science (2014) Mulcahy Scholar s Pr ogr am Mentored by Reuben Keller, Environmental Science Since their introduction to the region in the late 1980s, zebra mussels have caused unprecedented damage to waterbodies throughout the Midwest. In an attempt to better understand the current distribution and potential for future spread of these aquatic invaders, the current spread of zebra mussel in states surrounding the Great Lakes and subsequent invasion rates of waterbodies were generated using the geospatial tool ArcGIS. This metadata analysis is an attempt to prove whether or not zebra mussel invasions have reached a saturation point or if there is potential for continual spread.

Poster 44 Italian Eritrea 1935-1941: The Intersection of Gender and Racial Hierarchies in Italian Fascist Colonial Society Sebastian Villa, Histor y (2014) McNair Scholar s Pr ogr am Mentored by Cristina Lombardi-Diop, Women's Studies and Gender Studies This paper examines the significance of interracial sexuality in Eritrea during the Fascist regime between 1935 -1941. From the beginning of Eritrean colonial history in 1890, the Italian government enacted few restrictions on settlers lives, thus granting them freedoms that were not available in Italy. In order to understand the complex relationship between colonialism and Fascist ideology I posed the question; did interracial sexual relations in Eritrea complicate the envisioned models of a racial and gender hierarchy as dictated by the Metropole? Through extensive analysis of numerous secondary sources I will in fact prove that this question is undeniably true; however, there are a few components that require consideration. The intersection of race and gender served as the focal point of this project and as I conducted my research, I realized that each social entity such as Italian men,

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Italian women, Eritrean women, and mixed-race children provide their own singular contribution to my research question. It is my objective that this research project will contribute to the ongoing investigation of Italian colonial history and hopefully inspire new inquiry into areas that I did not discuss.

Poster 45 Comparative Constitutional Change in North Africa as a Result of the Arab Spring: Comparative Case Study Analysis of Egypt, Libya and Tunisia Benjamin Gavin, Inter national Studies/Inter national Business (2015) Rudis Fellowship Mentored by Peter Schraeder, Political Science This research endeavors to analyze, compare, and contrast the effects and rise of the Arab Spring in Libya, Tunisia, and Egypt on a constitutional basis. Each of these countries has suffered from years of oppression at the hands of a dictator, who were each able to hold onto power through a means of changing or ignoring the previous constitutions of these nations. Now the Arab Spring has brought an end to this oppression, and it is time for these nations to each respectively draft a new constitution, in which these new governments must build a democracy while maintaining the best interest of the people.

Poster 46 Fiber, Gender, and the Hierarchy of Art Lauren Guenther, Ar t Histor y/Accounting (2015) Mentored by Marilyn Dunn, Art History; Paula Wisotski, Art History Through the works of women artists working in fiber and craft in the 1960s and 1970s, I explore the hierarchy of art and craft and the ways that gender, education, and other aspects of artists lives affect how their works are remembered by art history. The artists I examine include Eva Hesse, Claire Zeisler, and Miriam Schapiro.

Poster 47 Analyzing Subtelomeric Structure on Acrocentric Chromosomes George Rafidi, Molecular Biology (2014) Mentored by Jeffrey Doering, Biology Telomeric and subtelomeric regions are located at the ends of eukaryotic chromosomes. A previous study had isolated an overexpressed subtelomeric sequence in cancer cells. Through improved technique, a more refined understanding of the subtelomeric sequence was achieved. In total, 176 sequences were collected and utilized to create the final consensus of the 6kb tandemly repetitive sequence. The sequence was highly conserved amongst the acrocentric chromosomes. In comparison to a 147bp repeat within the long tandem repeat, the 6kb sequence was exemplified to be an evolutionarily more recent sequence. Examination of the epigenetic regulations on the sequence is underway.

Poster 48 Characterization of Satellite III Histone Modifications in Human Cancer Cells Neil Kuehnle, Molecular Biology (2014) Biology Summer Resear ch Fellowship/Mulcahy Scholar s Pr ogr am Mentored by Jeffrey Doering, Biology The Human Genome project did not complete the sequencing of the highly repetitive, low -expression heterochromatic regions. The Doering lab is constructing a detailed map of the short arm of chromosome 21 as a model for understanding the structure and function of heterochromatic regions in general. The heterochromatic portion of the genome is rich in normally unexpressed tandemly repetitive satellite sequences. Recent work has revealed that satellite expression is highly elevated in cancer cells compared to normal tissue. Among these, Satellite III (SatIII) repeats showed the greatest increase in expression. Different families of satellite sequence have been shown to be differentially changed in expression in cancer cells compared to normal cells; however, currently it is not known if all SatIII subfamilies show equal changes in expression. We hypothesize that SatIII sub-

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families will display histone modifications consistent with expressional activation, and that different regions will display different levels of activation. If different levels of activation are found, this could leads to the development of biomarkers for cancer detection and prognosis.

Poster 49 Methylation Patterns at Specific L1 Loci Afra Khan, Inter national Studies (2014) Mentored by Jeffrey Doering, Biology The Human Genome Project only studied the euchromatic regions of the genome, and left out the heterochromatic regions that consist of about 15% of the genome. The short arm of human chromosome 21 (HC21p) is an ideal model to study heterochromatin due to its high density of repetitive sequences. Furthermore, 21p is the smallest of the five different acrocentric chromosomes, and most of the short arm is constituted of heterochromatic tandemly arranged repetitive DNA sequences. This makes it an ideal chromosome to study the structure and function of heterochromatin.

Poster 50 Temporal Variations in the Abundance and Composition of Biofilm Communities Colonizing Drinking Water Distribution Pipes Nicole Minalt, Molecular Biology (2015) Car bon Under gr aduate Resear ch Fellowship Pr ogr am Mentored by John Kelly, Biology The pipes used to transport drinking water through municipal drinking water distribution systems (DWDS) are challenging habitats for microorganisms. These networks are dark, oligotrophic and contain disinfectants; yet microbes frequently form biofilms attached to the interior surfaces of DWDS pipes. Little is known about the species composition and ecology of these biofilms due to challenges associated with sample acquisition from DWDS. In this study the analysis of five biofilm pipe samples were collected from the same region of a DWDS in Florida, USA. The quantity and composition of biofilm communities within the pipes were analyzed by tag pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA genes.

Poster 51 Mechanism of Electric Field Guidance on Isolated Stem Cell Migration Sonia Sherwani, Molecular Biology/Communication Studies (2016) Mulcahy Scholar s Pr ogr am Mentored by Hui Ye, Biology The adult neural precursor stem cells (aNPCs) from the human brain are promising candidates and have exalted interests in using them for regenerative medical purposes. Enhancing the migratory abilities and assimilation of these aNPCs is ideal for tissue repair. The electric field may be developed as a practical therapeutic strategy for brain repair by directing stem cell migration to the injured brain regions to replace cell loss. Using time -lapse imaging software and kinetic analysis, this study explores the novel method that an electrical induction can provide a biophysical and cellular mechanistic understanding of cell migration under direct current (DC) electric field. As well as implement scientific basis for future clinical approach that use electric field to facilitate stem cell treatment in neurological diseases.

Poster 52 The Effects on Stream Sediment Bacteria from Fluoroquinolone Resistance Downstream of Wastewater Treatment Plants Francis Cocjin, Molecular Biology/Bioinfor matics (2016) Mulcahy Scholar s Pr ogr am Mentored by John Kelly, Biology Ciprofloxacin is an antibiotic commonly used to treat urinary tract infections and sinus infections. When antibiotics rest in water at low concentrations, bacteria then build up resistance mechanisms which can be used to build resistance to other antibiotics increasing the risk of diseases that current antibiotics cannot cure. Our collaborators from the Cary Institute of Ecosystems

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Studies have provided us with stream sediment samples from 9 different sites varying in the amount of wastewater runoff. Our studies have shown that fluoroquinolone abundance promotes resistance mechanisms such as the efflux pumps for Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

Poster 53 Role of Macroinvertebrates in the Decomposition of White Oak and Eastern Cottonwood Leaves in the Chicago River and in Artificial Light Conditions Michelle Crisp, Molecular Biology (2014); Craig Stevens, Biology (2014) Mentored by Timothy Hoellein, Biology Experiments were conducted to study leaf litter decomposition in the Chicago River. The focus was on the role of macroinvertebrates on decomposition, using White Oak leaves and Eastern Cottonwood leaves. Control groups were set up in the lab to determine how macroinvertebrates affect decomposition of leaves under different light conditions. It is important to understand how urban stream ecosystems function compared to non-urban streams. If we can make these connections, we can make better decisions regarding environmental management, including restoration and conservation initiatives. This research is ongoing.

Poster 54 Physics of Stringed Instruments Katarzyna Pomian, Physics (2016) Mulcahy Scholar s Pr ogr am/Pr ovost Fellowship Mentored by Gordon Ramsey, Physics Stringed instruments can be characterized by their individual body shapes, sizes, types of strings, and sounds. Studying the string resonance, body properties, and high speed photography of the strings, it is possible to describe the functions of the individual instruments. We gathered data for thirteen different instruments and revealed the variances in their sound, based upon the unique characteristics of each instrument. We did a comprehensive analysis of each instrument later aligning the instruments together and investigated how their body shapes influence the sound produced. Our analyses showed how these components work together, creating the individually characterized sounds of instruments.

Poster 55 Optimal Heat Transfer Fluidization Velocity in Fluidized Bed Reactors Thomas Predey, Physics (2016) Mentored by Jonathan Bougie, Physics; Aleksandr Goltsiker, Physics Fluidized bed reactors are vital in large-scale petrochemical and chemical engineering operations, but their implementation is costly due largely to the absence of a generalized scaling formula. Most research in this field has taken a relatively narrow approach to the problem of optimal heat transfer fluidization velocity (OHTFV), focusing only on specific cases. We seek to define an OHTFV function on a scaled velocity vs. particle size plane by treating the fluidized particles as homogeneous. Using data from decades of experiments, we plan to find a general scaling formula for fluidized beds to calculate OHTFV for a range of parameters.

Poster 56 Development of Motion Correction Techniques in Magnetic Resonance Imaging to Improve Radiation Treatment of Cancer Patients Michelle Lis, Physics/Molecular Biology (2014) Pr ovost Fellowship Mentored by Anil Sethi, Department of Radiation Oncology Magnetic resonance (MR) images offer many advantages over other image techniques in diagnosis and treatment of cancer patients: excellent soft-tissue contrast, 3-dimensional imaging and use of non-ionizing radiation. However, due to long scan times, patient discomfort or nervousness, MR images may be degraded by artifacts caused by patient motion during scan. These image artifacts can negate the advantages offered by MR. Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) is commonly used in radiation treat-

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ment of brain tumors. SRS uses 10-12 shaped radiation beams or circular arcs focused on the tumor target to deliver large dose to eradicate tumor cells. The precision and accuracy (< 1mm) of stereotactic dose delivery are paramount to the success of SRS treatment. Small sub-millimeter errors in tumor definition caused by MR image artifacts can compromise the accuracy of radiation dose delivery. We quantify the effect of patient motion on MR images and evaluate their impact on SRS dose delivered. Next, we present a novel and automated method of removing motion artifacts in MR images in order to improve radiation treatments. Finally, we propose further research aimed at improving and validating current motion correction techniques. The results of the proposed research are expected to improve diagnosis and treatment of cancer patients and lead to better health outcomes and survival.

Poster 57 Planting a Solution: Investigating the Potential of Salicornia to Remove Contaminants from Biodiesel Wash Water Shawn Fluckey, Chemistr y (2014); Taylor Timoteo, Biology/Anthr opology (2014); Joseph Graham, Political Science (2014) Mentored by Lane Vail, Institute of Environmental Sustainability; David Crumrine, Chemistry Our project involves the remediation of synthetic biodiesel wash water via a halophyte called Salicornia. By testing the ability of Salicornia to uptake salt from contaminated biodiesel wash water, we will be able to determine if this is a feasible process to remove impurities. Our trial involves biweekly water samples that will be tested by Loyola's ecotoxicology lab. Finally, we test the biomass of the Salicornia plants for increased amounts of potassium.

Poster 58 Fostering Children's STEM Transfer Abilities Through Parent-Child Conversations Amelia Auchstetter, Psychology (2013) Pr ovost Fellowship Mentored by Catherine Haden, Psychology This project examined the effects of direct instruction and parent-child conversation on childrens ability to generalize their knowledge across contexts. Participants were 16 mother-child dyads. Half of the sample received engineering information prior to building a skyscraper out of plastic building materials in a museum exhibit. One week later, dyads used pasta and gumdrops to build another skyscraper in their homes. Results indicate that families who received engineering information in the museum talked more about engineering and mathematics while building at home. This suggests that the brief demonstration facilitated childrens abilities to transfer their knowledge to a new situation.

Poster 59 Testing a Split Hemisphere Processing Model of Visual Word Recognition Britney Tuskan, Psychology (2014) Mentored by Anne Sutter, Psychology The split processing model of visual word recognition proposes that the brain uses which letters are initially projected to each hemisphere to identify the word. In the designed experiment, participants viewed words and non -word letter strings created by transposing letters, either on one side of or across the fixation point. The model predicts that transpositions within a hemisphere will lead to the activation of the original words representation in memory leading to longer reaction times and/or more errors in identifying whether or not the letter string is a word. In contrast, transposition across fixation should produce opposite results.

Poster 60 Effects of Exposure to Community Violence Sophia Smith, Psychology (2015) Resear ch Mentor ing Pr ogr am Mentored by Cynthia Pierre, Psychology The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between exposure to community violence (ECV), perceived social support, and psychosocial outcomes in African American male adolescents. It was predicted that ECV would be related to more

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negative outcomes, and high support groups would have less ECV and fewer problem behaviors. Data were collected on 223 African American males (M age = 15.15) in grades 9-12 at an urban charter school. Victimization was significant in predicting problem behaviors ( = .32, p<.001), specifically externalizing behaviors ( = .33, p<.001) and internalizing behaviors ( = .30, p<.001).

Poster 61 Relationships with God: How Contemporary Catholic Women Religious Nurture Their Relationships with God Anissa Vargas, Psychology (2015) Pr ovost Fellowship Mentored by Jennifer Fiebig, Psychology The number of women in religious orders has been decreasing since its peak in the 1960s. With majority of the nuns being over the age of 50 and less young women willing to join, the wisdom and experiences of these women are at risk of disappearing. In order to capture their unique insight, this project examines the means through which they nurture their relationship with God, obtained through interviews with women religious from a variety of backgrounds. The themes gathered from the interviews will serve as a guide for others, offering wisdom and insight for those in need.

Poster 62 Social Comparisons of Socioeconomic Status and Academics on Depression and Anxiety in College Students Jenny Seo, Psychology (2014) Mentored by Linda Heath, Psychology An individuals socioeconomic status, whether it is subjective or objective, plays an important role in the measure of their health (Ghaed & Gallo, 2007). There are many social and environmental factors that play a role in the development of psychopathology; however, research throughout history has shown that there is a higher prevalence of depression in individuals from lower socioeconomic statuses (Xue, et al., 2005; South & Krueger, 2011; Lorant, et al, 2007). Differences in socioeconomic statuses may be exacerbated in college students because college campuses bring together individuals from vastly disparate backgrounds into one small community (Wei, et al., 2010). Living and constantly interacting with students from varying levels of socioeconomic statuses may force individuals to realign their own subjective socioeconomic status, regardless of their actual SES. Thus, because of this engagement in social comparison, an individuals objective SES may be irrelevant in predicting psychopathology. What is important is how an individual perceives him or herself relative to their peers. The same applies to academics as well. How intelligent and competent individuals perceive themselves plays an important role in the development of psychopathology. Therefore, it is imperative to gain a further understanding of the causes of psychopathology in college students because prevalence rates for depression among college students is significantly higher than that of the general population (Geisner, Neighbors, & Larimier, 2006).

Poster 63 Exploring Patterns of Comorbidity in Individuals with Depression and Anxiety Julie Flannery, Psychology (2015) Mulcahy Scholar s Pr ogr am Mentored by Rebecca Silton, Psychology In the study of the psychopathology of anxiety and depression, there is a controversy over whether anxiety and depression are two separate disorders or whether they are always comorbid. The tripartite model suggests that anhedonic depression, anxious arousal, and anxious apprehension are three separate disorders that can occur on their own or in combination with each other. Cluster analyses were conducted to further evaluate the tripartite theory. Data analyses indicate that depression and anxiety primarily occur together, and that depression does not occur without anxiety, but that in some cases, anxiety occurs without depression.

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Poster 64 An Examination of the Role of Cognitive Biases in the Maintenance of Depressive Symptoms Brianna Scharrer, Psychology (2016) Pr ovost Fellowship Mentored by Rebecca Silton, Psychology; Daniel Dickson, Psychology According to Becks theory, schemas direct attentional resources toward negative stimuli (Beck, 2008). Individuals with depression demonstrate attentional biases that manifest as difficulties disengaging attention from negative stimuli (Joormann & Gotlib, 2007). Electroencephalography tasks will be used in this study to evaluate cognitive biases among currently depressed, formerly depressed, and never depressed individuals. Specifically, dot probe (DP) will be used to evaluate attention biases and Think/No Think Test (TNT) will be used to evaluate memory biases. Based on previous research, it is predicted that currently and formerly depressed individuals will respond similarly on behavioral measures.

Poster 65 Violent Media and Its Effects on the Neural Correlates of Facial Processing Robert Palumbo, Psychology (2015) Pr ovost Fellowship Mentored by Robert Morrison, Psychology Exposure to media violence has been associated with increased aggressive behavior and decreased empathic responding. The neurocognitive processes involved in these behavior changes are less understood. This study builds upon previous facial processing research to examine facial processing after viewing violent media. Participants were shown a violent or non -violent movie clip and then performed a facial processing task while brain activity was recorded. Results showed that media violence exposure influenced certain facial processing as reflected in the N170, P200, and P250 event related potentials. Thus, it appears that even relatively short-term exposure to media violence can modulate automatic facial processing.

Poster 66 Media Violence and its Impact on Inhibitory Control: An Electrophysiological Approach Callie Short, Psychology (2014) Car r oll and Adelaide J ohnson Scholar ship Mentored by Robert Morrison, Psychology Exposure to media violence has been shown to increase aggressive behavior, decrease prosocial behaviors, and decrease empathetic responding. Inhibitory control may be an important mediating factor for this relationship. In this study we used EEG to compare participants neural activity while they attempted to stop processing emotional human faces after they either watched a violent film or an equally negatively arousing suspenseful film. We found that exposure to violence modulated EEG brain waves reflecting conflict monitoring and inhibitory control even when the participant was not explicitly instructed to attend to the emotional content of the faces.

Poster 67 The Impact of Social Media on Consumer Involvement Iris Wen, Mar keting (2014); Louis Jaime, Mar keting/Oper ations Management (2015); Nic Icaza, Mar keting (2015) Mentored by Stacy Neier, Marketing The purpose of this research is to identify the visibility of social media marketing during the holiday season; investigate consumers desired level of involvement through social media; compare involvement of consumers on social media to business activities; and generate social media market strategies to further engage consumers in the holiday season. The research will illuminate potential areas of development through integration of consumer content and brand interactions.

