A Combined Computational/Experimental Approach to Stabilize Proteins with Unnatural Amino Acid Modifications

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Joshua Wilkerson and Dr. Thomas Knotts, Chemical Engineering Introduction Proteins are versatile biological molecules that catalyze chemical reactions, provide cellular structure, and transport materials throughout the body. Proteins have been adapted for use in a wide variety of industries including food processing, medical diagnostics, and therapeutics. However, proteins must often be modified to enhance their […]

Noise Threshold and Normalization by Contrast Parameter for Atomization during Droplet Impingement

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Alexander White and Julie Crockett, Mechanical Engineering The purpose of this report is to remind the reader of goals initially set in conjunction with the original ORCA Grant project proposal in October 2017, to discuss logistical difficulties in carrying out the original project and subsequent adjustments in scope and topic of work, to represent efforts […]

The Predictive Validity of a Kindergarten Dynamic Assessment of Language

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Veronica White and Douglas Petersen, Communication Disorders Introduction Kindergarten students are often administered screening instruments designed to identify weaknesses in emergent literacy skills. Unfortunately, these screeners, which only measure what a student currently knows, cannot validly differentiate between students who have low scores because of limited exposure, language/dialectal differences, or a disability. A more valid […]

A Regional Party in Yorkshire?: The Proof is in the Pudding

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Elizabeth Whatcott and Dr. Joel Selway, Political Science Within the United Kingdom, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland have all gained regional assemblies which manage local affairs including health care, economic growth, education, and other services. However, the Parliament in Westminster has devolved few responsibilities to local authorities in England. Under the Blair premiership, the government […]

Identifying Appropriate Assessment Procedures for Bridle Up Hope: Testing the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale

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Savannah Wells and Neil Lundberg, Experience and Design Management Introduction Young women all over the country are struggling with poor mental health and self-confidence. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2016), 40 percent of young women in the U.S. struggle with depressive symptoms and 30 percent of young women experience symptoms […]

Evaluation of an EEG Task for Detecting Latent Infections

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Ryan Weels, Savanah Bishun and Bruce Brown, Psychology Introduction Ultimately our goal is to develop methods for diagnosing neuropsychiatric illnesses through measurement and analysis of the electrophysiological stream of consciousness. In this project we test how well EEG adaptations of the Sternberg (1966) memory search task and the n-back cognitive task can discriminate between individuals […]

Chemokine Receptor CCBP2-V41A and its Role in Inflammation and Alzheimer’s Disease

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Allen Weinert and Scott Weber, Microbiology & Molecular Biology Introduction The leading cause of dementia in elderly patients is Alzheimer’s disease (AD), a degenerating and fatal neurodegenerative condition. AD is a proteopathic disease caused by extensive accumulation of amyloid beta plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. A recent genomewide association study analyzing 59 AD-associated cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) […]

Guided Evolution to Expand the Host Range in Phages

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Jamison Walker and Sandra Hope, Microbiology & Molecular Biology My project proposal included the use of Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection to determine if genetic mutations will arise in Bacteriophages that would allow them to infect related strains in a species of bacteria. Bacteriophages naturally have a target host range that they can […]

A Summer in Moscow

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Ellie Vance and Thom K. Edlund My summer in Moscow was amazing, but not what I expected it to be. Rather, it was filled with unexpected but wonderful surprises and changes along the way. The original plan was to secure an internship in a Moscow archive in order to learn more about how archive systems […]

Neurosecurity: Comprehending Security Messages

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Zachary Vance and Bonnie Anderson, Information Systems The comprehension of security messages can be a difficult task to decipher, as comprehension works through a series of stages. The four major steps in comprehension are attention, semantics, syntax, and pragmatics, as outlined by figure 1 below. Through the use of eye-tracking, we were able to focus […]