Honors Scholar Theses

Permaculture and Public Health: Mitigation of the Lifestyle Risk Factors for Type 2 Diabetes Through the Establishment of Permaculture Edible Forest Gardens

Brett Christopher Lehner — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 10:02:52 PST

Over the past thirty years, the incidence of type 2 diabetes and obesity has greatly increased in the United States. This paper compares the living environment of hunter-gathers to that of modern humans, in diet and activity levels, and discusses the recent increase of type 2 diabetes as a 'disease of civilization'. To address these changes in dietary composition and activity levels, an alternative agricultural model, permaculture edible forest gardening, is proposed. Permaculture edible forest gardening is an agricultural model which mimics natural ecosystem structure while consisting of entirely edible, perennial plant species. Permaculture edible forest gardens can potentially play a role in the mitigation of the diet and activity level related risk factors for type 2 diabetes.

Finding Unpredictable Behaviors of Periodic Bouncing for Forced Nonlinear Spring Systems when Oscillating Time is Large

Yanyue Ning — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 09:58:15 PST

The model of nonlinear spring systems can be applied to deal with different aspect of mechanical problems, such as oscillations in periodic flexing in bridges and ships. The concentration of this research is the bouncing behaviors of nonlinear spring system when the processing time is large, therefore nonlinear ordinary differential equations (ODE) are suitable since researchers can add different variables into the models and solve them by computational methods. Benefit from this, it is easy to check the oscillations or bouncing behaviors that each variable contributes to the model and find the relationship between some important factors: vibrating frequency, external forces and amplitudes. Moreover, analyzing the model can be implemented by plugging different values into the equations characteristics. For example, this research will focus on discussing various initial conditions since they may cause different behaviors to appear. Conducting numerical analysis to check the performance of the model by computing with MATLAB is also necessary during the research procedure, which may help researches to avoid failure results and show the existence of a certain phenomenon.

The Origins of Christian Society in Ancient India

Crista Nalani Anderson — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 12:43:39 PDT

Approximately 2.4% of the Indian population identify themselves as Christians[1]. As the number of followers grows, it is only natural to question how this religion came to India. The Syrian Christians of Kerala have taken great pride for countless centuries in the fact that their church was personally founded by the apostle Thomas. However, does this legend accurately portray the historical reality? Numerous scholars claim that Christianity was brought to the continent by merchants, other evangelists, or Jewish settlers. This study seeks to identify the evidence behind these claims by comparing the existing primary source documents and observable historic trends. This detailed analysis concludes that substantial evidence supports the claim that Thomas was the first to establish Christian communities on the continent in the first century CE with the purpose of evangelization.

[1] Thomas, Abraham Vazhayil. Christians in Secular India. Cranbury, New Jersey: Associated University Presses, Inc., 1974, p. 13.

Education Preparation to Respond to the Needs of Homeless Children & Youth: Perceptions of School Personnel

Sarah Elizabeth Harris — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 12:12:28 PDT

Each year, 1.5 million children spend at least one night in a homeless situation (Public Broadcast Station, 2009). These students struggle to achieve academically with schooling that is inconsistent in both location and curriculum and living conditions that are not conducive to homework and study. This study examined educators’ perceptions of homelessness and the academic and social needs of homeless students, as well as the preparation that teachers and other school personnel report that they have received in pre-service preparation programs and through professional development opportunities to address the unique needs of homeless children and youth. The project explored educator preparedness to respond to this population of students, in connection with federal legislation and professional recommendations on the issue. Throughout the course of this study, survey and interview data were collected from educators in four New England school districts, two of which are located in small suburban areas and the other two of which are larger, more urban districts. Survey data across all districts indicated that educators are confident in their roles as "mandated reporters." Despite this general awareness, respondents indicated much lower levels of knowledge about the requirements of the McKinney-Vento Act, federal legislation that outlines schools' responsibilities regarding the support of students in homeless situations. Interview data indicated that educators perceive school leadership and communication between school administration, faculty and students as the most important factor in shaping schools' response to this unique population. Data collected in this study have been used to create an online guide that will provide resources to help educators more effectively respond to the needs of homeless students.