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Poster 68 The Relation of Exposure to Violence to Self-esteem Among Urban African American Adolescents: Mediation by Self-Esteem Khushbu Dalal, Psychology (2014) Mentored by Maryse Richards, Psychology; Devin Carey, Psychology This study examined the relationship between exposure to violence and the effect of emotion regulation to levels of self -esteem in urban African American adolescents. Exposure to violence is measured by two scales: Victimization and Witnessing (Bender, 2009). This cross-sectional study used the Experience Sampling Method (ESM), with a sample of 246 fifth through eighth grade urban African American adolescents (Bohnert, et al., 2009). Preliminary correlations suggest significant relations between levels of victimization and emotion mediators. Regression analyses will be completed to fully understand the relationship between exposure to violence and the effect of emotion regulation to levels of self -esteem in urban African American adolescents.

Poster 70 Stigma Consciousness and the Effects of Sexism on Women and Confiding in their Partner Monica Kulach, Psychology (2014) McNair Scholar s Pr ogr am Mentored by Tracy DeHart, Psychology We examined whether stigma conscious influences womens willingness to share sexist events with their romantic partner. We found that there was a significant interaction between stigma consciousness, relationship length and willingness to confide the sexist event with their partner. Stigma consciousness moderated a womans response to sexism for the women that were high in relationship length. Women who were in a longer relationship were more likely to share the sexist experience with their partner if they were higher (versus lower) in stigma consciousness. This effect was not found in the negative event condition nor for women lower in relationship length.

Poster 71 How Women Attend to the Media: Critical Processing of the Media Scale Jori Rappaport, Psychology (2014) Pr ovost Fellowship Mentored by Scott Leon, Psychology This study developed a scale to quantitatively measure womens critical processing of the media. This research consisted of three studies. In the first study, participants were given a set of 47 questions. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted to shorten the item pool. In the second study, participants were given the finalized 20 -question scale for replication and confirming the four-factor structure. The purpose of the third study was to validate the scale and evaluate correlations with other measures. It was found that this scale was positively correlated with the EAT, Body Dissatisfaction, OBSC, and Negative Body Talk scales.

Poster 72 Testing the Unified Theory: An Examination of Implicit Gender Identity, Gender Attitude and Self-Esteem Tracey Riley, Psychology (2014) Pr ovost Fellowship Mentored by Scott Leon, Psychology Greenwald's Unified Theory is focused on the relationship between implicit identity, self -esteem, and attitude. The purpose of this study was to replicate this balance theory, exploring the relationship between implicit self -esteem, implicit gender identity, and implicit gender attitude. Although results did not yield the interactions necessary for the balance theory, gender differences and main effects are explored.

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Poster 73 Effects of Arousal, Empathy, and Formal Features of Violent Video Games on Brand Recognition and Brand Attitudes Application Leanne Stacey, Psychology (2014) Pr ovost Fellowship Mentored by Seung-Chul Yoo, Communications; Robert Morrison, Psychology This study sought to understand how empathy, arousal, and the features of violent video games effect brand recognition and brand attitudes toward advertisements embedded in these games. We proposed that a game with human targets wound cause subjects to become over aroused and lead to poor brand recognition and attitudes. In contrast, a game with zombie targets would cause optimal arousal and lead to an increase in recognition and attitudes. It was also hypothesized that these results would be moderated by a level of empathy.

Poster 74 Collective Self-Esteem, Perceived Discrimination, and Relationship Closeness in African American Couples Angela Serwin, Psychology/Cr iminal J ustice (2015) Pr ovost Fellowship Mentored by Tracy DeHart, Psychology This study examined the link between perceived discrimination and relationship closeness in African American romantic couples. It tested whether collective self-esteem buffered the relation between perceived discrimination and relationship closeness within these couples. A sample of 180 couples individually completed a background survey and daily dairy surveys for 21 consecutive days. We predict that African American couples experiencing more discrimination feel less connected to their romantic partner. In addition, African Americans with high collective self-esteem feel closer to their partner; whereas those with low collective self-esteem feel less close to their partner when faced with perceived discrimination.

Poster 75 The Influence of Neighborhood Ethnic Composition on Reports of Perceived Discrimination and its Effects on the Self and Relationships Katherine Nieweglowski, Psychology/Sociology (2014) Mentored by Tracy DeHart, Psychology Stressors significantly affect an individuals mental and physical health. Perceived racial discrimination results in higher levels of negative affect (Ong, Fuller-Rowell, & Burrow, 2009). Feelings of rejection based on racial identity contribute to negative self-perception and threaten the need to belong (Smart Richman & Leary, 2009). People are more upset by ostracism when it occurs in the context of an in-group member as well as an out-group member (Wittenbaum, Shulman, & Braz, 2010). My research seeks to determine whether the ethnic composition of ones neighborhood influences the reporting of microaggressions and the effect that they have on the self.

Poster 76 New African Social Media Antoinette Isama, J our nalism (2014) McNair Scholar s Pr ogr am Mentored by Noah Butler, Anthropology New African Social Media has become a way for African youth to demonstrate creativity with each other through virtual communities. This study examines what New African Social Media does. It focuses on the social importance of New African Social Media as well as its existence as a form of interaction and a new technology of communication. As such, it connects media theory and anthropology. This study investigates and surveys the who, how, and why of New African Social Media, with a focus on the constructions and perceptions of virtual worlds and their impact on contributors and consumers.

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Poster 77 R.E.A.L. Wind: A Feasability Study of Wind Energy at Loyola University Chicago Jefferson Duggan, Physics/Mathematics/TPAM (2014); Alec Kim, Physics (2017); Caity Benkoski, Physics (2017); Kelly Majewski, Physics (2017); Victoria Calteaux, Physics (2016); Ted Varty, Physics (2014); Anthony Kozik, Biology (2015); Joe Westrich, Biology (2015); Thomas Predey, Physics (2016); Chris Ricciardi, Physics/Engineer ing (2016) Mentored by Tom Ruubel, Physics We present the results of an ongoing study whose goal is to determine how, if possible, to implement wind energy at Loyola Universities lake shore campus. In addition, if it is determined implausible to make such implementation, we aim to disclose why it would be impractical.

Poster 78 Optogenetic Control of GABAergic Interneurons in an In Vitro Seizure Model Benjamin Foote-Huth, Biology (2015) Biology Resear ch Fellows Pr ogr am Mentored by Hui Ye, Biology Recent evidence has suggested a role of inhibitory GABAergic interneurons in the mediation of the transition to seizure. To investigate this further we established and characterized an in-vitro seizure model using low-Mg2+/high-K+ artificial cerebral spinal fluid. We are also breeding mutant Gad2 mice, so as to insert opsins into the CA3 regions of their hippocampi, and thereby establish optogenetic control of GABAergic interneurons. Field recordings and patch clamping techniques are used to confirm optogenetic control, characterize seizure activity, and further investigate the role of these GABAergic interneurons in the transition to seizure.

Poster 79 Testing the Precedence Effect: Accuracy of Echo Lateralization over Varied Interaural Delays of Source Sound Frequency Larisa Latorre, Biochemistr y (2016) Mulcahy Scholar s Pr ogr am Mentored by Raymond Dye, Psychology The proposed study assesses the bearing of the precedence effect in a listener's ability to lateralize the echo when interaural differences of level are applied in varied increments to the source with sequentially spaced interaural delays of time between base and lagging sounds. A correlational analysis was utilized to interpret the weight given to IDLs of simulated source and echo clicks for echo delays of 4 -16 milliseconds. Auditory simulations were held under 40 different conditions in which responses demonstrate the attempted lateralization of the echo, a consistent Gaussian pulse of 3000 Hz. In addition to 32 experimental conditions, 8 baseline frequencies were tested in order to ensure lateralization efficiency is not substantially affected by interaural preference of one frequency over another. In all trials, the leading sound varied according to randomly assorted frequencies of pulses at 1500, 2000, 2500, 3000, 3500,4000,4500 and 5000 Hz.

Poster 80 Transitions to Adulthood: A study of Orphans & Vulnerable Children Aging out in Ethiopia Lauren Obermueller, Social Wor k (2014) Pr ovost Fellowship Mentored by Julia Pryce, Social Work The Transitions Project is an initiative focused on developing an understanding of the experience of Ethiopian adolescents aging out of orphanage care. Youth who are not provided resources and training in preparation for the transition from care are at a higher risk for countless risk factors, including human trafficking, homelessness, and labor exploitation (Stover, 2007). Through analysis of qualitative data collected over two years, this initiative seeks to understand the needs of this population and response to these needs based on the concerns and resiliencies demonstrated by this population.

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Poster 81 Analyzing Sponsor Engagement at the 2013 Magnificent Mile Lights Festival Presented by BMO Harris Bank Catherine Borman, Adver tising/Public Relations (2015); Dimitra Dimas, Mar keting/Management (2014); Kayla Kiram, Business Management (2014); Sadia Anees, Information Systems/Marketing (2014) Mentored by Stacy Neier, Marketing Carried out over the course of five months, this market research project was conducted on the behalf of the Greater North Michigan Avenue Association (GNMAA) to assist in the enhancement of its annual event, The Magnificent Mile Lights Festival Presented by BMO Harris Bank. After identifying a need for research, a managerial decision opportunity regarding sponsor engagement with consumers attending the Light Festival was formed. Research objectives were then strategically generated, measuring consumer demographics, psychographics, awareness, satisfaction, and engagement. Following the collection of quantitative and qualitative data at the 2013 at the Magnificent Mile Lights Festival, the research team found that consumers were overall very pleased with sponsor communication, involvement, and engagement prior to, and during, the Lights Festival.

Poster 82 Scapular Development in Mus musculus Kunal Patel, Biology (2014) Mentored by James Cheverud, Biology Thirteen recombinant inbred strains of LG/J and SM/J mice are used to study genetic variation and morphological integration in the scapula. Five hypotheses are presented and tested using statistical analysis. Mice scapulae were measured at 3, 6, and 10 weeks of age and trait correlations and heritabilities were calculated. Twelve landmarks were measured double measured on 420 scapulae. ImageJ was used for measuring and an ANOVA test performed. The hypothesis that best supported the data was complete modularity (r=0.2688). The research is beneficial in studying how different genes work together in the formation of the scapula.

Poster 83 Network Mapping of the Spread of the Influenza Virus Garazha Anton, Biology (2015) Mulcahy Scholar s Pr ogr am/Pr ovost Fellowship Mentored by George Thiruvathukal, Computer Science The increasing globalization of contemporary society necessitates the tracking of disease spread, such as flu trends. Using tenets of graph theory and existing statistics, we have formulated network maps tracking changes in travel patterns and individuals reporting flu-like symptoms in large, metropolitan areas. Graph theory connects data points called nodes, which in this case are locations, and relationships, defined as edges, which track travel patterns to and from large metropolitan areas.

Poster 84 Why do TNT students at Kelly High School bring more homework than the TNT students at Curie High School? Sara Khan, Education (2015) Pr ovost Fellowship Mentored by Mary Charles, Education TNT is an academic program geared towards freshmen to support them through their transition from middle school to the rigorous environment of high school. The program aims to enhance the high school experience of freshmen by assisting them with their homework and providing supportive role models. Currently, TNT is based in Kelly and Curie High School. According to documented research, the freshmen year determines whether a student will graduate high school; therefore, it is necessary to foster a positive environment during this year. Most students at these schools come from low -income, under-served populations and thus, outside resources are extremely beneficial for their success.

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Poster 85 Films Every Girl and Boy Should See: Early Lessons in Leadership Daria Taylor, Inter national Film Studies (2015) Car r oll and Adelaide J ohnson Scholar ship Mentored by Bren Ortega Murphy, Communications This project is comprised of an interactive website focused on childrens films. It is intended as a resource for parents and teachers [though it is accessible by the general public]. It identifies issues that educators, parents and other caretakers consider relevant to choosing films for children [ages 5-12] to see and, using criteria based on those issues, the site lists/describes films that educators, parents and other caretakers might consider along with possible discussion questions.

Poster 86 Starting a Student Managed Investment Fund at Loyola Davi Aragao, Finance (2014); Steven Koblinski, Finance (2014) Mentored by Stacy Neier, Marketing We will discuss the current landscape of Student Managed Investment Funds across universities in the United States and how should Loyola University Chicago go about establishing a fund given the schools characteristics and constraints.

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ORAL PRESENTATIONS
MUNDELEIN 203
Peri-nuclear Colocalization of PfGDV1 with Epigenetic Marker Trimethylated Lysine 9 of Histone H3 Maxim Maron, Molecular Biology (2015) Car bon Under gr aduate Resear ch Fellowship Pr ogr am Mentored by Kim Williamson, Biology Although essential for malaria transmission from person to person, little is known about the molecular mechanism controlling the production and maturation of gametocytes. Recently, a gene, Plasmodium falciparum gametocyte development gene 1 (Pfgdv1), was found to be required for gametocyte production. The protein product localizes to the nuclear periphery, suggesting a potential role in epigenetic gene regulation. I tested this by assessing whether the PfGDV1 protein co -localized with histone modifications, which are involved in epigenetic gene silencing, and activation. I found that PfGDV1 colocalizes with the histone H3 lysine 9 trimethylation chromatin silencing mark in female, not male gametocytes. Biochemical Characterization of Phosducin-like Protein-1 (PhLP-1) of the Malaria Parasite Plasmodium Reveals Redox Activity Robin David, Biology (2014) Mulcahy Scholar s Pr ogr am Mentored by Stefan Kanzok, Biology Phosducin-like proteins (PhLPs) belong to the thioredoxin-superfamily of proteins and are highly conserved among eukaryotic organisms. Their roles have been implicated in G-protein signaling, cell cycle progression, and regulation of the folding of cytoskeletal proteins. However, the biochemical mechanism by which PhLPs perform their function is not clear. Purified PbPhLP-1 was active in the thioredoxin-coupled reduction assay and also effectively reduced the organic peroxide tBOOH, indicating antioxidant activity. Our findings shed new light on the biochemical mechanism and the biological function of these highly conserved proteins. Build-a-CRISPR: Engineering a Defense System David Baltrusaitis, Bioinfor matics/Biology (2014) Car bon Under gr aduate Resear ch Fellowship Pr ogr am Mentored by Catherine Putonti, Biology The CRISPR/Cas (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats and CRISPR-associated genes) system serves as a rudimentary bacterial immune system against foreign genetic material, such as bacteriophages and plasmids. The host species incorporates phage/plasmid DNA, known as a proto-spacer, within a CRISPR array and uses this proto-spacer to recognize subsequent infections. We have created a plasmid containing an engineered CRISPR array with a proto -spacer conferring to the virus X174. Using this engineered plasmid, we are working to make E. coli C, which is normally susceptible to X174, gain resistance. Through this experiment we hope to explore the limitations of CRISPR defense. Understanding the Gene, Ribbon's Function in the Adult and Embryonic Gonad Andrew Droste, Biology (2015) Biology Summer Resear ch Fellowship Mentored by Jennifer Mierisch, Biology Ribbon (rib) is a gene that is known to cause cancer in humans. Research was conducted to Understand Ribbon's function and role within the adult and embryonic gonad of Drosophila melanogaster (the fruit fly) Ribbon was found to be functioning within the male gonad, however was absent in the female gonad.

MUNDELEIN 204
Shocks and Patterns in Vertically Shaken Granular Systems Alex Gilman, Physics/Mathematics (2015) Mulcahy Scholar s Pr ogr am/Pr ovost Fellowship Mentored by Jon Bougie, Physics

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Granular systems, such as a beach full of sand, a box of marbles, or a collection of rocks on the side of a hill, exhibit interesting fluid-like properties. We can approximate the behavior of granular media as similar to fluid systems. We use a variant of the Navier-Stokes equations, which are used to model the behavior of fluid systems, to simulate a vertically shaken system of grains. Granular systems that are oscillated within a given range of frequencies form interesting visual patterns. We demonstrate relationships between properties associated with shocks and properties associated with the observed standing wave patterns.

Elucidating the Mechanism of Migration from Surface to Subsurface Jon Bender, Chemistr y/Mathematics (2014) Mulcahy Scholar s Pr ogr am Mentored by Daniel Killelea, Chemistry In this study, scanning tunneling microscopy was used to observe the behavior of oxygen atoms both adsorbed on and absorbed in the subsurface region of a rhodium catalyst. The movements of the aforementioned species were followed after thermal and electrical excitations to determine if the migration of oxygen from surface to subsurface, and vice -versa, occurs near defects on the surface; this would imply defects play an important role in the mechanism. Determining the role defects have in this migration is of the utmost importance to understanding partial and total oxidative catalysis over metallic surfaces. Novel GabR Modulators as New Antibiotics for Cystic Fibrosis Emily Cybulla, Biochemistr y (2015) Car bon Under gr aduate Resear ch Fellowship Pr ogr am Mentored by Daniel Becker, Chemistry; Dali Liu, Biochemistry Antibiotic development is critical for multi-drug resistant bacterial strains that contribute to recurring infections in Cystic Fibrosis (CF) patients. Interdisciplinary studies in biochemistry and medicinal chemistry are guiding our discovery of activators and inhibitors of GabR and PLP-dependent GABA metabolism in the nonpathogenic species Bacillus Subtilis. Synthesized analogs should ultimately impact bacterial virulence through modulation of the GABA shunt pathway, which is controlled by GabR dependent transcription regulation in the pathogens Burkholderia cenocepacia and Burkholderia multivorans often associated with infections in CF patients. This project explores the mechanism of GabR -mediated transcription through site-directed mutagenesis and the activity of synthesized ligands. Computational Analysis of Mutational Effects on Substrate Mobility in the ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase from Escherichia coli Ligin Solamen, Bioinfor matics (2014) Mulcahy Scholar s Pr ogr am/Pr ovost Fellowship/Women in Science Enabling Research (WISER) Program Mentored by Kenneth Olsen, Chemistry; Miguel Ballicora, Chemistry Bacteria and plants synthesize glycogen and starch, respectively, to store energy and carbon surplus. These pathways are controlled by ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase, an allosterically regulated enzyme. Arg32 of this enzyme from E.coli has been studies by site directed mutagenesis and was found to be a critical residue in maintaining high levels of activity. The catalysis is affected by at least two orders of magnitude if replaced by any other residue. To understand the role of Arg32, we have run molecular dynamics (MD) simulations on the wild type tetrameric enzyme from E.coli and Arg32 mutants.

MUNDELEIN 205
Biodiversity Research at Loyola University Retreat and Ecology Campus Edgar Perez, Envir onmental Science (2014) Institute of Envir onmental Sustainability (IES) Under gr aduate Resear ch Fellows Program Mentored by Fr. Stephen Mitten S.J, Institute of Environmental Sustainability We present the major biodiversity research projects of the last two summers at LUREC. 1) An initial breeding bird census along with spot-mapping of individual birds territories across the whole campus was conducted the summer of 2012. The back fen was again examined and spot-mapped in the summer of 2013 revealing similar species territories and general breeding site tenacity. Avian breeding birds were again monitored and a preliminary research project into nesting success was undertaken in the summer of 2013. Twelve nesting attempts were documented for 9 species, at 11 different sites on campus with 35 of 43

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eggs surviving to fledge. 2) Identified and took GPS coordinates for 742 unrepresented trees for the LUREC trees database. 3) Documented and GIS mapped the colonization and expansion of the thirteen-lined ground squirrel and established an estimate of their population. Using Salicornia to Purify Biodiesel Washwater Jennifer Kelso, Envir onmental Science/Sociology (2015) Institute of Envir onmental Sustainability (IES) Under gr aduate Research Fellows Program Mentored by Lane Vail, Institute of Environmental Sustainability Loyola's biodiesel lab creates contaminated washwater as a byproduct of biodiesel fuel production. This washwater contains contaminants such as methanol, fatty acids, potassium, calcium, chlorine, and other chemicals. Though this water can be handled by municipal treatment systems in small amounts, placing the burden of our toxic wastewater on the city's water treatment system is not ideal. Additionally, as biodiesel production is expected to increase with the launch of the Institute of Environmental Sustainability in fall 2013, the larger amount of washwater created will pose a greater threat. In an effort to purify this washwater, I will test the ability of Salicornia bigelovii, a succulent halophyte plant known to thrive in salty conditions, to decrease the concentration of salts in the washwater, particularly potassium. R.E.A.L Wind: A Feasability Study of Wind Energy at Loyola University Chicago Jefferson Duggan, Physics/Mathematics/TPAM (2014); Alex Gilman, Physics (2015); Eric Hargarten, Physics (2017); Joseph Lang, Physics (2014); Weston McDonald, Physics (2014); Mentored by Tom Ruubel, Physics We present the results of an ongoing study whose goal is to determine how, if possible, to implement wind energy at Loyola Universities lake shore campus. In addition, if it is determined implausible to make such implementation, we aim to disclose why it would be impractical.

MUNDELEIN 303
Society Today: Living to Eat or Eating to Live? Elizabeth Harb, Economics (2014); Joseph Gendusa, Infor mation Systems and Finance (2014) Mentored by Stacy Neier, Marketing As food allergies and intolerances become more prevalent in the United States, more people are unable to fulfill their food cravings. This lack of food freedom may create more stress for an individual, compared to someone without these restrictions. Depending on five specified variables, an individual may be impacted by their food restrictions through stress -related instances. This research study aims to determine psychological behaviors caused by food restrictions in order to help people understand ways in which they believe their stress compares with others.

Executive Functioning in Sexually Compulsive Gay and Bisexual Men William Beischel, Psychology (2014) Sexual compulsivity (SC) is characterized by uncontrollable sexual behaviors and fantasies that interfere with normal functioning. Gay and bisexual men (GBM) exhibit a greater prevalence of SC and these behaviors are associated with an increased risk for HIV. To explore possible underlying factors, a group of SC GBM was compared on three neurocognitive tasks to another group of non-SC GBM. Results suggest that problems in impulsivity characterize SC, rather than decision -making. Thus, intervention methods that focus on this domain may be the most effective way to improve the sexual health of SC GBM and help reduce the spread of HIV. Intersex and Intimacy: The Intersex Experience in Intimate Relationships Sarah "Frankie" Frank, Sociology (2014) Mentored by Marilyn Krogh, Sociology

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Intersex individuals experience a compromised experience in intimate relationships due to the disparity between their sex category and medically identified sex. The gender binary that has drastically influenced the intersex experience in dating, marriage and intimacy will be addressed in looking at online community storytelling and posts on intersex and gender identity websites and threads.

Do I like you?: Relational Interdependent Self-Construal, Implicit Self-Esteem and Implicit Evaluations of Romantic Partners Monica Kulach, Psychology (2014) Pr ovost Fellowship Mentored by Tracy DeHart, Psychology The current study examines whether Relational Interdependent Self-Construal, or the extent that they include close others in their sense of self (Gore et al., 2006), would influence the degree to which peoples implicit self -evaluations predict their implicit evaluations of their romantic partners. The findings indicated that individuals including their partner in their sense of self did not predict their evaluations of their partner but relationship length did predict implicit evaluations of the self and ones romantic partner. Specifically, there was a stronger positive relation between implicit self -esteem and implicit partner evaluation for couples in longer (versus shorter) relationships.

MUNDELEIN 304
Do You Want to Be My Ally? Andrew Greenia, Sociology (2013) Mentored by Marilyn Krogh, Sociology For many white students, the university presents their first opportunity to interact with students of color. My research examines the effects of white students engaging in inter-racial interactions through cultural and ethnic organizations predominantly serving students of color in higher education. This study investigates the ways in which both white students and students of color interpret the role of these organizations, how white students privilege and racial awareness affects these spaces, and contrasts how white students and students of color articulate their goals and role in the organization. The Impact of Perceived Discrimination and Stigma Consciousness on Chronic Stress in African American Couples. Sotonye Hart, Psychology/Human Ser vices (2014) McNair Scholar s Pr ogr am Mentored by Tracy DeHart, Psychology This study examined the link between perceived discrimination and stigma consciousness and its effect on chronic stress levels in African American couples. Additionally, the study investigated whether stigma consciousness was a moderator for the influence of perceived discrimination on the level of chronic stress experienced. 180 African American couples were recruited to complete a background survey and daily dairy surveys for 21 days. Results showed that couples who reported experiencing more perceived discrimination also reported higher levels of chronic stress. Findings also suggested that stigma consciousness was not a buffer against the influence of perceived discrimination on chronic stress levels.

#undocumentedandunafraid: Identity Politics, Digital Activism, & Public Discourse Edward Chong, Anthr opology/Sociology (2015) Mentored by Ruth Gomberg-Munoz, Anthropology U.S. and local policies become more polarized toward undocumented populations though increased deportations and stigmatization in recent years at a national and local level. This project will focus on undocumented youth and their strategies in organizing on the internet. My research will attend to how undocumented young people create political discourse toward immigration reform in a context of increasing social stigmatization. I will collaborate with local community organizations to gain the perspective of youth immigration activists surrounding the public demands of undocumented youth. Participant -observation and formal interviewing techniques will provide a holistic understanding of the political environment for undocumented individuals.

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Pulling Apart, Coming Together: Same Sex Marriage and Broader Worldviews Ashley Wahnschaff, Anthr opology/English (2014) Pr ovost Fellowship Mentored by Ruth Gomberg-Munoz, Anthropology Political discourse on social issues in the contemporary United States is polarized around perspectives on the political left and political right. This project will focus on one such issue, marriage equality, to determine how perspectives on sexuality and marriage are embedded in broader worldviews that are shaped by our different understandings of God, humanity, race, and justice. Furthermore, I will explore how these worldviews tie into perspectives on other issues, such as abortion rights, gun control, and immigration. I will do this by utilizing participant-observation and formal interviewing techniques within activist meetings, marches, and protests on each side of these issues. By turning a lens on the broader worldviews that shape perspectives on social issues, I hope to shine light on apparent increasing polarization and potential points of compromise in political discourse of the United States.

MUNDELEIN 307
Masters Students Experiences with Multicultural Competency Curriculum Lauren Adams, Women's Studies and Gender Studies (2015) Resear ch Mentor ing Pr ogr am Mentored by Kristin I. McCann, Higher Education In higher education there has been a demand for multiculturally competent professionals to support the increasingly diverse undergraduate student population in the U.S. The data collected for this qualitative study included assignments that participants completed while taking the course, course syllabi, and interviews. These materials were coded in order to understand the meaning masters students made of the multicultural competency curriculum in their program. This research was lead by Kristin I. McCann who is a doctoral candidate in Loyolas program for higher education. The undergraduate mentee, Lauren Adams, worked alongside McCann and assisted with transcribing one interview and coding documents. Conceptions of Masculinity Among Male Adolescents Gerald Guevarra, Inter national Studies (2014) Pr ovost Fellowship Mentored by Amy Shuffelton, School of Education This project will explore what it means to contemporary adolescent boys to become a man today. The aim of this research was to better enable community education programs to meet the needs and concerns of male youth when it comes to a healthy development of masculinity. This is a qualitative research project that aims to explore how male youth today find themselves in a transitional cultural moment as they struggle with navigating traditional and contemporary expectations around masculinity. Diving into the Oceans of Educational Experience Mudassir Muztar, Histor y/Secondar y Education (2014) Mentored by Kyle Roberts, History As a history and education major I had the privilege of participating in a History Internship in which I became a teacher's aide at Mather High School. Over the course of my time at Mather I was able to receive invaluable experience that will without a doubt impact my future. I'd like to discuss some of the experiences that I've had along some thoughts on experience and education. Violence Exposure & Mood Among Latino Middle School Students Jefferson Uriarte, Psychology/Inter national Studies (2014) McNair Scholar s Pr ogr am Mentored by Catherine DeCarlo Santiago, Psychology The purpose of the present study was to examine the day-to-day associations between mood and exposure to violence among low-income Latino middle school students. The participants were 58 students in seventh and eighth grade. Participants completed study measures over a one-week period. On the first day, students completed baseline measures in order to assess exposure to violence and mood over the last six months. Following baseline measures, daily diaries were administered for seven consecutive days. Results suggest that exposure to community violence is prominent in low -income, urban Latino youth. Such exposure has negative effects on the mood of Latino youth.

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MUNDELEIN 403
The Importance of Oral History and Its Preservation Nicholas Jawor, Histor y (2014) Mentored by Kyle Roberts, History An account of my internship in the Oral History Program at the Pritzker Military Museum and Library. I will discuss the importance of recording and preserving oral histories and their impact on history. End of Days: The "Puerto Rican Riots" of 1971 Pedro Regalado, Histor y (2013) McNair Scholar s Pr ogr am Mentored by Michelle Nickerson, History From 1947 to 1977, Camden, NJ lost about 75% of its production jobs and the citys population decreased by over 35% in a matter of a few decades. Similar to other Rust Belt cities such as Detroit, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh, Camden during 1971 was already on a serious economic decline. With a population of under 100,000 in 1971, the city had a series of issues including poverty, poor housing, violence, arson, lack of proper education for minorities, and systematic discrimination toward minorities that could not be separated from the trajectory of the city in politics and social life. The watershed moment in Camdens decline was the Puerto Rican Riots in which over a hundred stores and homes were burned and looted, hundreds were arrested in a matter of four days, and a final exodus to the suburbs by Camdens white population was completed. Camden has never recovered. Today, it is among the poorest and most dangerous cities in the United States. By analyzing its evolving demographic, political culture, key events, and accounts of those involved in the events surrounding the Puerto Rican Riots, this project hopes to shed light on this obscure event that marked the end of a former industrial power. In addition, it examines the Puerto Rican community's condition during the time surrounding and leading to the riots. The story of the "Puerto Rican Riots" provides us with lessons regarding communication between local government and communities, the importance of fair representation and rights for minorities, and the ills of corrupt government.

Mapping the Humanities: Intersection of History and Digital Media Michael Polowski, Histor y (2014) Pr ovost Fellowship Mentored by Stephen Schloesser, History Three digital maps tracing the letters to and from Fr. Pierre-Jean De Smet conserved at the Midwest Jesuit Archives in Saint Louis Missouri. The map will visually represent the geographical locations of both sender and receiver and it will be plotted chronologically on a timeline. Voices in Solidarity with Central America: Campus Activism in the 1980s Miguel Lopez-Campos, Histor y (2014) ; Austin Quinn, Histor y/Economics (2014); Caitlin Strange, Histor y (2015); Albert Salatka, Histor y/Philosophy (2015); Juan Basadre, Histor y/Anthr opology/Sociology (2014); Malanie Zagorski, Secondary Education/History (2016); Paige Borrelli, International Studies Mentored by Dina Berger, History During the 1980s, Loyolas campus became a place for dialogue about the Cold War conflict in Central America and the role the U.S. government played in contributing to it. This dialogue took place in the Loyola Phoenix, in classrooms, and through campus events organized by Loyola students and faculty alike. Our research showcases the activism at Loyola as a part of the growing discussion about U.S. foreign policy and human rights in Central America, which at the time was taking place in cities, churches and on other university campuses across the country.

MUNDELEIN 404
Cut Short the Night: Use Some of it for the Day's Business: An Examination of Cultural Processes on Sleep Patterns in Imperial Rome Juan Basadre, Histor y/Anthr opology/Sociology (2014) Pr ovost Fellowship Mentored by Leslie Dossey, History

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Sleep is generally taken for granted in the modern day, as most people follow patterns of continuous sleep through the night. An examination of pre-industrial sources, however, indicates patterns of segmented sleep, that is, long bouts of nighttime sleep with a segment of wakefulness in the middle of the night. This project will compare modern sleep patterns with the early imperial (1st-2nd century ad) roman elite and slave classes, analyzing the aforementioned framework of segmented sleep and the cultural processes that affected their unique development, different from other pre-industrial societies. 'To account our selves knitt together': John Winthrop, Self-Fashioning, and the Media Ecology of the Massachusetts Bay Company, 1629-30 Dylan LeBlanc, Histor y/Philosophy (2014) Pr ovost Fellowship Mentored by John Donoghue, History This paper studies pre-migration texts circulated in England concerning the Massachusetts Bay Company by its governor John Winthrop from 1629-30. It strives to understand the role of these texts as media for the construction of individual and community identities around the issue of migration to New England. By placing Winthrops promotional manuscripts and correspondence in the context of his overlapping legal, corporate, and godly roles, the paper presents a media ecology of self -fashioning which addresses a particular lacuna in the historiography of the puritan Great Migration concerning the social functions of reading and writing. The Currency Acts: An American Omission in the Age of Revolution Sarah Muenzer, Histor y/Classical Civilization (2014) Mentored by Kyle Roberts, History In 1764, a highly restrictive piece of British legislation was passed for its American colonies. This was later known as the Currency Act, and it rendered all paper money issued by the colonies invalid for both public and private debts. The abrupt and drastic law had a significant effect on British colonies, who were soon beginning to feel unrepresented and unheard in the mother country. The goal of the research into this act, including its other iterations in 1751 and 1773 is to bring them out of historical obscurity and give them the attention they deserve in the historical narrative. The 17th Century Enigma of Captain Henry Morgan and the Atlantic World Eda Obermanns, Histor y/Inter national Studies (2015) Mentored by John Donoghue, History Henry Morgan was a ruthless privateer of the 17th century Atlantic world who transitioned from piracy to knighthood in the favor of the British Empire. Morgans obscure origins stem from two competing contemporary accounts exclaiming markedly different tales; Alexandre Exquemelin wrote that Morgan willingly sold himself into indentured servitude in Barbados, while the famed pamphleteer Philip Ayres places Morgan as a soldier enacting the Western Design in Hispaniola. The challenge arises in extracting truth from fiction in these accounts; how is it, then, that the socio-economic circumstances surrounding Morgan conditioned him to transition from a career of piracy to politics?

MUNDELEIN 406
(Re)Thinking Back Through Our Mothers: Virginia Woolf, Feminism, and Feminist Scholarship Nina Berman, English/Women' s Studies and Gender Studies (2014) Pr ovost Fellowship Mentored by Pamela Caughie, English Dr. Pamela Caughie and I began with the question of Virginia Woolfs relationship to feminism and feminist scholarships relationship to Woolf. Our research consisted of looking at what different feminist scholars have had to say about Woolf and their various feminist reading practices. But we have also been attentive to questions of how to do poststructuralist feminist research itself; how to do research that resists and complicates a simple march through the history of criticism. This research has been not only a process of gathering information but an investigation into the implications of how we do research and construct narratives of critical history.

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Of Ladies and Waiting: The Courtly Bastardization of Fairy Tales Kellen Fisher, Communication Studies (2015) Pr ovost Fellowship Mentored by Michael Meinhardt, English Todays corporate manipulation of fairy tales encourages increasingly unequal gender identities, exploitative entertainment practices, and ultimately, immoral guidance. Although prevalent today, these corrosive elements actually originated in the transition of fairy tales from an oral tradition to a literary one. This presentation will examine the elements and impacts of the transition from oral to literary fairy tale form, the price of the patronage that ensued, the new and powerful role of the author in this emerging system, and the particular courtly paradigms that were established and remain to this day.

Rediscovering the Heroic Sonnet David Hullinger, Oper ations Management (2014) Pr ovost Fellowship Mentored by John Kerkering, English The English-language sonnet has a reputation as a vehicle for delicate love poetry. Yet some sonnets depict heroic deeds and great accomplishments. These heroic sonnets are characterized by specific topics and styles, and represent an influential tradition within the sonnet form. This tradition includes poets such as John Milton and William Wordsworth, and it played a major role in Romantic- and Victorian-era sonnet writing before declining during the twentieth century. My presentation describes the nature and history of the heroic sonnet and discusses the significance of this tradition for contemporary poets.

MUNDELEIN 407
Vatican II's Golden Jubilee: Critical Insights from the Post-Conciliar Generation Steven Patzke, Theology/Philosophy (2014) Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Her itage (CCIH) Fellowship Mentored by Michael Murphy, Theology, Director of Catholic Studies After reading the documents of the Second Vatican Council, Steven researched potential contributors for the book. Having compiled the names, the writers were contacted and invited to participate in the project. Steven then researched publishing companies who may be willing to publish the book. A written proposal was required, so Steven reviewed Dr. Michael Murphy's materials. He also assisted Dr. Murphy orchestrate Catholic Studies Minor activities and their inaugural John Courtney Murray Forum.

Christianity and Military Services: Exploring the Social Ministry Roles of Christian Churches for Military Personnel and Their Families Sarah Balas, English (2014) Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Her itage (CCIH) Fellowship Mentored by Michael Murphy, Catholic Studies; Dr. Caleb Kim, Social Work The purpose of this study was to explore how soldiers' religious or spiritual practices have influenced and been influenced by their military experiences so to better assess veterans' needs in their transition into civilian life and/or college. The Catholic Church and Latin American Immigration: Viewing Latin American Immigration with a Theological Lens Grace Trujillo, Social Wor k (2014) McNair Scholar s Pr ogr am Mentored by Maria Vidal De Haymes, Social Work This presentation focuses on the connection between the Catholic Church, faith, and Latin American migration. Through interviews of religious figures involved in helping migrants in different stages of migration, this study explores the participation and role of the Catholic Church actors in the social and pastoral accompaniment of migrants. It also addresses the role of faith in sustaining migrants. Finally, it addresses the many components of immigration as a process and a social justice issue.

adth and its Making of the Prophet: Unraveling the Logic of Legitimacy through Hermeneutics Megan Meagher, Histor y (2015) Pr ovost Fellowship Mentored by Zouhair Ghazzal, History

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This project engages in a textual analysis of adth (Sahih Bukhari collection), to be treated as a literary source with its own internal logic. This project is thematically concerned with the logic of religious and discursive authority vested in the Prophet Muhammads sayings and doings." Through hermeneutically investigating selected adth passages with attention to the original Arabic, what is critically examined is the nature of prophethood distinct to the Prophet Muhammad and the ways in which his authoritative legacy is rendered possible.