Effort-Related Choice Behavior is Affected by Pharmacological Manipulations Associated with Depression: the Effects of Tetrabenazine

Megan Huizenga — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 12:05:21 PDT

In humans, psychiatric symptoms such as anergia and psychomotor retardation reflect pathologies in behavioral activation. These motivational symptoms are fundamental aspects of depression and other disorders. Drugs such as reserpine and tetrabenazine deplete monoamines, including dopamine, and induce depressive like behaviors in humans. Our results indicate that administration of low doses of tetrabenazine can alter effort-related choice behavior, biasing animals towards low effort alternatives. These findings may be related to the ability of monoamine depleting agents such as tetrabenazine to blunt behavioral activation and induce psychomotor retardation, anergia and fatigue in humans, and this research could be useful for the development of drug treatments for effort-related motivational symptoms in humans.

Point of Use Water Treatment with Forward Osmosis for Emergency and Population Migration Relief

Ethan L. Butler — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 12:02:15 PDT

According to the World Health Organization, 780 million people do not have access to an improved water source. Many of these people are victims of emergencies and/or forced population migration, and suffer from malnutrition and diarrheal illness as well. One promising solution is Hydration Technology Innovation’s (HTI’s) forward osmosis (FO) systems: the HydroWell and Village System. These systems produce clean drink from almost any source water. A systematic evaluation of HTI’s systems was performed. Bench-top testing showed that HTI’s membrane can remove significant concentrations of inorganic contaminants that have been found to be problematic in disaster-prone regions. A cost model was developed and a sensitivity analysis was conducted in order to identify areas for cost reductions. Furthermore, since material availability is a concern in the targeted contexts, a variety of cleaning reagents were evaluated for membrane cleaning.

Effectiveness of Marine Protected Areas Across a Latitudinal Gradient

Chelsea Roy — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 09:16:13 PDT

Use of marine protected areas (MPA) as a tool for conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity is increasing worldwide. However, the geographic extent of MPA designation varies, as does a full understanding of the ecological utility of such designations. Progress towards marine conservation goals needs to be evaluated in order to determine areas lacking effective MPA designation. The goal of this study is to evaluate the representation (in terms of communities and habitats) and performance of marine protected areas in the Northwestern Atlantic and Northeastern Pacific across a latitudinal gradient. Presence or absence of MPAs in specific ecological settings was used to examine the completeness of representative networks of sites across the study region. Specific post-designation studies were then examined to determine what effects designation and management had on community structure across habitats.

Results suggest that despite widespread use of MPAs as a management tool and the desire to utilize MPAs to sustain multiple functions while conserving diversity, much work still needs to be done to establish MPAs in poorly represented habitats, and to assess the outcomes of designation, both immediately following closure, as well as over time. The ultimate goal of MPA studies should be to develop a capability to predict with a high degree of certainty the outcome of management measures in various ecological settings within the context of achieving global conservation goals.

Elucidating the Mechanism of Antimigratory Activity of Cardiac Glycosides

Joshua H. Johnson — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 09:16:11 PDT

The focus of this research is on cell migration and how it can be better understood through the use of small molecules that modulate cell migratory activity. The results have particular relevance in the realm of cancer pharmacology. Cardiac glycosides, which are known inhibitors of the eukaryotic Na⁺/K⁺-ATPase, have been determined to have antimigratory activities through the screening of several small molecule libraries. Here we investigate the antimigratory activities of the cardiac glycoside digitoxin as well as its analogs that we synthesized. Antimigratory activity was determined by conducting a wound closure assay with MDA-MB-231 human breast carcinoma cells. This antimigratory activity was compared to the inhibitory activity when Na⁺/K⁺-ATPase was treated with digitoxin and its analogs in a Na⁺/K⁺-ATPase assay. A coloration between wound closure activity Na⁺/K⁺-ATPase inhibitory activity provides evidence that cardiac glycosides inhibit cell migration through their interaction with the Na⁺/K⁺-ATPase protein. This research will provide the grounds to study the specific pathways in which Na⁺/K⁺-ATPase is linked to the regulation of cell migration.