MUNDELEIN 503
Judges Efforts Towards Detention Reduction Yvonne Cardenas, Cr iminal J ustice (2014) McNair Scholar s Pr ogr am; Vivian Frutos, Cr iminal J ustice/Cr iminology (2014) Mentored by Michael Rohan, Criminal Justice and Criminology As the home of the first juvenile court in the history of the United States, Cook County has been at the forefront of the juvenile justice arena for many decades. The county has made significant progress in the declining use of secure detention through the use of community alternatives or the risk assessment instrument. Cook County is a model site for the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative and continues to reduce the population in secure detention (Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center) and the number of juveniles sent to the Illinois Department Juvenile Justice (IDJJ). Many juveniles are subjected to secure detention due to violations in probation, non-compliance with court orders and new arrests. While detention reduction requires the effort of all departments in the criminal justice system, judges play an important role in making decisions regarding secure detention. Thus, it is perceived that if judges are aware of the profiles of juveniles their colleagues are detaining, they may be more mindful and seek other alternatives, leading to a reduction in the population held in detention.

Partnering for Social Change: Using Pay for Success Initiatives and Expanding Social Impact Investing Edgar Cruz, Sociology (2014) McNair Scholar s Pr ogr am Mentored by Annmarie Valdes, Sociology This paper will aid researchers in better understanding the various roles involved in social impact investing. Using a New Jersey case study, this research paper aims to explain how Pay for Success Initiatives (as known as Social Impact Bonds, SIBs) can assist two philanthropies in determining whether to participate in the Pay for Success Initiative being considered by the New Jersey State Legislature. Because the use of Pay for Success Initiatives was recently introduced in the United States, the focus of this current examination is on raising questions to aid the direction of further research.

Access to Resources for the Homeless: a Labre Organization Case Study Ben Kwapnioski, Inter national Business/Political Science (2014) Mentored by Stacy Neier, Marketing This study looks at access to resources for the homeless. It does so by examining how Labre Organization helps homeless individuals gain access to resources and knowledge of those resources. The study focuses on firsthand accounts Labre members have with homeless individuals and what the homeless individuals learn from these Labre members in regards to them accessing resources and learning about resources. Through conducting this research study one can see that there is a growing need for this knowledge in a more streamlined way, so that homeless individuals can gain access to resources quickly when the need arises. Ethnicity and Economic Underdevelopment: The Kurdish Question in Turkey Dilek Serbest, Economics/Finance/Inter national Studies (2014) Pr ovost Fellowship Mentored by Gunes Murat Tezcur, Political Science The Kurdish population of the Republic of Turkey has faced many years of discrimination and forced assimilation. The government has neglected the Kurdish majority in the East that has been characterized by widespread levels of poverty. A result of the discriminations has been political violence. The region remains highly underdeveloped in comparison to the rest of the country. My research project focuses on the linkages between ethnic identity and economic underdevelopment. How are ethnicity and economic well-being related in contemporary Turkey? Does state economic policies have a pronounced ethnic and regional bias

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in Turkey? I will conduct interviews with ordinary citizens, civil society and political activists in eastern Turkey and collect data from non-governmental organizations and official sources, as well as conduct interviews with these organization leaders, activists, and ordinary citizens. At a broader level, this research project adopts a political economic approach and analyzes under what conditions ethnicity is being politicized and becomes relevant to decision-making regarding resource allocation and income distribution.

MUNDELEIN 504
Association Analysis of Weather and Crime Patterns in the City of Chicago Naznin Larya, Infor mation Systems (2015); Davi Aragao, Finance/Math (2014); Stewart Lamke, Economics/Finance/ Information Systems (2014) Mentored by Mary Malliaris, Information Systems Association analysis is a data mining technique that is used to identify relationships among items that customers purchase together. It has also been used to analyze problems associated with human behavior. Using this methodology, we analyze Chicagos crime activity using a different perspective, weather. We use association analysis to find rules that will predict the occurrence of a crime event based on the occurrences of various weather data variables. We study the relationship between when different types of crimes occur (e.g., homicide, assault, theft) and the weather conditions under which the crime was committed (e.g., precipitation, temperature, wind).

The Value of College Education at Loyola University Chicago Trevor Burton, Finance/Economics (2014); Julie Stefanski, Accounting (2014) Mentored by Stacy Neier, Marketing The question being examined is: in what way has the increasing debt from student loans influenced the perception of the value of undergraduate education at Loyola University Chicago? This study can be valuable in any future study that attempts to aggregate information about the value of education in other universities. In this study, the hypothesis is that the perception of the value of undergraduate education at Loyola University Chicago has diminished.

Vice in the Windy City - A Guide to Off-Campus Living for Students Roderick Dayton, Finance/Infor mation Systems (2016); Joseph Gendusa, Finance/Infor mation Systems (2014); Sarah Mucerino, Infor mation Systems/Oper ations Management (2016) Mentored by Mary Malliaris, Information Systems This project serves to inform students who may be considering moving into off -campus housing about crime trends in wards surrounding Loyola University Chicagos campuses. Data sets used are provided by the City of Chicagos Data Portal, which are available to the public. The study concentrates on wards 40, 42, 48, 49, and 50 (wards where many students occupy housing) and uses the data mining technique of association analysis to discover trends in type, location, and volume of crime. This study will provide students with the information necessary to find a housing location that fits their security needs. If Youre Broke, Fix It: Student Financial Knowledge and Behavior Madelaine L'esperance, Economics/Finance (2014) Mentored by Stacy Neier, Marketing The skyrocketing cost of education, accompanying mountain of student loan debt, and the financial health of the next generation are pressing issues. Enter financial illiteracy: the epidemic at the heart of our ailing economy. Financial decisions are inescapable and they continue to expand and become more complex for consumers as the financial system grows in scope and offerings. Lack of financial literacy results in many poor, uniformed choices, and it is setting young people up for a lifetime of financial trouble. This study explores the financial knowledge and behaviors of college students, and it proposes informed solutions for both policy and industry.

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MUNDELEIN 506
HydraForce, Inc.--The Move Towards Data Mining and Strategic Sourcing Marcel Barnard, Accounting (2014) HydraForce, a mid-sized hydraulic valve manufacturer in Lincolnshire, Illinois follows a straightforward mission statement: Provide The Highest Quality Products And The Most Responsive Customer Support In The World At A Globally Competitive Cost." Over the past years, the company experienced/forecasted significant growth and has taken initiatives to uphold this statement. One such initiative is strategically analyzing and managing the supply base. In order to support this function, the company needed to slice and dice tables worth of data. Over the past three years I had the privilege assisting the companys Strategic Sourcing team as a data -miner/analyst. This presentation will aim to describe that experience.

Free Trade: A Data Mining Perspective on Imports and Exports Katharine Baumann, Mar keting/Economics (2014); Stephanie Nuccio, Inter national Business (2014); Alyssa Mauk, Finance/Entrepreneurship (2015) Mentored by Mary Malliaris, Information Systems Theoretically, free trade agreements foster increased trade and cooperation between the countries involved. However, critics of almost every proposed agreement claim that these agreements, in fact, hurt the domestic economy. Using decision tree analysis and neural networks in SPSS Modeler, this study aims to describe countries in a free trade agreement and how they differ from those who are not in a free trade agreement. The methods use import and export data between the United States and its 100 most important trading partners in 2011 and 2012.

Shot Location Distribution and Team Offensive Efficiency in the NBA Matthew Devita, Spor t Management/Economics (2014) Mentored by Stacy Neier, Marketing With the introduction of data analytics into the National Basketball Association (NBA) over recent years, the term efficiency has grown into a key part of the game. The generally accepted theory among the new, mathematics based, data analytics crowd is that the key to the highest offensive efficiency lies in taking a large proportion of shots close to the rim, or from beyond the 3 -point line: minimizing long-range 2-point attempts. This study will attempt to confirm these theories on a large scale outlook of the NBA.

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COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT FORUM: SESSION 2

*CEF POSTERS ALONG MUNDELEIN AUDITORIUM WALLS Poster 1 Korean Ethnographic Research in Chicago Julie Kim, Health Systems Management (2015); Kristina Manipon, English (2016); Brian Ruiz, Health Systems Management (2016) Course: HSM 210 Mentor: Diane Heliker, Health Systems Management There is little known on the health beliefs, the meaning of illness, the accessibility of healthcare, and the traditional therapies of Korean individuals currently residing in the United States. Unless U.S. healthcare providers and policy makers actively attempt to understand the cultural circumstances of not only Koreans, but of all ethnic groups, person -centered quality care will remain a challenge. The purpose of this educational project is to examine the determinants of health, the burden of illness, and the healthcare system in Korea. Additionally, the cultural and religious beliefs influencing the perceptions of healthcare and diseases held by those of Korean descent residing in Chicago and its surrounding suburbs will also be examined. Data was acquired through the use of non-governmental organizational databases, local news sources, and interviews with first and second generation Korean individuals as well as an exchange student. The questions asked during the interviews revolved around their experiences with the U.S. and Korean healthcare systems, along with the social and cultural issues surrounding both systems.

Poster 2 The Loyola Community Literacy Center: 22 years of Service to Rogers Park Paul Canavati, English (2014); Quinn Christianson, English (2017); Sergio Gonzalez, English (2015); Andre MarQuis Mitchell, English (2014) Course: ENGL 393 Mentor: Jacqueline Heckman, English The Loyola Community Literacy Center offers free tutoring to those adults in Rogers Park who are interested in learning English, developing their literacy skills, or working towards their GED. Many of our learners are recent immigrants or international visitors, but we also have native speakers who come for assistance. We provide one-on-one tutoring in a supportive, welcoming environment, with Loyola students serving as tutors, staff, and managers. Located in Loyola Hall, LSC, we are completing our 22nd year of service to the community. We are open for tutoring M-Th, 7-9:30 pm during the fall and spring semesters.

Poster 3 Water, Elixir of Art Monique Sosnowski, Envir onmental Studies/Psychology (2016); Ashtar Naqvi, Envir onmental Science (2015); Jessica Aguayo, Psychology (2014) Course: ENVS 350A Mentor: Lane Vail, Institute of Environmental Sustainability On March 22, students of STEP: Water hosted a World Water Day event. The event was focused on the use of rain harvesting via the implementation of rain barrels and other sustainable methods. In an effort to engage and educate the local community in regards to rain harvesting, rain barrels designed and painted by Chicago artists were for sale as well as donation to local organizations and educational programs. All proceeds from sales supported the UNICEF Tap Project.

Poster 4 Classroom Sustainability: Traveling Aquaponics Demonstration Ashley Quinlan, Envir onmental Science (2016); Rob Hamer, Biochemistr y/Envir onmental Science (2015); Alanna Kerstein, Envir onmental Studies (2017)

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Course: ENVS 350A Mentor: Lane Vail, Institute of Environmental Sustainability Community Partner: Sacred Heart Schools Our project used a traveling aquaponics system to educate 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students at Sacred Heart Elementary. We used the aquaponics system to teach them about agriculture pollution and show them how aquaponics is a sustainable solution to some agricultural practices.

Poster 87 Program Assessment within the Rogers Park Community: Tackling Food Insecurity Jessica Morgan, Envir onmental Studies (2015); Lynda Nguyen, Envir onmental Studies (2015); Cailee Anello, Psychology (2015) Course: ENVS 350F Mentor: Lane Vail, Institute of Environmental Sustainability; Kevin Erickson, Institute of Environmental Sustainability; Shannon Milligan, Faculty Center for Ignatian Pedagogy Community Partner: Community Shares Project; Rogers Park Business Alliance We worked with the Rogers Park Business Alliance to assess the Community Shares Project, a local program committed to finding solutions to food insecurity. Through a series of meetings we developed a logic model and effective survey tools to communicate with community participants about the success of this project.

Poster 88 Sustainable Mushrooms Brendan Goodwin, Envir onmental Science (2017); Chance Moore, Envir onmental Science (2017) Course: ENVS 350F Mentor: V. Bala Chaudhary, Environmental Science We worked locally to produce mushrooms sustainably in the Institute of Environmenal Sustainability's Ecodome. We aim to achieve a high yield of Portobello mushrooms in order to start a foundation for future mushroom growing and research within Loyola's IES building.

Poster 89 Tutoring Refugee Children Zeeshan Qazi, Biology (2016); Unsa Shafi, Biology/Sociology (2016); Sairah Chaudhry, Sociology (2016) Course: SOCL 101 Community Partner: Catholic Charities Catholic Charities is an organization dedicated to helping refugee families. We learned the difficulties refugee children face by not being able to speak English. These students face many problems in school because of this complex language barrier. To help them focus on their studies, cope with the change, and adjust to their new lives here in the US, Catholic Charities has set up many different programs. The particular program we volunteered for was the tutoring. Students from kindergarten to high school came to us for help with school work.

Poster 90 Tuesday's Child Behavioral Management System: Progress Reports Simona Petrova, Psychology (2013) Course: PSYC 390 Mentor: Colleen Conley, Psychology

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Community Partner: Tuesday's Child Tuesdays Child is a behavioral management center for families. I interned at Tuesdays Child and learned what it means to teach children the necessary skills for life, like age -appropriate participation and cooperation. I contributed to the Tuesdays Child organization by creating Progress Reports. These Progress Reports assessed the development of children at Tuesdays Child based on clearly defined, consistent measures, as defined in Tuesdays Child assessment tools that are completed on a regular basis. My Progress Reports also took into account the final judgment of the teachers, who reviewed my Progress Reports before they were distributed.

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RESEARCH POSTER PRESENTATIONS: SESSION 2

Poster 5 In Sickness and in Health: The Doctor-Patient Relationship and Perceptions of Health Tommaso Raimondi, Anthr opology (2014) Mentored by Ruth Gomberg-Munoz, Anthropology This research explores characteristics of the doctor-patient relationship and the ways in which perceptions of health dictate the interaction between doctors and patients. I collect and analyze data through means of participant-observation at a Chicago hospital and a series of interviews with licensed physicians and their patients. From these methods, I look to gain valuable insight into the dynamics of the relationship and how and why the relationship is influenced by the doctors and patients differing views of health. The project will result in a better understanding of doctor-patient interactions, allowing for further research on ways to improve the relationship for more effective health care. Poster 6 Developing a Cost-Effective 3-D Projection System Akshar Kumar, Physics/Mathematics (2016); Matthew Schmidt, Physics (2016) Mentored by Robert Polak, Physics We plan to create a cost-effective 3-D projection system similar to the RealD system used in movie theaters. In order to construct the system we will build two separate components: the projector and the 3-D optical engine. We have modeled the projector that we will use using the software ZEMAX. Currently, we are working on programming the IC chips with the liquid crystal cells for the optical engine. Our objective is to create an affordable 3 -D system that can be used in schools and museums for demonstration and educational purposes.

Poster 7 Novel GabR Modulators as New Antibiotics for Cystic Fibrosis Emily Cybulla, Biochemistr y (2015) Car bon Under gr aduate Resear ch Fellowship Pr ogr am Mentored by Daniel Becker, Chemistry; Dali Liu, Biochemistry Antibiotic development is critical for multi-drug resistant bacterial strains that contribute to recurring infections in Cystic Fibrosis (CF) patients. Interdisciplinary studies in biochemistry and medicinal chemistry are guiding our discovery of activators and inhibitors of GabR and PLP-dependent GABA metabolism in the nonpathogenic species Bacillus Subtilis. Synthesized analogs should ultimately impact bacterial virulence through modulation of the GABA shunt pathway, which is controlled by GabR dependent transcription regulation in the pathogens Burkholderia cenocepacia and Burkholderia multivorans often associated with infections in CF patients. This project explores the mechanism of GabR -mediated transcription through site-directed mutagenesis and the activity of synthesized ligands. Poster 8 Assessing the Classification and Behavior of Meganthropus through Metric, Non-metric and Microwear Texture Analyses Alexandria Peterson, Anthr opology/Classical Civilizations (2014) Pr ovost Fellowship Mentored by Kristin Krueger, Anthropology Meganthropus is a species classification that is no longer used by scholars. Current studies have classified specimens traditionally called Meganthropus as a variation of Homo erectus, but there is still much debate. A sample of nine casts of isolated teeth are compared to other hominins, including modern human populations. Non-metric traits are evaluated using the ASUDAS (Arizona State University Dental Anthropology System) reference casts. The bulk of this project comes from Dental Microwear Texture Analysis (DMTA), which reconstructs dietary and non-dietary tooth use through texture analysis of the labial surface.

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Poster 9 Characterization of the PdxR(k) protein in Escherichia Coli Toaha Hussain, Biochemistr y (2015) Mulcahy Scholar s Pr ogr am Mentored by Dali Liu, Chemistry This project examined the PdxR protein, which has been found to play a role in pyridoxal phosphate (PLP) biosynthesis regulation by regulating the transcription of the pdxST genes that encodes the PLP synthase enzyme. A challenge with antibiotics is that organisms can often develop a resistance to these drugs. This makes drug development very challenging because of the constant adaptations by bacteria to avoid death. This experiment examined the PdxR protein and attempted to characterize it to understand its structure and function. By understanding its structure, we can begin to understand how it can play a role in developing antibiotics.

Poster 10 Influence of Water Quality on Zinc Toxicity to Pomacea Paludosa and Sensitivity of Freshwater Snails to Zinc Basharath Khan, Biology (2014); Dureshahwar Ali, Biology (2014) Mentored by Tham Hoang, Environmental Science The present study characterizes the influence of water quality characteristics on zinc (Zn) toxicity to the Florida apple snail (Pomacea paludosa) and the sensitivity of freshwater snails to Zn. Standard 96-h renewal acute toxicity tests were conducted with Zn and juvenile apple snails under various water hardness, pH, dissolved organic carbon (DOC), and alkalinity. The results showed that P. paludosa is the most sensitive to Zn regardless of water quality characteristics. Results of this study are useful for development of a Zn Biotic Ligand Model for P. paludosa and site specific water quality guidelines.

Poster 11 Synthesis of a Photosensitizer-PEG-Folate Complex for PDT Munira Munshi, Biochemistr y (2015) Mulcahy Scholar s Pr ogr am Mentored by David Crumrine, Chemistry Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is an emerging alternative for the treatment of cancer that utilizes a photosensitizing agent (photosensitizer) and light of a specific wavelength. PDT offers many unique advantages over traditional treatments: precise targeting of cancer cells, less invasive, causes minimal to no scarring, cost efficient, and can be used in conjunction with other treatments. Folate receptors, while expressed at low levels in most tissue, are expressed at high levels in cancerous tissue to meet the demand of rapidly dividing cells. In this study, a phenothiazine based photosensitizer is covalently attached to folic acid through PEGylation, a standard method for modifying therapeutic molecules for effective delivery.

Poster 12 Elucidating sequence structure of the pericentromic region of HC21p Omar Salman, Biochemistr y (2014) Mulcahy Scholar s Pr ogr am Mentored by Jeffrey Doering, Biology Heterochromatic regions of the human genome have yet to be sequenced. Sequencing and characterizing the short arm of human chromosome 21 (HC21p) permits the understanding of these regions. SSW9 is a low copy number repeat within a gap on our HC21p map. Inverse and restriction-site PCR techniques are being utilized to map the adjacent sequences in order to pinpoint its exact location and close the gap. The techniques will further be used to fill the other gaps in our map. Upon completion of the map, examination of the epigenetic regulations on the sequences in cancer cells will commence.

Poster 13 Molecular Dynamics of Substrate Shuttling in a Bi-functional Enzyme

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Alyssa Deming, Biochemistr y (2014) Mulcahy Scholar s Pr ogr am Mentored by Ken Olsen, Biochemistry and Chemistry With the increasing need for novel antibacterial agents, mechanisms essential to bacterial survival but absence in humans offer attractive targets for antibiotic discovery. N-acetylglucosamine-1-phosphate uridyltransferase or GlmU is responsible for the production of UDP-GlcNAc, a fundamental precursor in bacterial cell wall biosynthesis. GlmU catalyzes two independent reactions, an acetylation at the C-terminal domain followed by an uridylation of the acetylation product at the N-terminal domain. Previous studies indicate that the enzyme shuttles the first product to the second active site by an internal pathway. My computational research investigates the lowest energy pathway, and suggests possible mutations to block the pathway.

Poster 14 Creation of Inside-Out Site Directed PEGylation of Crosslinked Hb via the Cysteine-93 Residue Abigail Otto, Fr ench (2014) Pr ovost Fellowship; Dana Dahhan, Biochemistr y (2015) Mentored by Ken Olsen, Chemistry; Kyle Webster, Chemistry The objective of this research project is to modify bovine hemoglobin (Hb) with the intent to produce a hemoglobin -based oxygen carrier (HBOC). This HBOC would be used to restore oxygen levels in hypoxic tissues following trauma. To prevent dissociation of the Hb tetramer, our modification begins with a crosslinking step utilizing 3,5 -dibromosalicylic fumarate to crosslink the Lysine residues on the -chains. This reaction is essential to preventing nephrotic toxicity, an issue noted in animal and clinical trials with previous HBOCs in other research groups. The second essential component of our procedure is the PEGylation of the crosslinked Hb (XL-Hb). This step increases the volume of our HBOC significantly and is the novel feature of our research project. The Olsen HBOC takes an inside-out site directed approach: up to eight XL-Hb tetramers are conjugated to an eight-arm polyethylene glycol (PEG) backbone. This approach increases the volume of our HBOC while conserving costly eight-arm PEG reagents. Continuing with in-house syntheses, the Olsen lab will continue with final characterizations of the HBOC via SEC-MALS and analytical ultracentrifugation coupled with viscosity tests. These final pieces of data will complete a potential publication that has been months in the writing. Following final characterization, the HBOC syntheses will be scaled -up to produce sufficient product for preliminary animal tests.

Poster 15 The Development of Folate-Targeted Photodynamic Therapy Agents Katherine Mathewson, Biochemistr y (2015) Mentored by Ken Olsen, Chemistry The goal of the project is to develop new photodynamic therapy (PDT) agents that specifically target the rapidly dividing cells found in cancers. PDT utilizes light to excite a photosensitizer to produce reactive singlet oxygen species to kill the cancer cells. There is an over-expression of folate receptors in many cancer cells. Our proposed agent will show a double selectivity in that it will specifically target cells that over- express folate receptors and it will have limited -area light exposure. The proposed research will test these hypotheses: (1) that using hemoglobin in the PDT complex can increase singlet oxygen production by bring additional oxygen into the cells, and (2) that HeLa cervical cancer cell can be used to determine the effectiveness of the PDT agents. To do this, I will make both folate-hemoglobin-chlorin and folate-albumin- chlorin covalent complexes. The two complexes will be tested in hypoxic HeLa cell cultures to determine if the presence of the extra oxygen brought in by the hemoglobin increases the compound ability to kill the cancer cells.

Poster 16 Determination of Phase II Metabolites in Chicago Surface Water and Waste Water Florence Adole, Biochemistr y/Psychology (2015) McNair Scholar s Pr ogr am Mentored by Dr Paul M. Chiarelli, Chemistry and Biochemistry This study sought to identify novel water pollutants, specifically glucuronide metabolites, in Chicago surface water and waste water. Water samples were collected from Stickney water treatment plant, Lake Michigan near Loyola University Chicago, and the Chicago River. The water samples were pretreated using solid phase extraction and the samples were analyzed using liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry. The structure determination of these glucuronide metabolites may provide some in-

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sight into unknown toxins to which humans are exposed. We are investigating as well, the possibility that the enhancement of water solubility caused by glucuronidation may accelerate the accumulation of water pollutants

Poster 17 The Evolution of the Plant Mobile Domain in Glycine max Athena Mascarenhas, Bioinfor matics/Biology (2014) Mulcahy Scholar s Pr ogr am Mentored by Howard Laten, Biology Retrotransposons are a type of transposable elements that use the copy and paste mechanism to replicate. Glycine max or soybean is a paleopolyploid legume that contains the Gmr30 retrotransposon. Gmr30, along with the gag and pol region, has one more conserved domain called the Plant Mobile Domain (PMD) which goes upstream. Trees that compared LTR, gag and RT-RNaseH from Gmr30 were constructed respectively to determine the evolutionary history of PMD within the 20 soybean chromosomes. Since soybean is completely sequenced, it can be used as a reference for other legumes like white clover which contains a retrotransposon similar to Gmr30.

Poster 18 Immunology/Virology: Developing Adenovirus-Based Vaccine Vectors With Better Antibody and T-Cell Responses. Mehreen Rahim, Biology (2015) Resear ch Mentor ing Pr ogr am Mentored by Andrew Burrage, Immunology and Microbiology The overarching goal of this project was to develop an adenovirus-based vaccine vector that would elicit better antibody and Tcell responses more efficiently than what is currently available. The adenovirus vectors contain an antigen present on the viral capsid that is hypothesized to induce an increased inflammatory response in the host. The hypothesis involving these vectors is that they will produce a more effective T cell response as opposed to sole immunization with the TB antigen. My project, specifically, focused on testing serum samples for antibodies against a chosen virus and later on AVP inhibiting drugs. I infected HeLa cells with the virus on various serum samples, via a procedure called luciferase assay. The results were then collected and analyzed to determine which samples inhibited virus infection by 50% at the determined concentration.

Poster 19 Mutation and Over-expression of Zebrafish Cardiac Troponin Nathan Pecoraro, Biology (2015) Biology Summer Resear ch Fellowship/Mulcahy Scholar s Pr ogr am Mentored by Bryan Pickett, Biology The heart has the ability to change contraction force on a beat-to-beat basis, such that when more blood enters the heart from venous return the increased stretch of the ventricle results in a stronger contraction to eject more blood from the heart. The troponins (Tn) are important regulators of heart contraction strength. Transcription studies suggest that the zebrafish form of cardiac troponin (TnI) that we will be studying, called tnni1b, has an mRNA accumulation in both developing and adult hearts. This distinguishes it from other tnni homologues in the zebrafish genome and provides evidence that this gene functions as the cardiac TnI in this organism. Our goal is to replace the wild type proteins in the contractile apparatus with our mutant versions, possibly resulting in both abnormal cellular responses and abnormal developmental and disease responses in juvenile and adult hearts.

Poster 20 From Invasives to Energy: Methane Production Potential of Invasive Plant Species and Food Waste Tapas Patel, Biology (2014) Institute of Envir onmental Sustainability (IES) Under gr aduate Resear ch Fellows Pr ogr am Mentored by David Crumrine, Chemistry Great Lakes coastal wetlands have become dominated by invasive plant species resulting in declining biodiversity. Techniques for managing invasions include burning and spraying herbicide. Controlled burns release CO2 into the air. Herbicide treatments recycle nutrients into overloaded systems and leave behind dead litter. Harvesting non-natives is an alternative technique. The

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goal of this study is to determine the suitability of using harvested invasive biomass alone and when mixed with food -waste, for biogas production. Methane produced can be used as a source of renewable energy. Ground up plant material will be placed in anaerobic, sludge-containing flasks and allowed to digest for 28 days. Codigestion, the digestion of plant material with another waste product, also offers an opportunity to turn waste into energy.

Poster 21 Denitrification Genes in Jamaica Bay Sediment Microbial Communities Elizabeth Humphrey, Biology (2015) Mulcahy Scholar s Pr ogr am Mentored by Domenic Castignetti, Biology Waters in Jamaica Bay become eutrophic due to nitrogenous waste pollution from the dense urban population in nearby New York City. This results in large populations of phytoplankton, which disrupt the aquatic ecosystem by depleting oxygen and preventing sunlight from penetrating the water. Researchers hypothesize that oyster colonization is a viable means of treating these eutrophic waters because oysters consume phytoplankton and other food particles and then recycle nitrogenous wastes, carbon sources, and other nutrients to the sediments. This project attempted to substantiate this hypothesis by screening for three denitrifying genes in sediment microbial community samples from four Jamaica Bay sites exposed to varying oyster densities. If there is a correlation between the density of oyster colonization and the presence of denitrifying bacterial genes in the sediment, comparisons can be made to ascertain a relationship between the site and oyster density that contributed to the highest rate of denitrification. Higher rates of denitrification indicate that the oysters are processing elevated concentrations of nitrogen in polluted waters and serving to restore the aquatic ecosystem.

Poster 22 Controlling Bacterial Growth in M. loti by Testing the Correlation Between Siderophores and Quorum Sensors Rychtarczyk Sylwia, Biology (2013) Biology Summer Resear ch Fellowship Mentored by Domenic Castignetti, Biology Microbes adapted to thrive in iron deficient environments produce siderophores for iron chelation. Siderophores are small, high -affinity iron chelating agents secreted by bacteria and fungi. Quorum sensing is a way bacteria use to control certain responses, possibly the production of siderophores, and have been suggested to play roles as chemical signals for intraspecies communication. The goal of this study is to understand if there is a correlation between AHLs and siderophores in response to scarcity of iron in the environment. Our current results show siderophore concentration increasing steadily with time but with little to no production of QSs.

Poster 23 The Effect of Different Fluorides on Streptococcus mutans Acid Production Julia Coppi, Biology (2014) Mulcahy Scholar s Pr ogr am Mentored by Domenic Castignetti, Biology; Conrad Naleway, Chemistry Dental caries is a common chronic disease. Streptococcus mutans is the bacterial species that contributes most to dental caries. Acid production is a key cause of caries and is dependent on the bacteriums metabolism. Fermentation of sucrose by the bacterium produces acid and oral biofilms that house S. mutans and other bacteria. The network of bacteria in the extracellular polysaccharide matrix can produce significant amounts of acid that degrade tooth enamel. Dental care companies use fluoride compounds, either sodium fluoride (NaF) or monofluorophosphate (MFP), in toothpastes to inhibit bacterial -caused decay. Each works differently to slow down S. mutans acid production and maintain the proper oral pH.

Poster 24 Are Serotonin Neurons in the Caudal Raphe Activated during Hypoxic Hypercapnia? Shahtaj Usmani, Biology (2014) Resear ch Mentor ing Pr ogr am Mentored by Jaime Vantrease, Parmacology Department

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Our lab hypothesized that serotonin neurons in the caudal raphe facilitate the compensatory responses of hypoxic hypercapnia. Previous studies showed that serotonin lesion in the caudal raphe attenuated sympathetic and ventilatory responses during compensation from blood loss indicating the activation of these serotonin neurons during hemorrhage; however, the mechanism that is being used to release serotonin is unknown. It was determined that 5HT1a receptors in the nucleus tractus solitarius were necessary to increase ventilation during hypoxic hypercapnia. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine if the serotonin neurons in the caudal raphe were also activated during hypoxic hypercapnia exposure.

Poster 25 Genetic Variance and Offspring Effects of Nest Building Behavior in Mice Nick Thoreson, Biology (2014) Mentored by James Cheverud, Biology My research focuses on the degree of genetic inheritance of the nest building behavior of mice and how these behaviors affect the wellbeing and fitness of their offspring. I have utilized a series of mouse strains which are genetically identical within strains yet distinct to each other to assess the degree of genetic and environmental influences on nest building behavior of parental mice. I then compared the quality of nest building for each strain to the weekly weights of their offspring to see if nest building behaviors affected the growth rates of their offspring in the earliest stages.

Poster 26 Campus Water Audit William Theis, Adver tising/Public Relations (2015); Rebecca Campos, Psychology (2014); Alexander Davis, Economics (2014) Mentored by Aaron Dunbaugh, Director of Sustainability Our project will conduct water audits in residence halls at Loyola University Chicago Lake Shore Campus. The mission of this project is to search for possible changes to make in residence halls that would reduce water usage on a local level. We also hope to raise awareness on campus about water scarcity around the world today and possible future costs if water is not conserved now.

Poster 27 Cell Morphology and its Role in Shaping the Gonad Safiya Elahi, Biology (2014) Biology Summer Resear ch Fellowship/Mulcahy Scholar s Pr ogr am Mentored by Jennifer Mierisch, Biology In Drosophila melanogaster, somatic and germ cells migrate and interact to form functional gonads. Somatic gonadal precursors (SGPs), which regulate germline development through cell-cell interactions, help the germ cells mature. Because the precise mechanisms of fusion between these cells during earlier stages are unclear, we are using cell microscopy to clarify the role of SGP extensions in stage 12 of gonadal formation. We also used imaging to study the lola (longitudinals lacking) fusion mutant. By characterizing fusion processes and the role of SGP extensions in normal development, we can better understand the fusion defects that result from mutations like lola.

Poster 28 Epigenetic Analysis of Beta 7 DNA on the Short Arms of Human Chromosome 21 Abigail Strong, Biology (2014) Pr ovost Fellowship Mentored by Jeffrey Doering; Biology The Human Genome Project did not sequence heterochromatin which is DNA that is not actively expressed. Our lab studies the structure and function of heterochromatin. Recently, a correlation has been noted that changes in the level of expression in heterochromatin may be linked to cancer. My project is to study changes made to the DNA and histones when comparing normal and cancer cells. This information will be useful in understanding the regulation of cancer as well as identify possible bi-

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omarkers for cancer.

Poster 29 Identifying Transcriptional Targets for Lola in Drosophila Gonads Christopher Lenkeit, Biology (2014) Biology Summer Resear ch Fellowship/Mulcahy Scholar s Pr ogr am Mentored by Jennifer Mierisch, Biology In order for cells to work properly they must be properly regulate. One of the best ways to study is this is by studying transcription factors in Drosophila. My research focuses on the gene lola, which is a transcriptional repressor. Information from other sources, including microarray and in-situ hybridization, allowed me to form a list of genes downstream of longitudinals lacking (lola). I will utilized in-situ hybridization to determine genes that are expressed in the gonads of Drosophila embryos.

Poster 30 Development of Motion Correction Techniques in Magnetic Resonance Imaging to Improve Radiation Treatment of Cancer Patients Michelle Lis, Physics/Molecular Biology (2014) Pr ovost Fellowship; Chris Kabat, Physics, Chemistr y (2014) Mentored by Anil Sethi, Radiation Oncology We quantify the effect of patient motion on MR images and evaluate their impact on SRS dose delivered. Next, we present a novel and automated method of removing motion artifacts in MR images in order to improve radiation treatments. Finally, we propose further research aimed at improving and validating current motion correction techniques.

Poster 31 A functional analysis of heat shock protein 90s on gametocytes in Plasmodium falciparum Sandy Vien, Biology (2015) Biology Summer Resear ch Fellowship/Mulcahy Scholar s Pr ogr am Mentored by Kim Williamson, Biology The malarial parasite Plasmodium falciparum goes through the human and mosquito host thus requiring a system of heat shock protein 90s that facilitate adaptation to environmental changes. PfHsp90s are excellent drug targets because of their role in the life cycle and because it shares 35-64% homology to the active site of human Hsp90s. Drugs may be designed to inhibit the activity of PfHsp90s. NVP-AUY922 and alvespimycin cause malarial death and are hypothesized to interact with PfHsp90s. Our goal is to create recombinant PfHsp90 proteins through expression constructs and to test NVP -AUY922 and alvespimycin to examine the effect on enzymatic activity.

Poster 32 PRPS2: A Potential Drug Target of Torin 2 for Inhibiting the Gametocytes of P. falciparum Waqar Ahsan, Biology (2014) Mentored by Kim Williamson, Biology Malaria is caused by Plasmodium parasite, and P. falciparum is one of the more virulent species of the parasite. Gametocytes are the stage of P. falciparum that are critical for the transmission of malaria. Torin 2 was discovered as a potent gametocyte inhibitor from cheminformatic analysis of screening data. A potential drug target of Torin 2 is a gene called PRPS2. PRPS2 encodes for phosphoribosyl pyrophosphate synthetase (PRS2), which is involved in the biosythesis and salvage of nucleotides. We consider PRPS2 to be a potential drug target, because it displayed positive results in both pull -down and protease protection (DARTS) assays.

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Poster 33 Burn Injury Alters the Intestinal Microbiome Aaron Earley, Biology (2014) Mentored by Mashkoor Choudhry, Department of Surgery and Microbiology & Immunology In the U.S. there are approximately 4,000 burn related deaths per year. A large proportion of these deaths are due to a global dysregulation of immune system function and a high risk for sepsis. One significant etiology of burn -induced sepsis is the breakdown of the intestinal epithelial barrier. Immune system regulation of this barrier is essential for maintaining a healthy and balanced intestinal microbiome. It is not well understood how burn injury affects the intestinal microbiome composition or how this may contribute to burn-induced sepsis. We propose that burn injury alters the intestinal microbiome, which contributes to inflammation and sepsis.

Poster 34 Calculating the Growth Patterns of E. coli Adem Shuaipaj, Biology/Psychology (2014); Monika Singh, Psychology (2014); Parita Patel, Biology (2014); Indre Aleksaite, Biology, (2014); Ayub Mohiuddin, Biology/Histor y (2014); Ahmet Sakiri, Biology/Psychology (2016) Mentored by Robert Polak, Physics Prokaryotic organisms, in particular Escherichia coli, display distinct and observable physical growth patterns under normal ambient conditions. We study how a single cell in a nutrient agar environment as it grows and divides into a small colony of no more than four cells. In this, we identify different mechanisms before the division and attempt to quantify those mechanisms as well as the typical rate of this division.

Poster 35 Behavioral and Electrophysiological Predictors for Alzheimer's Disease Izabelle Rymut, Biology (2014) Car r oll and Adelaide J ohnson Scholar ship Mentored by Robert Morrison, Psychology Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment (aMCI) is a diagnostic category used to identify people at risk for developing Alzheimer's disease (AD). In past studies, executive function tasks have been useful in predicting which aMCI patients go on to develop AD. In this study we used rule-based category learning, a task dependent on executive functions and areas of the brain implicated in AD, to test neuropsychologically typical older adults and aMCI patients. Preliminary results suggest that the ability to task switch may predict success on the category learning task for aMCI patients, but not normal older adults.