The Effects of Rectal Temperature and Hydration Status on Perceptual Ratings in Dehydrating Males

Ethan A. Talbot — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 08:07:01 PDT

Athletes push the limits of what the human body can handle every day. When they exercise in the heat, they can attain dangerous levels of internal temperature and dehydration. Since athletes are sometimes not aware when they are experiencing severe hyperthermia or hypohydration, it is of interest to anyone who exercises in the heat to study whether athletes are consciously aware that they are approaching dangerous physiological limits. This study compares the perceptual values of athletes exercising in the heat to the changes in their internal temperature and hydration status, to see if athletes can reliably predict their heat and fluid stress.

Five Children's Book Covers Employing Illustrative Type

Rochelle Lynn BaRoss — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 08:06:59 PDT

A colelction of five children's books created digitially and employing illustrative type.

Numerical Simulations of Chirped Excitation

Benjamin Iannitelli — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 08:06:57 PDT

In this project I developed a general method of finding the optimal laser excitation for an ensemble of two-level atoms with the primary goal of exciting as many atoms as possible, as quickly as possible, for as long as possible, in order of decreasing priority. Specifically, I simulated the laser excitation of a collection of Rubidium-87 atoms from (n=5, L=0, S=1/2, J=1/2) to (n=5, L=1, S=1/2, J=3/2), by finding numerical solutions to the optical Bloch equations. I optimized the parameters of a linear chirp paired with a Gaussian intensity pulse first neglecting and then including spontaneous emission, and then for a hyperbolic-tangent chirp paired with a squared-hyperbolic-secant intensity pulse including spontaneous emission. Comparing the optimal parameters for the linear chirp both with and without spontaneous emission demonstrated that neglecting spontaneous emission will lead to significant errors, at least when considering Rubidium-87. Comparing the linear chirp to the hyperbolic-tangent chirp (both with spontaneous emission) showed that both chirp shapes lead to excitation of greater than 96% of the population, and that based on my simulations, the linear chirp was slightly better at meeting all three goals of ceiling, speed and endurance. The best of all the excitations that I found using a linear chirp is to use a chirp rate between 0.2 and 0.65 GHz/ns and to use a pulse with a FWHM of 100 ns and a peak intensity of 10 W/cm^2.

Electronic Circuit to Mimic the Neural Network for the Saccade Controller

Justin D. Morse — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 08:06:55 PDT

The proposed device is an electronic circuit that mimics the neural network controlling fast eye movements, or saccades. The device simulates the signals produced by each neuronal population during the control of a horizontal saccade and allows for observing and recording. It will serve as a valuable teaching tool in the field of neural control. Furthermore, the device will have applications in the realm of diagnosing and properly treating brain injury. Finally, this device could be incorporated into a system for controlling the eye movements of a realistic, artificially intelligent robot.

The FitzHugh-Nagumo model of the action potential is used as a foundation to mimic the signals produced by the neurons in question. This is a proven framework, and provides a simple empirical model that can be customized according to the properties of a given neuron. Each neuron will be printed on a circuit board that can be bypassed to simulate a lesion. A current pulse will serve as an input, but in the future, this may be replaced with feedback from a robot. This product is unique in that an analog circuit model of this neural network has not been built before.

Hippocampal Theta and Gamma: Effects of Aging, Environmental Change, Cholinergic Activation and Learning

Matthew D. Howe — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 08:06:52 PDT

During aging, hippocampal functioning is impaired; specifically aged humans and rats show reduced performance on spatial memory tasks. An age-related reduction in the neurotransmitter acetylcholine has been postulated to underlie this impairment. Rhythmic oscillations (theta, gamma) may serve to synchronize activity within the hippocampus and across the brain during learning; these may also change with aging.