Poster 36 TNF-RIP1/RIP3 Signaling Maintains the Undifferentiated State of MLL-AF9 Leukemic Cells By Repressing a Short Form of PTEN Rafael Gutierrez, Biology (2014) Mentored by Peter Breslin, Biology PTEN, a tumor suppressor protein, represses cell growth in most types of tumor cells by inhibiting proliferation. However, we found that PTEN promotes the growth of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cells by blocking their differentiation. Using MLL AF9-transduced murine AML (MA9 -AML) cells as a model system, we demonstrated that PTEN deletion promotes differentiation of AML cells. TNF-RIP1/RIP3 necroptotic signaling maintains the undifferentiated state of AML cells by maintaining levels of the normal form of PTEN and preventing the production of a shorter form of the protein (s-PTEN). Inactivation of TNF-RIP1/RIP3 signaling reduces levels of PTEN and increases the production of s-PTEN. s-PTEN is a dominant negative

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form which antagonizes the function of normal length PTEN. As a consequence, TNF-RIP1/RIP3 signaling inactivation also leads to the differentiation of AML cells. Our study suggests that inactivation of TNF -RIP1/RIP3-PTEN signaling might be a useful strategy that could be used advantageously in the treatment of AML.

Poster 37 Determining the Critical Region Required for the col2a1a R2 Regulatory element Expression during Vertebrate Development Peter Lyson, Biology (2014) Mulcahy Scholar s Pr ogr am Mentored by Rodney Dale, Biology Our laboratory is interested in further understanding how critical vertebrate structural genes are regulated. We set out to identify the critical transcription factor binding sites (TFBS) for regulatory element expression in the zebrafish (Danio rerio). We have identified proteins that bind and cause the R2 expression pattern. By mutating the putative TFBS(s) we have inhibited proteins from binding to the R2 element and therefore disrupted reporter expression and also col2a1a expression. The mutated plasmids were injected into embryos and observed for GFP expression.

Poster 38 Assessing the Effects of Climate-change Driven Decreases in Great Lakes Water Levels on the Distribution of Three-square Bulrush (Schoenoplectus pungens) in Cecil Bay, Michigan. Emily Tuchman, Biology (2014) Mentored by Shane Lishawa, Biology Since the year 2000, Great Lakes water levels have been abnormally low, and they are projected to continue decreasing. Great Lakes coastal wetland ecosystems are particularly vulnerable to water level decline because wetland plants that typically grow in standing water become subject to dry conditions. Three-square bulrush (Schoenoplectus pungens) is a dominant emergent plant that can tolerate deep water and high wave energy and plays an important role in providing high value habitat. We evaluated the ability of three-square bulrush to remain an emergent plant throughout the remainder of the century by analyzing the relationship between rhizome growth and water level, and by comparing annual growth rate to projected future water level decreases in the Great Lakes. We found that rhizomes grow more when they are dry than when they are submerged, and that rhizome growth declines with greater depth of submergence. High water levels in April particularly suppress rhizome growth. Even at its maximum rhizome growth rate, three-square bulrush will very likely not be able to keep up with projected climate change driven water level decline in the future. This would result in ecosystem -wide consequences, threatening birds, fish, and macroinvertebrates that depend on emergent wetland vegetation.

Poster 39 Environmental Drivers of Movement and Burrowing Behavior of the Invasive Asian Clam (Corbicula fluminea) Melaney Dunne, Biology (2015) Biology Summer Resear ch Fellowship Mentored by Timothy Hoellein, Biology The Asian Clam, Corbicula fluminea, is invasive throughout the U.S. We measured the influence of predators and clam crowding on burrowing behavior in laboratory experiments. Crayfish predators showed no preference for small relative to large clams. Clam closed siphons when perturbed by crayfish, but quickly resumed afterwards. In addition, horizontal movement of clams was continuous regardless of density. Overall, neither predator perturbation nor crowding by conspecifics affects their burial speed, movement, or valve closure. C. fluminea is a likely successful because of high fecundity and tolerance for disturbed habitats, rather than capacity for sensing and responding to environmental change.

Poster 40 Elucidating the catalytic mechanism of the Glutathione peroxidase-like thioredoxin peroxidase (TPxGl) of the malaria parasite Plasmodium using site directed mutagenesis Shannon McGuire, Biology/Bioinfor matics (2014) Mentored by Stefan Kanzok, Biology

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The catalytic mechanism of the Glutathione peroxidase-like thioredoxin peroxidase (TPxGl) of the malaria parasite Plasmodium TPxGl is not well understood. Our lab has recently cloned, expressed and purified this TPxGl and confirmed its redox activity (Haselton et al 2014). To elucidate the catalytic mechanism of this intriguing enzyme we have generated a hypothetical 3D model of TPxGl in collaboration with Dr. Ken Olsen in the Biochemistry Department. In the model we identified a cysteine, Cys114 that is located distant from the active site Cys73. Our bioinformatic analysis of our model suggests that Cys 73 and Cys114 potentially form an intramolecular disulfide bridge.

Poster 41 Modifying Troponin Proteins in Zebrafish Rebecca Gehrmann, Biology/English (2014) Mulcahy Scholar s Pr ogr am Mentored by Bryan Pickett, Biology Cardiac troponin proteins are essential in regulating the contraction of the heart. However, their role in regulating contraction force by the Length Dependent Activation (LDA) mechanism is unclear. I am mutating cardiac troponin genes and re -inserting them into the zebrafish genome, to determine if a change in the troponin causes a difference in LDA. Through a technique called CRISPR we can directly edit target sequences in the genome. We are creating a stable line of transgenic zebrafish that can be further studied by Dr. Pieter de Tombe and his colleagues at the Stritch School of Medicine.

Poster 42 Transposon Mobilization and Evolutionary Change: Detecting, Isolating, and Sequencing Retrotransposons Found in the DNA of Trifolium Nigrescens, an Ancestor of the White Clover Plant Samer Martini, Biology/Philosophy (2015) Biology Summer Resear ch Fellowship Mentored by Howard Laten, Biology Transposable elements can induce advantageous structural and sometimes epigenetic changes in an organism by inserting either inserting into or spreading control regions, resulting in major evolutionary changes and increased genetic diversity. In conjunction with my lab, I have partially sequenced a specific retrotransposon from T. Nigrescens, a recent ancestor of the white clover and continue to compare this sequence to the same retrotransposon sequences fond in related white clover families. Our lab plans on using this information to analyze how transposon mobilization is related to interspecies hybridization and evolutionary change in the different family members of this species.

Poster 43 Allosteric Effects of ADP-Glucose-Pyrophosphorylase in E. coli Zachary Ganger, Biophysics (2014) Mulcahy Scholar s Pr ogr am Mentored by Ken Olsen, Chemistry This research is focused on the binding sites of ADP -glucose-pyrophosphorylase (ADP-glc-PPase) and its allosteric domains for Escherichia coli (E. coli). Previous experiments with E. coli and analysis have given possibilities for effects of binding on the allosteric site. That will allow the use of dynamic modeling using Virtual Molecular Dynamics software. Minimization will create a movie using energy stabilization to represent the changes resulting from the binding. Initially 1 -6 hexdiol phosphate will be used to rapidly locate the possible sites and move into using realistic liginds such as Fructose -1,6-bisphosphate to analyze the effect of the allosteric domain on the structure.

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Poster 44 Structural Elucidation of AiiB Lactonase Sarah Khalil, Chemistr y (2014) Mulcahy Scholar s Pr ogr am/Pr ovost Fellowship Mentored by Dali Liu, Chemistry Antibiotic resistance presents many challenges in treating bacterial infections. Lactonase proteins are becoming a viable option for combatting antibiotic resistance, as they have the potential to be modified to stop bacterial attack on the body. One such protein, AiiB, was purified, crystallized, and its structure was elucidated over the course of the year. Poster 45 Unlocking Natures Secrets through Efficient Organic Catalysis Jon Kusner, Chemistr y/Math (2015) Pr ovost Fellowship Mentored by Ken Olsen, Chemistry and Biochemistry; Chad Eichman, Chemistry and Biochemistry We are working in the Olsen lab to design a novel iodine catalyst that will perform regioselective dearomatization of a phenol ring, at the para position. This specific reaction is a necessary first step in the synthesis of the underlying organic architecture of the erythrina alkaloid family. Members of this large family of compounds have been shown to be pharmacologically active but they have received little attention due to the complexity of their organic synthesis. Hypervalent iodine catalysts have been shown to allow for the efficient synthesis of spirocyclic compounds, the underlying architecture of the erythrina alkaloid family. We propose to use molecular dynamic simulations to understand, design, and optimize the structure of a catalyst, containing hypervalent iodine, that will perform this organic reaction. Poster 46 The Relationship between Healthcare Policy, Economics and Values in Canada and the United States Namrah Mirza, Economics/Biology (2015) Pr ovost Fellowship Mentored by Anastasios Malliaris, Economics; Martha Holstein, Philosophy Though Canada and the United States are foundationally similar in language, and democratic systems, we have fundamentally different healthcare systems. This study aims to analyze the societal values that manifest themselves in the economics of our healthcare systems. Through this analysis we hope to find what values cause our healthcare system to be so fundamentally different from that of Canada. I aim to accomplish this through literature review and a careful economic analysis of each healthcare system. A questionnaire and interviews with Canadian and American healthcare policy experts will also be components of my study that will allow me to make the proper inferences about the values that underlie each society.

Poster 47 The Effects of Geographical and Meteorological Conditions on Air Pollution in Beijing Jorge Luis Meraz, Envir onmental Science (2014) McNair Scholar s Pr ogr am Mentored by Ping Jing, Institute of Environmental Sustainability China is currently facing a plethora of environmental issues. In the extensive list of these issues one that has been of interest is Chinas air pollution problem, especially in Beijing. The country is still developing and with that finds itself in a period of rapid industrialization. This paper analyzes how geographical and meteorological conditions play an important role in the concentration of air pollutants that Beijing receives due to coal burning from nearby areas. The research considers the location of the city, the locations of surrounding coal-burning power plants, meteorological conditions as well as the air quality conditions.

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Poster 48 Characterization of Subtelomeres on Human Acrocentric Chromosomes Jenna Krueger, Molecular Biology (2014) Mentored by Jeffrey Doering, Biology This project analyzes a tandemly repetitive sequence on the subtelomeric region of the short arms of human acrocentric chromosomes. Previous work identified that a 580bp sequence, common to all human acrocentrics, is actually part of a larger 6kb sequence. I analyzed this 6kb sequence to determine the relatedness of the acrocentric chromosomes. I found the 6kb sequence is highly conserved between all acrocentrics, but a 147bp tandem repeat contained within the 6kb is much less conserved, implying it is evolutionarily older. Im also analyzing DNA methylation changes in the 6kb sequence in cancer cells.

Poster 49 The Effects of Point Mutations on the Kinetics of ADP-glucose Pyrophosphorylase from Escherichia Coli Jennifer Wong, Biochemistr y (2014) Mulcahy Scholar s Pr ogr am/Pr ovost Fellowship; Tara Manley, Biochemistr y Mentored by Miguel Ballicora, Chemistry ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase (ADP-Glc PPase) is an enzyme that regulates starch and glycogen synthesis in plants and bacteria, respectively. To study the structure-function relationship of E. coli ADP-Glc PPase, a point mutation was inserted into the gene. The amino acid alanine replaced proline (P103A), glutamine (Q105A and Q106A), methionine (M108A), tryptophan (W113A), and arginine (R115A) at their respective positions in the sequence. The activity of each mutated enzyme was assayed to observe activity. This allowed us to study the properties of the enzyme, how the mutation affected its activity, and how the mutated enzyme differed from wild type ADP -Glc PPase. Poster 50 Using Salicornia to Purify Biodiesel Washwater Jennifer Kelso, Envir onmental Science/Sociology (2015) Institute of Envir onmental Sustainability (IES) Under gr aduate Research Fellows Program Mentored by Lane Vail, Institute of Environmental Sustainability Loyola's biodiesel lab creates contaminated washwater as a byproduct of biodiesel fuel production. This washwater contains contaminants such as methanol, fatty acids, potassium, calcium, chlorine, and other chemicals. Though this water can be handled by municipal treatment systems in small amounts, placing the burden of our toxic wastewater on the city's water treatment system is not ideal. Additionally, as biodiesel production is expected to increase with the launch of the Institute of Environmental Sustainability in fall 2013, the larger amount of washwater created will pose a greater threat. In an effort to purify this washwater, I will test the ability of Salicornia bigelovii, a succulent halophyte plant known to thrive in salty conditions, to decrease the concentration of salts in the washwater, particularly potassium.

Poster 51 Distribution of Anthropogenic Litter Across Lake Michigan Beaches Meagan Westhoven, Envir onmental Sciences (2015) Mentored by Timothy Hoellein, Biology The abundance, distribution, and ecosystem effects of anthropogenic litter (i.e., garbage) are well -studied in marine ecosystems, but research in freshwaters lags behind. We analyzed data generated by volunteers who collected litter at 5 Lake Michigan beaches while participating in the Alliance for the Great Lakes Adopt-a-Beach program. Total litter abundance by density (number m-2) was highest at the urban beaches (North Ave and Gary, IN), and was highest autumn relative to summer and spring. Results will maximize efficiency of future cleanups, identify hot -spots and time periods for litter accumulation, and inform policies directed at reducing litter on Great Lakes beaches.

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Poster 52 Mental Trauma in Medical Discourse in the Post WWI Era Andrew Prior, Histor y (2014) Resear ch Mentor ing Pr ogr am Mentored by Sarah Eilefson, English I researched mental trauma derived form exposure to combat during warfare as discussed from 1910 to 1940. To find my material I searched medical journals such as the Lancet to examine how conditions like shellshock were understood by contemporary physicians as well as the public.

Poster 53 Exploring the Effects of Cultural Competency in the Ghanaian Diaspora Cassandra Osei, Inter national Studies/Political Science (2015) McNair Scholar s Pr ogr am Mentored by Noah Butler, Anthropology; Ruth Gomberg -Munoz, Anthropology; Shweta Singh, Social Work Uptown is home to a growing number of low income Ghanaian immigrants in Chicago and is considered a medically underserved area by the Department of Health and Human Services (U.S., 2014). Therefore, in order to provide equal access to healthcare, it is imperative to develop culturally-sensitive practices. This research proposes to examine levels of health literacy and the prevalence of chronic diseases in immigrants from Ghana as an outcome of cultural and linguistic competency of healthcare professionals. These inquiries will be examined using an ethnographic design approach through interviews, participant observations, and site study of interactions with healthcare professionals.

Poster 54 Determining a Correlation between the Production of Quorum Sensors and Siderophores in Mesorhizobium loti Jack Norris, Molecular Biology (2014) Pr ovost Fellowship Mentored by Domenic Castignetti, Biology The goal of this project is to investigate the role of quorum sensors in regards to siderophore production in a soil bacterium Mesorhizobium loti. Quorum Sensors (QS) are molecules that are derivatives of the chemical N -acyl homoserine lactone or AHL. These are signals that bind to promoter sequences in bacterial DNA and enhance gene expression. Siderophores are compounds produced by bacteria, such as M. loti, in order to acquire iron from an environment that is iron limited. Our hypothesis is that siderophores may be regulated by a community response that uses AHLs as communications signals. Siderophore formation may be depended on quorum sensor activation. Through various assays such as Chrome Azurol S assay, Thin Layer Chromatography assay, and O-nitrophenyl-beta-D-galactopyranoside assay we plan to track the behavior of M. loti in their production of QS related to their release of siderophores.

Poster 55 The AiiB Metalloenzyme as a Potential Antimicrobial Agent Against Pseudomonas aeruginosa Susan Duyar, Molecular Biology (2014) Biology Resear ch Fellows Pr ogr am Mentored by Domenic Castignetti, Biology; Dali Liu, Chemistry Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a highly antibiotic-resistant opportunistic human pathogen commonly implicated in cystic fibrosis lung infections; burn wound infections, and hospital acquired infections in immunocompromised patients. P. aeruginosa regulates many virulence factor genes (genes for proteases, exotoxins, biofilm production, etc.) by a mechanism called quorum sensing in which bacteria excrete chemical signals (autoinducers) to control gene expression in a density dependent manner. My research employs a metalloenzyme (AiiB) that degrades these chemical signals as a method of controlling P. aeruginosas virulence, specifically protease production. Results show that AiiB is capable of degrading autoinducers, and suggest subsequent diminution of protease production.

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Poster 56 Retrotransposon Sequencing in White Clover Kailey Becker, Molecular Biology (2015) Biology Resear ch Fellows Pr ogr am Mentored by Howard Laten, Biology Searching for the integrase gene in a specific family of retrotransposons, TreRT2, in a specific white clover species, Trifolium Pallescens. This gene is normally missing from the retrotransposon, yet they are found to be active in white clover. Once the integrase was found, I have been working on sequencing that region to compare it to other, closely related species of white clover. The end goal is to look at evolutionary events related to this retrotransposon and its activity, including a certain hybridization event.

Poster 57 Charge Distribution on a Two Dimensional Plane Virginia Bailey, Physics (2016) Mulcahy Scholar s Pr ogr am; Claire Soupene, Mathematics/English (2016) Mentored by Asim Gangopadhyaya, Physics; Thomas Ruubel, Physics We investigated current distribution in a two dimensional plane generated by a source and a sink. We developed a theoretical model for the distribution, carried out a detailed experimental investigation, and analyzed our data using the theoretical model as well as the model commonly used in the industry.

Poster 58 Characterization of Beta Satallite Core and the D4Z4 Array in the Disease Mechanism of FSHD Elena Kurudza, Molecular Biology (2014) Biology Resear ch Fellows Pr ogr am Mentored by Jeffrey Doering, Biology The human genome project was completed in 2003. However, deliberately excluded from this project were heterochromatic repetitive genome sequences. Using chromosome 21 as a model, our research focuses on characterizing these repetitive seqeunces, in particular, Beta Satellite Core and the D4Z4 array. Found between beta satellite repeats are core elements. These core elements contain 84.23% sequence identity to both each other and the 3.3 kb D4Z4 array. Our research aims to characterize the sequence and the chromatin structure of these sequences at regions of specificity. Through the use of PCR, Cloning, Sequencing, ChIP-qPCR, and methylation experiments, studying the chromatin structure of beta-satellite core and D4Z4 can provide insight into the disease mechanism of Fascioscapulohumeral Muscular Dystrophy (FSHD) as well as the regulatory effects of these sequences in other diseases such as cancer.

Poster 59 Mechanisms of Plant Evolution: Hybrid Formation and Mobile DNA Activation Haley Luebke, Molecular Biology (2015) Mulcahy Scholar s Pr ogr am Mentored by Howard Laten, Biology Transposable elements (TE) are mobile genetic elements that have been known to influence the adaptive evolution of plants by producing a wide variety of changes in gene expression and function. It is also very likely that TEs play a fundamental role in promoting genome reorganization and influencing functional changes. This is especially true when different species hybridize to form new ones. This project focused on the expansion of four TE families in the allotetrapolyploid white clover. Through massively parallel sequencing, analysis of postulated TE insertion polymorphisms between the species of clover is possible.

Poster 60 Screen of Ionophores using Flow Cytometric Analysis to Identify Potential Pathways for Anti-malarial Drug Development Maxim Maron, Molecular Biology (2015) Car bon Under gr aduate Resear ch Fellowship Pr ogr am Mentored by Kim Williamson, Biology; Tham Hoang, Environmental Sustainability

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Plasmodium falciparum is a parasite that causes the most virulent variant of malaria. Transmission of this disease is dependent upon the development of the gametocyte life stage. Over the past year, I produced a viability assay, and screened various ionophores using flow cytometry to observe the effects on P. falciparum gametocyte development. An ionophore results in the disruption of transmembrane ion concentrations. The ionophores, although effective, are highly influenced by concentration. The effects ionophores had on the parasites as compared to the red blood cells demonstrates that variation exists between the two membranes, providing a valid target for drug development.

Poster 61 Characterizing the promoter region of the Antioxidant Defense Protein 1-Cysteine Peroxiredoxin of the Malaria Parasite Plasmodium Abdul Ahad Bagasarawala, Molecular Biology (2015) Pr ovost Fellowship Mentored by Stefan Kanzok, Biology Regulation of gene expression is not well understood in the malaria parasite Plasmodium. Currently, only a few regulatory elements have been characterized. Recent research in our lab has shown that the parasite increases the expression of an important antioxidant defense gene, 1-Cysteine peroxiredoxin (1-Cys Prx), in response to environmental challenges, such as cytotoxic reactive oxidative species (ROS). We believe that this antioxidant stress response is vitally important for the parasites survival. Therefore, the goal of my project is to characterize and map the promoter region of 1 -Cys Prx, which regulates the expression of the gene.

Poster 62 Cloning and Biochemical Characterization of a Novel Thioredoxin-related protein (TrxL-1) of the Malaria Parasite Plasmodium Sana Hira, Molecular Biology (2015) Mulcahy Scholar s Pr ogr am Mentored by Stefan Kanzok, Biology Thioredoxins and thioredoxin-like proteins play important roles in the cellular metabolisms of most known organisms. Here we characterize of a novel thioredoxin-like protein (TrxL-1, PBANKA_082020) of the rodent malaria parasite Plasmodium berghei. Conservation of this gene seems to be restricted to the phylum apicomplexa, which contains a number of important human pathogens. pbtrxl-1 consists of three exons and codes for a 208 amino acid protein with a central thioredoxin domain that lacks the characteristic CXXC active site motif. Quantitative real time PCR analysis shows strong upregulation during ookinete development in the mosquito midgut and high expression in late stage oocysts. We cloned, expressed and purified PbTrxL-1 and show that it effectively catalyzes the reduction of insulin disulfide bonds. We furthermore demonstrated that PbTrxL-1 accepts electrons from the P. berghei thioredoxin system, but only weakly reduce reactive oxygen species. We generated a hypothetical 3D model of PbTrxL-1 which shows the characteristic thioredoxin fold and indicates a putative atypical active site. Considering the strong upregulation of pbtrxl-1 during parasite development in the mosquito and the redox activity with the thioredoxin system may point to a stage specific role of PbTrxL -1 in mosquito stage Plasmodium.

Poster 63 Hydrodynamic Simulations of Density Inversion in Granular Layers Farheen Syeda, Physics (2014) Mulcahy Scholar s Pr ogr am Mentored by Jon Bougie, Physics We use simulations to investigate density inversion in vertically oscillating granular layers given parameters shaking strength (S), dimensionless frequency (f*) and dimensionless accelerational amplitude ( ). At low and f*, the layers exhibit cyclic time-dependent motion, and the highest density layers are found near the plate during portions of the cycle. However, when and f* exceed a critical value, the layers become time -independent and the highest density regions are found far above the plate, supported by a lower-density, gas-like region below. This phenomenon is known as density inversion. We investigate this transition and attempt to quantify this critical value.

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Poster 64 Constitutions after Conflict: A Comparison of Uganda and Rwanda Jeronimo Anaya Ortiz, Political Science/Inter national Studies (2015) Rudis Fellowship Mentored by Brian Endless, Political Science This research uses a literature review and several key informant interviews to first explain, analyze and understand the most recent constitutions of Uganda and Rwanda individually, and then compare and contrast the two. It specifically focuses on how both constitutions were created in response to armed conflict and turmoil inside the countries, and what specific legislation this produced. Special emphasis is put on the separation of power, and the protection of one-party domination in both countries. The research also attempts to compare the differences in the implementation of these laws through case studies of current events.

Poster 65 Differences in Mother and Father Perceptions of Spina Bifida Medical Responsibilities: Associations with Medical Adherence Jennifer Ramasami, Psychology (2014) Resear ch Mentor ing Pr ogr am Mentored by Alexandra Psihogios, Psychology This study examined discrepancies between parent perceptions over spina bifida (SB) medical responsibilities in relation to medical adherence. Ninety-three parent dyads completed a questionnaire concerning who is responsible for these tasks (SOSBMR; Anderson et al., 1990). Discrepancies were calculated at the item and scale level. Compared to mothers, fathers consistently rated their children as less responsible for medical tasks. Although fathers consistently rated their children as less independent than mothers did, level of agreement between parents did not relate to adherence. Future research should investigate whether fathers and children are on the same page concerning the distribution of medical responsibilities.

Poster 66 Speaking Up and Staying the Course: Links between Body Weight, Assertiveness and Grit in Low-Income Ethnic Minority Girls Michelle Lozano, Psychology (2014) Car r oll and Adelaide J ohnson Scholar ship/Pr ovost Fellowship Mentored by Amy Bohnert, Psychology In partnership with a community-based program, Girls in the Game (GIG), this study examines whether intensive, high -quality summer programming promotes health and physical activity as well as the development of self -control (executive functions) and leadership skills (assertiveness and grit) in a sample of low-income ethnic minority girls. This multi-method approach addresses whether participants in GIG have stable BMIs, engage in fewer obesogenic behaviors and have better developed exhibit executive functions upon completion of the 4-week community-based program (GIG).

Poster 67 The Effect of Musical Experience on the Ability of Listeners to be Spectrally Analytic when Judging Level Changes in Particular Frequency Regions Kinga Sumara, Biology (2014); Taylor Coffey, Psychology (2014) Mentored by Raymond Dye, Psychology The literature suggests that early musical training enhances the ability of listeners to process arbitrary, musical, and speech sounds. Moreover, it has been proposed that musical experience may benefit a listeners ability to specifically attend to one region of the frequency spectrum and ignore other irrelevant frequency regions. The current goal is to determine the degree to which musical experience influences the extent to which listeners are capable of processing sounds analytically. Our hope is to examine the relationship between analytic listening ability and musical listening and performing factors (e.g., age of initial training, hours spent practicing, number of performances attended).

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Poster 68 Biofilm Regulation in Vibrio fischeri Kushal Bakshi, Psychology (2015) Resear ch Mentor ing Pr ogr am Mentored by Allison Norsworthy, Psychology A biofilm is a matrix formed by bacteria which encases them in a protective layer, enabling survival in harsh environments. In Vibrio Fischeri, biolfilm formation is controlled by the Symbiosis Polysaccharide (Syp) gene locus. The project tests several hypotheses about the location of a transcription factor of one of the genes in the Syp gene locus.

Poster 69 The Effect of Leadership Experience, Personality, and Gender Role Views on Womens Interest and Confidence in Leadership Positions Cassondra Batz, Psychology (2014) Pr ovost Fellowship Mentored by James Larson, Psychology Although women rights and equality have made tremendous progress over the decades, women still face great inequality when it comes to leadership positions. My research looks at a possible way to increase the interest and confidence of women to obtain leadership positions. I used a longitudinal study to look at the differences in personality, gender role views, confidence, and interest in leadership between women who are leaders of groups on campus and women who are non -leader members. This study could suggest ways to positively affect behaviors and attitudes towards leadership, advancing one more stride toward equality for women.

Poster 70 Pathways of Relational Health and Well-Being Among Youth in Foster Care Kristina Bemis, Psychology (2013) Pr ovost Fellowship Mentored by Julia Pryce, Social Work Nearly 760,000 children a year victim of abuse or neglect. Recent research on brain development has revealed that children who experience high levels of stress experience irregular brain development, which can have long-term effects. One effect of early childhood stress is difficulty developing skills essential to being successful after care. Yet child welfare research has focused primarily on physical well-being in terms of ensuring a childs safety and legal permanence. This project examines ways by which staff and caseworkers within the child welfare system understand well -being, and support or constrain it by their work with youth and families. We worked with youth and families impacted by the child welfare system to examine how young people navigate biological and non-biological parental figures and family systems during their times in care and after, along with who and what supports them in this process.

Poster 71 I Was Just Joking!: Humor Decreases Perceptions of Sexism Sophia Smith, Psychology (2015) Pr ovost Fellowship Mentored by Robyn Mallett, Psychology This study investigates whether the use of humor affects perceptions of men who make sexist remarks. Past research indicates that humor triggers a relaxed mindset, leading to greater tolerance of sexist actions and messages. The present study tests whether the use of humor reduces social penalties assigned to those who make sexist remarks. Female participants interacted with a confederate partner online and then rated their partner on various characteristics. The more sexist a participant rated her partner, the less she liked him. Participants also rated their partner as less sexist when a comment was delivered as a joke.

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Poster 72 Language Brokering Among Bilinguals: Identifying Distinguishing Variables to Characterize Active Language Brokers Eva Gjorgieva, Psychology (2015) Resear ch Mentor ing Pr ogr am Mentored by Valerie Flores, Psychology This study aims to examine a host of characteristics that may contribute to an individuals language brokering status. Undergraduate bilinguals completed a survey collecting background characteristics that have been associated with brokering practices and indexing participants acculturation, language proficiency, and language brokering experiences. To understand the links between these characteristics and language brokering status, analysis was conducted to identify the characteristics associated with active language brokers versus non-brokers in order to maximally discriminate between these two groups. Preliminary analyses suggest that language proficiency and preference, generational status, and acculturation may play a role in predicting whether individuals serve as language brokers.

Poster 73 Infant Cognitive Development and PsychoPhysiological Measures Cydney Stein, Psychology/Anthr opology (2014) Pr ovost Fellowship Mentored by Kathleen, Kannass The goal of this study is to investigate developmental changes in how infants prioritize their attention at specific ages when different attention systems are guiding attention control. I am interested in studying how the onset on increased endogenous (internal) attention affects infants ability to allocate and prioritize their attention by comparing the resistance of the 6 -7 month olds (e.g. prior to the onset of endogenous attention development) and 10-11 month olds (e.g. after the onset of endogenous attention development) infants. Endogenous, or internal, voluntary attention control slowly begins to emerge at approximately 9 months of age. The project will include two features in the distractibility paradigm, targets and distracters. This project will manipulate the predictability of the distracters; for half of the infants the distracters will be predictable in terms of where it appears (e.g., alternating between two computer screens in a predictable way) and for the other half it will unpredictable (e.g., alternating between two computer screens in an unpredictable way). The project will measure infant attention including the infants degree of concentration on the target stimuli, length of looking to the target toy, and the length of looking at the distracter. Heart rate measurements will also be recorded to more precisely measure infant attention. Attention is a fundamental component of understanding how humans complete goals and attain information throughout life.

Poster 74 Exposure to Community Violence and Daily Worry in African American Youth Sotonye Hart, Psychology/Human Ser vices (2014) Mentored by Maryse Richards, Psychology Urban African-American youth face chronic exposure to community violence (ECV), through witnessing or victimization (Cooley-Strickland et al., 2009), and youth who encounter more negative daily events have been likely to report more negative emotions (Schneiders et al., 2006). This study examined the relationship between ECV and daily feeling state of worry. 252 African-American youth (M age = 11.6 years) from low-income, high-violence Chicago neighborhoods provided data on ECV witnessing/victimization and daily worry using Experience Sampling Method (ESM). Analyses indicated that ECV witnessing predicted higher levels of worry while ECV victimization predicted lower levels of, and greater variability in, worry.

Poster 75 Loyola MSJACD: Liberatory Pedagogy in Practice Janelle Jones, Women Studies and Gender Studies/English (2014) Car r oll and Adelaide J ohnson Scholar ship Mentored by Suzanne Bost, English; Melissa Browning, Institute of Pastoral Studies In continuation of my junior-year academic research on Ignatian and feminist pedagogies, my senior -year culminating project is three-fold: First, I examine the history of the formulation of Loyolas MSJACD program as well as its recent dismantling in

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order to understand the possible foundations of its pedagogical practices. Second, I examine the pedagogical structure and techniques employed by the MSJACD program, relying on syllabi, course descriptions, and program requirements that, I argue, are liberatory. Third, using student testimonies, I examine how student classroom experiences reflect the liberatory pedagogical structure of the program as a whole.

Poster 76 Walking Together in Faith and Solidarity: The Pastoral Challenges and Responses of the Catholic Church to North American Migration Betty Murcia Suarez, Political Science/Inter national Studies (2014) Mentored by Maria Vidal de Haymes, Social Work It is a project in progress; the presentation will show some of the initial findings from the interviews with nuns and priests that work with migrants in Mexico and the US. The Mexican interviews focus on the social and pastoral accompaniment of migrants in transit through Mexico. Interviews in the U.S. focus on the social and pastoral accompaniment of migrants and their families in the destination community of Chicago.

Poster 77 Green Space and Crime Leah Weiss, Envir onmental Studies (2015); Kaley Mullins, Inter national Studies (2015); Caitlin Dillon, Envir onmental Science (2016); Kevin Bautista, Environmental Studies (2015) Mentored by Tania Schusler, Institute of Environmental Sustainability Through GIS research and fieldwork, we are exploring correlations between green spaces in Chicago neighborhoods and crime rates at or near those locations. Along with mapping, we have reached out to environmental stewardship organizations to see what, if any, influence they had on the safety or perceptions of safety in a neighborhood.

Poster 78 Marketing Research for a Social Enterprise Paige Hall, Mar keting (2014) Mentored by Stacy Neier, Marketing I performed marketing research for a client, Five Accessories with the Managerial Decision Opportunity: How can Five Accessories increase e-commerce sales? Five research objectives were proposed in support of this including discover which social media yields e-commerce sales and determine factors that drive online purchases. Research methods comprised a descriptive survey, focus group, and literature search. The following is a sample of findings: Twitter users are 6% more likely to be motivated by retailer promotions offered through that medium. Women are likely to use search engines, while men tend to go directly to retailers websites with a specific product in mind.

Poster 79 From Parents to Offspring: The Mediating Effect of Executive Functions on the Association Between Parental Depression and Subsequent Depressive Symptoms Megan Martin, Psychology (2014) Resear ch Mentor ing Pr ogr am Mentored by Daniel Dickson, Psychology Previous research has demonstrated parental depression to be a risk factor for depressive symptoms in offspring. However, the mechanisms through which parental depression predicts depression remain unclear. The current study hypothesizes that cognitive functioning is one potential pathway through which parental depression influences the development of depressive symptoms in offspring. 221 participants completed self-report measures of depressive symptoms, executive functions, and parental depression. Path analyses showed that parental depression significantly predicted depressive symptoms through impairments in

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shifting. Results suggest that deficits in cognitive set shifting may play a more significant role in driving the transmission of parental depression.

Poster 80 Keeping Things Politically Analytic: Dual-Process Theory and Political Cognition Makiah Nuutinen, Psychology (2015) Mulcahy Scholar s Pr ogr am/Resear ch Mentor ing Pr ogr am Mentored by Dane Wendell, Political Science Research suggests people are immediately and intuitively skeptical of opposing political views. We believe cognitive science can help political scientists address this concern. Dual-Process Theory suggests two distinct processing systems responsible for higher thoughta fast system that leads to intuitive judgments and a slow, deliberative system that utilizes more careful reasoning. Our research explores dual-process theory through logical syllogisms that incorporate commonly held liberal and conservative political ideals. Because political partisans have well -developed attitudes and knowledge regarding politics, they automatically engage their fast system. Consequently, strong partisans are more prone to mistakes in reasoning because they fail to engage their slow, deliberative system for political matters.

Poster 81 The Relationship Between Extracurricular Activity Involvement and Coping Among Urban African American Youth Khushbu Dalal, Psychology (2014); Ashley Doubet, Psychology (2013); Allison Shimer, Psychology (2016) Mentored by Maryse Richards, Psychology; Edna Romero, Graduate Student, Psychology This study examined the relationship between involvement in academic and extracurricular activities and coping among a sample of 227 urban low-income African American adolescents. Coping was assessed through the Adolescent Integrated Stress and Coping Scale, which is comprised of three subscales: problem-focused, emotion-focused, and avoidant coping (AISCS; Jose & Hutsinger, 2005). Participation in school activities and structured after -school activities indicated increases one year later in avoidant coping, whereas participation in physical activities indicated increases in problem-focused coping, and decreases in avoidant coping. Future interventions should focus on ways to increase involvement in extracurricular activities as a way to increase effective coping.

Poster 82 Detection of Interaural Differences of Level in Echoes as a Function of Echi Delay and Source Frequency George Stathopoulos, Biology (2014) Mentored by Raymond Dye, Neuroscience & Psychology To ascertain whether or not localization suppression is obtained for interaural differences of level as it is for interaural differences of time (the other binaural cue for localizing sound). Another goal is to determine the extent to which localization suppression is frequency selective.

Poster 83 Enabling Quantitative Assessment and Interdisciplinarity: Fostering Communication and Unifying Statistical Analysis by using R Freeware and SAS Software Jennifer Johnson, Mathematics (2014) Pr ovost Fellowship Mentored by Timothy O'Brien, Mathematics and Statistics The R statistical software is a powerful, free program that can be used across disciplines. SAS software, available on Loyola computers, is ideal for the trend towards big data. This project aims to create a thorough presentation of the statistical capabil-

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ities of both R and SAS. Tutorials for common statistical analyses and explanations of code will be provided. The two programs will be compared side-by-side to allow for professors and students to see which program best fits their needs. With the campus wide use of these two programs, there can be greater collaboration in research and more opportunities for sharing knowledge.

Poster 84 Green Roof Soil Nutrients Sean Kelly, Finance (2015) Center for Ur ban Resear ch and Lear ning (CURL) Fellowship Mentored by Bala Chaudhary, Environmental Science Green roofs provide important ecosystem services to urban areas such as better storm-water management, temperature regulation of buildings, and summer cooling of urban heat islands. However, challenges exist in keeping green roof plants alive and maintaining these services through time. We examined how abiotic soil characteristics vary among 10 different green roofs across two campuses and how green roof soil properties may change through time. We found that the average amount of nitrogen available in the soil samples is between 2-4 ppm. However, there are a few exceptions ranging from 6 -18 ppm that resulted from newer infrastructure of these green roofs. These results indicate that these green roofs have sufficient resources of nitrogen and can successfully cycle its nutrients in a self-sustaining manner. Poster 85 The Relationship Between Facebook Feedback, Self-Esteem, and Introversion JoAnn Dynkin, Psychology/Human Ser vices (2015) Mentored by Sandra Vanegas, Psychology Past research regarding social networks relationship between self-esteem and introversion focused on self-presentation, social comparison, and ethnic identity. The present research looks at Facebook feedback and its relation to self -esteem and introversion. To conduct the study, 19 Midwestern college students were given three scales and questionnaires. Results showed significant positive correlations between self-esteem and the Facebook feedback of birthday wall posts and number of Facebook friends and significant negative correlations between introversion and comments and likes on photo albums and number of birthday wall posts. This study helps to understand the role of social networks on users self-esteem.