To determine what aspects of oscillation are important for memory processing, the effects of aging, encountering a novel situation, learning a new task and cholinergic system activation (with physostigmine) were examined. Both age groups showed increased theta, but not gamma activity when encoding a novel situation. Activating the cholinergic system shifted theta power to a lower frequency with no effect on gamma. These results indicate a more prominent role for theta than gamma in processing new spatial information.

In addition, a behavioral paradigm to study changes in hippocampal theta and gamma over trials during single-day learning of a place or response task was designed. Pilot data demonstrates that rats are capable of learning these tasks within a single day, and that hippocampal theta and gamma increase with maze running in a familiar situation, with no difference over trials on a simple-alternation task. Theta power is expected to show more of a decrease over trials during response than place learning.

The Role of Actin Binding Proteins in Cell Motility

Elizabeth Ojukwu — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 08:06:50 PDT

Actin binding proteins (ABPs) play key roles in the dynamic organization of the actin cytoskeleton during cell movement. The general localization of ABPs during dynamic cellular processes has been characterized. However, their specific functions and mechanisms of regulating the cytoskeleton during motile cellular processes remain unclear. Two approaches have been utilized to ask how these proteins contribute to cytoskeletal function during motility. Using homologous recombination, mutant cell lines lacking α-actinin, fimbrin or both proteins have been created. By analyzing mutants that lack these proteins, we hope to disrupt processes that require a functional cytoskeleton such as phagocytosis, random motility, development, and chemotaxis. Dictyostelium cells lacking a combination of actin binding proteins, including fimbrin, α-actinin, and ABP-34, show reduced cell motility and defects in development. In addition, we have asked whether the presence of a particular ABP in excess influences random motility and chemotaxis. Dictyostelium cell lines over-expressing GFP-Enlazin and 34-GFP show reduced motility.

Nuremberg or The South African TRC: A Comparison of the Retributive and Restorative Models of Justice

Brendan Gooley — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 08:06:48 PDT

A comparison of the effectiveness of the retributive and restorative models of transitional justice, and the strengths and weaknesses of each using the Nuremberg Trials and South African TRC as case studies. Conclusions include prosspects for combining the two models, as well as predictions for what context each system is more appropriate in.

Adenosine-Dopamine Interactions in the Open Field Arena: Studies Related to Locomotion and Anxiety

Rothem Kovner — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 08:06:46 PDT

Nucleus accumbens dopamine (DA) is an important regulator of locomotion. The neuromodulator adenosine also has a role in regulating locomotion. The adenosine A_2A receptor subtype is colocalized with DA D2 receptors on medium spiny neurons in the striatum and nucleus accumbens. Interactions between adenosine A_2A and DA D2 receptor antagonists are significant for regulating various aspects of motor and motivational function. The adenosine A_2A antagonist MSX-3 has been shown to reverse the suppression of locomotion induced by the DA D2 antagonist eticlopride. The structure of MSX-3 was modified to produce the prodrug MSX-4 which has high oral bioavailability. The present studies sought to elucidate the interactions between eticlopride and MSX-4 by determining if MSX-4 could reverse eticlopride-induced locomotion suppression. Moreover, the induction of anxiety was measured by recording the relative amount of activity in the inner portion of the open field arena. Rats were injected with eticlopride, MSX-4, saline, or both drugs. The animal’s locomotion and anxiety-like behaviors were measured. To provide a neural marker of the interaction between eticlopride and MSX-4, histological studies measured the expression of c-Fos. Eticlopride significantly suppressed locomotion and increased c-Fos expression in the nucleus accumbens as compared to vehicle animals. MSX-4 reversed the locomotion suppression induced by eticlopride, and decreased the eticlopride-induced expression of c-Fos in the nucleus accumbens. MSX-4 produced no significant increase in the anxiety index. MSX-4 fits the general antiparkinsonian profile of adenosine A_2A antagonists. This research may be relevant for the development of novel drug therapies for the treatment of parkinsonism and psychomotor dysfunctions in depression.