Poster 86 Entering the Darkness of Wet Plate Collodion Alex McKeever, Photogr aphy (2014) Pr ovost Fellowship Mentored by James Jensen, Fine Arts Technological advances over the past few decades now allow most anyone to capture beautiful photographs on their cell phones or digital cameras, both of which are getting cheaper and smaller. Though the ability to take images instantly is very convenient and pleasing, something seems lost in the process. For this project, I delved into photographys history to learn wet plate collodion tintypes a process in which each image is a one-of-a-kind positive in hopes of finding that missing piece that the digital age has taken away.

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INDEX OF PRESENTERS
Poster Session/Community Engagement Forum (CEF) 1: 11-12:30 Oral Session: 12:50-2:30 Poster Session/Community Engagement Forum (CEF) 2: 2-3:30
Adams, Lauren: Or al Session, Room 307 Adole, Florence: Poster Session 2, Poster 16 Aguayo, Jessica: CEF Session 2, Poster 3 Ahsan, Waqar: Poster Session 2, Poster 32 Aleksaite, Indre: Poster Session 2, Poster 34 Ali, Dureshahwar: Poster Session 1, Poster 32 Ali, Dureshahwar: Poster Session 2, Poster 10 Anaya Ortiz, Jeronimo: Poster Session 2, Poster 64 Anees, Sadia: Poster Session 1, Poster 81 Anello, Cailee: CEF Session 2, Poster 87 Anton, Garazha: Poster Session 1, Poster 83 Aragao, Davi: Poster Session 1, Poster 86 Aragao, Davi: Or al Session, Room 504 Auchstetter, Amelia: Poster Session 1, Poster 58 Bagasarawala, Abdul Ahad: Poster Session 2, Poster 61 Bailey, Virginia: Poster Session 2, Poster 57 Bakshi, Kushal: Poster Session 2, Poster 68 Balas, Sarah: Or al Session, Room 407 Baltrusaitis, David: Or al Session, Room 203 Barnard, Marcel: Or al Session, Room 506 Barrawi, Hadeel: Poster Session 1, Poster 37 Basadre, Juan: Or al Session, Room 404 Basadre, Juan: Or al Session, Room 403 Batz, Cassondra: Poster Session 2, Poster 69 Baumann, Katharine: Or al Session, Room 506 Bautista, Kevin: Poster Session 2, Poster 77 Becker, Kailey: Poster Session 2, Poster 56 Beischel, William: Poster Session 1, Poster 14 Beischel, William: Or al Session, Room 303 Bemis, Kristina: Poster Session 2, Poster 70 Bender, Jon: Or al Session, Room 204 Benkoski, Caity: Poster Session 1, Poster 77 Berman, Nina: Or al Session, Room 406 Borman, Catherine: Poster Session 1, Poster 81 Borrelli, Paige: Or al Session, Room 403 Brenner, Jonathon: Poster Session 1, Poster 9 Brisson, Ryan: Poster Session 1, Poster 38 Brocklehurst, Jared: CEF Session 1, Poster 88 Burns, Maureen: Poster Session 1, Poster 10 Burton, Trevor: Or al Session, Room 504 Calteaux, Victoria: Poster Session 1, Poster 77 Campos, Rebecca: Poster Session 2, Poster 26 Canavati, Paul: CEF Session 2, Poster 2 Cardenas, Yvonne: Or al Session, Room 503 Chaudhry, Sairah: CEF Session 2, Poster 89 Cho, David: Poster Session 1, Poster 31 Chong, Edward: Or al Session, Room 304 Choudry, Mouneeb: Poster Session 1, Poster 18 Christianson, Quinn: CEF Session 2, Poster 2 Cocjin, Francis: Poster Session 1, Poster 52 Coffey, Taylor: Poster Session 2, Poster 67 Coppi, Julia: Poster Session 2, Poster 23 Coppi, Julia: CEF Session 1, Poster 3 Crisp, Michelle: Poster Session 1, Poster 53 Cruz, Edgar: Or al Session, Room 503 Curran, Theresa: CEF Session 1, Poster Cybulla, Emily: Poster Session 2, Poster 7 Cybulla, Emily: Or al Session, Room 204 Cybulla, Emily: CEF Session 1, Poster 2 Cybulla, Emily: CEF Session 1, Poster 1 Dahhan, Dana: Poster Session 2, Poster 14 Dalal, Khushbu: Poster Session 1, Poster 68 Dalal, Khushbu: Poster Session 2, Poster 81 Dam, Christine: CEF Session 1, Poster 89 David, Robin: Or al Session, Room 203 Davis, Alexander: Poster Session 2, Poster 26 Dayton, Roderick: Or al Session, Room 504 Deegan, Kerilynn: Poster Session 1, Poster 24 Deming, Alyssa: Poster Session 2, Poster 13 Devita, Matthew: Or al Session, Room 506 Dhillon, Ekamjeet: Poster Session 1, Poster 6 Dillon, Caitlin: Poster Session 2, Poster 77 Dimas, Dimitra: Poster Session 1, Poster 81 Doubet, Ashley: Poster Session 2, Poster 81 Dreas, Katie: CEF Session 1, Poster 4 Droste, Andrew: Or al Session, Room 203 Dubiel, Danielle: CEF Session 1, Poster 89 Duggan, Jefferson: Poster Session 1, Poster 77 Duggan, Jefferson: Or al Session, Room 205 Dunne, Melaney: Poster Session 2, Poster 39 Duyar, Susan: Poster Session 2, Poster 55 Dynkin, JoAnn: Poster Session 2, Poster 85 Earley, Aaron: Poster Session 2, Poster 33 Elahi, Safiya: Poster Session 2, Poster 27 Farmer, Melissa: Poster Session 1, Poster 41 Fisher, Kellen: Or al Session, Room 406 Flannery, Julie: Poster Session 1, Poster 63 Fluckey, Shawn: Poster Session 1, Poster 57 Foote-Huth, Benjamin: Poster Session 1, Poster 78 Frank, Sarah "Frankie": Or al Session, Room 303 Frutos, Vivian: Or al Session, Room 503 Gabbert, Dave: Poster Session 1, Poster 27 Gagnon, Elise: Poster Session 1, Poster 26 Gallagher, Colin: Poster Session 1, Poster 5 Ganger, Zachary: Poster Session 2, Poster 43 Gavin, Benjamin: Poster Session 1, Poster 45 Gehrmann, Rebecca: Poster Session 2, Poster 41 Gendusa, Joseph: Or al Session, Room 504 Gendusa, Joseph: Or al Session, Room 303 Gilman, Alex: Or al Session, Room 205

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Gilman, Alex: Or al Session, Room 204 Gjorgieva, Eva: Poster Session 2, Poster 72 Gonzalez, Sergio: CEF Session 2, Poster 2 Goodwin, Brendan: CEF Session 2, Poster 88 Graham, Joseph: Poster Session 1, Poster 57 Greenia, Andrew: Or al Session, Room 304 Grogan, Liam: CEF Session 2, Poster 90 Grove, Bianca: CEF Session 1, Poster 1 Guenther, Lauren: Poster Session 1, Poster 46 Guevarra, Gerald: Or al Session, Room 307 Gutierrez, Rafael: Poster Session 2, Poster 36 Hall, Paige: Poster Session 2, Poster 78 Hamer, Rob: CEF Session 2, Poster 4 Harb, Elizabeth: Or al Session, Room 303 Hargarten, Eric: Or al Session, Room 205 Hart, Sotonye: Poster Session 2, Poster 74 Hart, Sotonye: Or al Session, Room 304 Hatzopoulos, Thomas: Poster Session 1, Poster 12 Hilker, Camellia: Poster Session 1, Poster 25 Hill, Jacquelyn: Poster Session 1, Poster 30 Hira, Sana: Poster Session 2, Poster 62 Hittie, Joshua: Poster Session 1, Poster 29 Hof, Kelly: CEF Session 1, Poster 88 Hullinger, David: Or al Session, Room 406 Humphrey, Elizabeth: Poster Session 2, Poster 21 Hussain, Toaha: Poster Session 2, Poster 9 Icaza, Nic: Poster Session 1, Poster 67 Iqbal, Sana: Poster Session 1, Poster 35 Isama, Antoinette: Poster Session 1, Poster 76 Jamie, Louis: Poster Session 1, Poster 67 Janeczek, Monica: Poster Session 1, Poster 15 Jawor, Nicholas: Or al Session, Room 403 Jenkins, Matthew: CEF Session 1, Poster 87 Johnson, Jennifer: Poster Session 2, Poster 83 Jones, Janelle: Poster Session 2, Poster 75 Kabat, Chris: Poster Session 2, Poster 30 Kelly, Sean: Poster Session 2, Poster 84 Kelso, Jennifer: Poster Session 2, Poster 50 Kelso, Jennifer: Or al Session, Room 205 Kerstein, Alanna: CEF Session 2, Poster 4 Khalil, Sarah: Poster Session 2, Poster 44 Khan, Afra: Poster Session 1, Poster 49 Khan, Sara: Poster Session 1, Poster 84 Khan, Basharath: Poster Session 2, Poster 10 Kim, Alec: Poster Session 1, Poster 77 Kim, Julie: CEF Session 2, Poster 1 Kiram, Kayla: Poster Session 1, Poster 81 Koblinski, Steven: Poster Session 1, Poster 86 Kozik, Anthony: Poster Session 1, Poster 77 Krueger, Jenna: Poster Session 2, Poster 48 Kuehnle, Neil: Poster Session 1, Poster 48 Kulach, Monica: Poster Session 1, Poster 70 Kulach, Monica: Or al Session, Room 303 Kumar, Akshar: Poster Session 2, Poster 6 Kurudza, Elena: Poster Session 2, Poster 58 Kusner, Jon: Poster Session 2, Poster 45 Kwapnioski, Ben: Or al Session, Room 503 Lamke, Stewart: Or al Session, Room 504 Lang, Joseph: Or al Session, Room 205

Larya, Naznin: Or al Session, Room 504 Latorre, Larisa: Poster Session 1, Poster 79 LeBlanc, Dylan: Or al Session, Room 404 Lenczowski, Emily: Poster Session 1, Poster 20 Lenkeit, Christopher: Poster Session 2, Poster 29 L'Esperance, Madelaine: Poster Session 1, Poster 42 L'Esperance, Madelaine: Or al Session, Room 504 Lis, Michelle: Poster Session 1, Poster 56 Lis, Michelle: Poster Session 2, Poster 30 Lopez-Campos, Miguel: Or al Session, Room 403 Lozano, Michelle: Poster Session 2, Poster 66 Luebke, Haley: Poster Session 2, Poster 59 Lyson, Peter: Poster Session 2, Poster 37 Majewski, Kelly: Poster Session 1, Poster 77 Malki, Kema: Poster Session 1, Poster 16 Manipon, Kristina: CEF Session 2, Poster 1 Manley, Tara: Poster Session 2, Poster 49 Maron, Maxim: Poster Session 2, Poster 60 Maron, Maxim: Or al Session, Room 203 Martin, Megan: Poster Session 2, Poster 79 Martin, Aleah: Poster Session 1, Poster 28 Martini, Samer: Poster Session 2, Poster 42 Mascarenhas, Athena: Poster Session 2, Poster 17 Mathewson, Katherine: Poster Session 2, Poster 15 Mauk, Alyssa: Or al Session, Room 506 McDonald, Weston: Or al Session, Room 205 McGuire, Shannon: Poster Session 2, Poster 40 McKeever, Alex: Poster Session 2, Poster 86 Meagher, Megan: Or al Session, Room 407 Meraz, Jorge Luis: Poster Session 2, Poster 47 Minalt, Nicole: Poster Session 1, Poster 50 Mirza, Namrah: Poster Session 2, Poster 46 Mitchell, Andre MarQuis: CEF Session 2, Poster 2 Mohiuddin, Ayub: Poster Session 2, Poster 34 Moore, Chance: CEF Session 2, Poster 88 Morgan, Jessica: CEF Session 2, Poster 87 Mucerino, Sarah: Or al Session, Room 504 Muenzer, Sarah: Or al Session, Room 404 Mullins, Kaley: Poster Session 2, Poster 77 Munshi, Munira: Poster Session 2, Poster 11 Murcia Suarez, Betty: Poster Session 2, Poster 76 Muztar, Mudassir: Or al Session, Room 307 Nahlik, Phillip: Poster Session 1, Poster 34 Naqvi, Ashtar: CEF Session 2, Poster 3 Nguyen, Lynda: CEF Session 2, Poster 87 Nieweglowski, Katherine: Poster Session 1, Poster 75 Nohner, Mitchell: Poster Session 1, Poster 21 Norris, Jack: Poster Session 2, Poster 54 Nuccio, Stephanie: Or al Session, Room 506 Nuutinen, Makiah: Poster Session 2, Poster 80 Obermanns, Eda: Or al Session, Room 404 Obermueller, Lauren: Poster Session 1, Poster 80 O'Malley, Paul: Poster Session 1, Poster 36 Osei, Cassandra: Poster Session 2, Poster 53 Otto, Abigail: Poster Session 2, Poster 14 Pacholski, Katie: CEF Session 1, Poster 4 Palumbo, Robert: Poster Session 1, Poster 65 Patel, Nisha: Poster Session 1, Poster 10 Patel, Kunal: Poster Session 1, Poster 82

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Patel, Tapas: Poster Session 2, Poster 20 Patel, Parita: Poster Session 2, Poster 34 Patzke, Steven: Or al Session, Room 407 Pecoraro, Nathan: Poster Session 2, Poster 19 Perez, Edgar: Or al Session, Room 205 Peters, Michelle: CEF Session 1, Poster 2 Peterson, Alexandria: Poster Session 2, Poster 8 Petrova, Simona: CEF Session 1, Poster 90 Polowski, Michael: Or al Session, Room 403 Pomian, Katarzyna: Poster Session 1, Poster 54 Predey, Thomas: Poster Session 1, Poster 77 Predey, Thomas: Poster Session 1, Poster 55 Prior, Andrew: Poster Session 2, Poster 52 Qazi, Zeeshan: CEF Session 2, Poster 89 Quinlan, Ashley: CEF Session 2, Poster 4 Quinn, Austin: Or al Session, Room 403 Rafidi, George: Poster Session 1, Poster 47 Rahim, Mehreen: Poster Session 2, Poster 18 Raimondi, Tommaso: Poster Session 2, Poster 5 Ramasami, Jennifer: Poster Session 2, Poster 65 Rappaport, Jori: Poster Session 1, Poster 71 Regalado, Pedro: Or al Session, Room 403 Ricciardi, Chris: Poster Session 1, Poster 77 Riley, Tracey: Poster Session 1, Poster 72 Rooney, Brittney: CEF Session 1, Poster 88 Ruelle, Laura: CEF Session 1, Poster 89 Ruiz, Brian: CEF Session 2, Poster 1 Rymut, Izabelle: Poster Session 1, Poster 14 Rymut, Izabelle: Poster Session 2, Poster 35 Sakiri, Ahmet: Poster Session 2, Poster 34 Salatka, Albert: Or al Session, Room 403 Salman, Omar: Poster Session 2, Poster 12 Sandall, Emily: Poster Session 1, Poster 13 Scharrer, Brianna: Poster Session 1, Poster 64 Scheiwiller, Kevin: Poster Session 1, Poster 43 Schmelter, Ryan: Poster Session 1, Poster 22 Schmidt, Matthew: Poster Session 2, Poster 6 Seo, Jenny: Poster Session 1, Poster 62 Serbest, Dilek: Or al Session, Room 503 Serena, Thomas: Poster Session 1, Poster 30 Serwin, Angela: Poster Session 1, Poster 74 Shafi, Unsa: CEF Session 2, Poster 89 Sharma, Natasha: Poster Session 1, Poster 6 Sherwani, Sonia: Poster Session 1, Poster 51 Shimer, Allison: Poster Session 2, Poster 81 Short, Callie: Poster Session 1, Poster 66 Shuaipaj, Adem: Poster Session 2, Poster 34 Singh, Monika: Poster Session 2, Poster 34

Sladek, Maggie: Poster Session 1, Poster 23 Smith, Sophia: Poster Session 1, Poster 60 Smith, Sophia: Poster Session 2, Poster 71 Solamen, Ligin: Or al Session, Room 204 Sosnowski, Monique: CEF Session 1, Poster 4 Sosnowski, Monique: CEF Session 2, Poster 3 Soupene, Claire: Poster Session 2, Poster 57 Spaargaren, Elizabeth: Poster Session 1, Poster 19 Stacey, Leanne: Poster Session 1, Poster 73 Stathopoulos, George: Poster Session 2, Poster 82 Stefanski, Julie: Or al Session, Room 504 Stein, Cydney: Poster Session 2, Poster 73 Stevens, Craig: Poster Session 1, Poster 53 Strange, Caitlin: Or al Session, Room 403 Strong, Abigail: Poster Session 2, Poster 28 Sullivan, Thomas: Poster Session 1, Poster 34 Sumara, Kinga: Poster Session 2, Poster 67 Syeda, Farheen: Poster Session 2, Poster 63 Sylwia, Rychtarczyk: Poster Session 2, Poster 22 Taylor, Daria: Poster Session 1, Poster 85 Tednes, John: Poster Session 1, Poster 34 Theis, William: Poster Session 2, Poster 26 Thoreson, Nick: Poster Session 2, Poster 25 Timoteo, Taylor: Poster Session 1, Poster 57 Treffy, Randall: Poster Session 1, Poster 33 Trujillo, Grace: Or al Session, Room 407 Tuchman, Emily: Poster Session 2, Poster 38 Tuskan, Britney: Poster Session 1, Poster 59 Upp, David: Poster Session 1, Poster 40 Uriarte, Jefferson: Or al Session, Room 307 Usmani, Shahtaj: Poster Session 2, Poster 24 Vahora, Naushin: Poster Session 1, Poster 7 Vargas, Anissa: Poster Session 1, Poster 61 Varty, Ted: Poster Session 1, Poster 77 Veverka, Kevin: Poster Session 1, Poster 28 Vien, Sandy: Poster Session 2, Poster 31 Vigen, Erika: Poster Session 1, Poster 17 Villa, Sebastian: Poster Session 1, Poster 44 Wadsworth, Paul: Poster Session 1, Poster 11 Wahnschaff, Ashley: Or al Session, Room 304 Weiss, Leah: Poster Session 2, Poster 77 Weiss, Leah: CEF Session 1, Poster 88 Wells, Bianca: Poster Session 1, Poster 14 Wen, Iris: Poster Session 1, Poster 67 West, Tyson: CEF Session 1, Poster 89 Westhoven, Meagan: Poster Session 2, Poster 51 Westrich, Joe: Poster Session 1, Poster 77 Wojtowicz, Aleksandra: Poster Session 1, Poster 39

65

THE CENTER FOR EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING

Patrick Green, Director Jason Burkett, Office Coordinator Danielle Forchette, Academic Internships Program Manager Michelle Kusel, ePortfolio Program Manager Jessica Murphy, Assessment Coordinator Travis Proffitt, Community Partnerships Coordinator Jon Schmidt, Service-Learning Program Manager Andrew Warne, Undergraduate Research Program Manager