Evolution of the bacteriorhodopsin gene bop in haloarchaea

Maulik Jitesh Jani — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 13:51:48 PDT

Rhodopsins are among the most studied protein families. They all incorporate a light based chromophore and an opsin. They are found in all three domains of life and can be found in diverse environments, such as the membrane of the haloarchaea, Haloarcula (Haa) marismortui, growing on salt flats in Death Valley, to within human tissues and deep sea water (Briggs and Spudich 2005). Rhodopsins can serve multifarious purposes, from phototaxis away from harmful light to efficient energy generation. Bacteriorhodopsin is the best studied rhodopsin in haloarchaea. The evolutionary pattern of bacteriorhodopsin through its gene, bop, is the main focus of this study. Planned as a comparative study of bop against expected phylogeny constructed on 16S rRNA gene sequences, as well as phylogeny based on a tree constructed from core genes; this study also hoped to find possible examples of Horizontal Gene Transfer (HGT). The bop gene was amplified and sequenced from multiple strains, and additional sequences were gathered from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), bringing a total of 51 sequences from 41 strains covering 15 recognized genera. Additionally, three sensory rhodopsins were included to serve as an out-group. A phylogeny was reconstructed using Maximum Likelihood (ML) with the GTR plus gamma model, creating an ML tree of bop based off of bootstrapped multiple sequence alignment.

Mechanistic Studies and Optimization of Microwave-Assisted Palladium-Catalyzed Carbon-Carbon Bond Forming Reactions and an Academic Prospective on “Quality by Design”

Neha K. Grewal — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 13:51:41 PDT

This compilation of work includes four aspects: (1) an academic review on the significance and implementation of Quality by Design (QbD), (2) mechanistic studies on the palladium-catalyzed synthesis of diarylmethanes, (3) the optimization of microwave-assisted click reactions and Suzuki couplings for use in an undergraduate organic chemistry laboratory manual, and (4) monitoring the progress of organic transformations using Raman spectroscopy.

Salinity Preference of Alaskan Threespine Stickleback: Test for Divergence in Halotaxis between Ancestral and Landlocked Populations

David C. Fryxell — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 13:51:34 PDT

Glacial retreat during the Pleistocene caused landlocking of anadromous Alaskan threespine stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus, furnishing a natural 'experiment' in osmoregulatory divergence. The objective of this study was to assess the effects of individual acclimation and population divergence on salinity preference. Full-sibling families of marine, anadromous, and freshwater-landlocked populations of stickleback were reared in common environments until 3 weeks post-hatch, then were split and acclimated to low or high salinity. At 6 to 8 weeks of age the six experimental groups were tested for salinity preference in a tank that offers fish a choice of compartments with different salinities arranged in a gradient from fresh to sea water. We observed significant population and acclimation effects. Anadromous fish preferred sea water and avoided fresh water, whether acclimated to low or high salinity.

Landlocked fish showed a strong acclimation effect, avoiding salt water when acclimated to fresh and avoiding freshwater when acclimated to salt, while showing no preference for their acclimation salinity. Fish from the marine population showed little preference for fresh or sea water regardless of acclimation salinity. After restriction to fresh water for more than five thousand generations, landlocked fish have evolved weaker preferences in response to a salinity gradient compared to their anadromous ancestors.

Short-time Compensation: Factors Leading to its Adoption and its Success in Connecticut

William Kimball — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 13:51:28 PDT

The recent financial crisis has reawakened the U.S to the possible effects of a rapid economic downturn. Poor economic conditions have forced both households and government to tighten their budgets. Still, unemployment persists and the growth rate of the U.S has not been as robust as past recoveries. Worksharing, or short-time compensation (STC), is an unemployment insurance program where a pool of workers shares a reduction in their hours to avoid layoffs. The program offers both benefits and possible issues for firms, employees and state governments alike. This paper attempts to determine why certain states have elected to adopt STC where others have passed on it. Besides the obvious cause of higher unemployment, geography and political institutions prove to have substantial impacts on the chances of a state enacting legislation for STC. This model is followed by an analysis of STC’s small but positive impact on unemployment rates in the state of Connecticut.