Tag: Poster 16

Legislating Identity – Saami Development and Self-Determination in Sweden

Presenter: Bennett Hubbard

Mentor: Yvonne Braun

PM Poster Presentation

Poster 16

The Saami, an ethnic group indigenous to a large portion of land that stretches from Norway into Sweden, Finland, and Russia, have persevered under harsh assimilation regulations enforced by the nation-states in which they have resided in for centuries. While significant improvements have been made, Saami communities within northern Sweden, where some research was conducted, have suffered under legislation that has been deemed “progressive” by the Swedish Riksdag, in which the Saami have no representation. This legisla- tion is both an improvement of previous policies maintained by the Swedish government and yet is still limited in their understanding of Saami identity and culture and presupposes that all Saami communities have the same needs and values. Examples of such legislation include the Reindeer Act of 1971, which recently has served as a catalyst for towns in northern Sweden and the Swedish Supreme Court to forbid Saami reindeer herding in several areas. Industrial growth in northern Sweden has also impacted Saami livelihood and has influenced legal perceptions regarding Saami identity, as shown with Sweden’s reluctance to sign on to ILO Convention 169, which recognizes the rights that indigenous peoples have regarding land use. As such, this legislation of identity has caused much distress for Saami communities, many of which are rural and underdeveloped. This raises questions regarding the role that indigenous peoples have in a democratic society and how legislation can inform those roles.

Alkaline Synthesis of Amidines – A New Approach to Preparing Medicinally Relevant Small Molecules

Presenter : Muhammad Khalifa

Mentor : Michael Haley

Major : Biochemistry

Poster 16

Myotonic dystrophy (DM) is the most common adult form of muscular dystrophy. Recently, the small molecule pentamidine has been shown to relieve symptoms of DM in cell models; however, pentamidine is an inadequate drug for DM because of toxicity and bioavailability problems. Analogs of pentamidine, generically termed amidines, have proven to be significant candidates in the search for an effective cure for DM. It is therefore important to have access to the widest possible range of amidine structures for study against symptoms of DM. Existing methods of synthesizing amidines have largely depended upon reactions with acidic con- ditions; features of these reactions have limited the accessible range of amidines, especially substituted amidines. Here we outline a new method of preparing substituted amidines using alkaline conditions that features shorter reaction times, better yields, and better compatibility with many of our compounds of interest. Through synthesis and NMR characterization, we explore the range of usable starting materials, test the method’s selectivity in the presence of competing reactions, and demonstrate its application to the synthesis of several novel compounds. This method makes possible a host of new substituted amidine compounds that could prove useful in the search for a cure for DM, and provides a new, potentially more efficient, synthetic path to unsubstituted amidines for the same purpose.

“You Have Witchcraft on Your Lips”: Witches, Witchcraft, and Female Power in Modern Culture”

Presenter: Meaghan Forbis

Mentor: Julie Voelker-Morris

Poster: 16

Major: Political Science 

Ray Bradbury said that “a witch is born out of the true hungers of her time.” Witches and witchcraft have occupied a dynamic place within our culture for centuries, representing all facets of the feminine identity. Mother, warrior,
virgin, crone; witches can be all of these things. Female power as interpreted through witchcraft takes on an alien nature, removing it further from pressures of patriarchy. Starting from two points, Lilith, the Judeo-Christian Mother of Demons, and the Morrigan, the Celtic goddess of war, this multimedia collage experience explores the different ways in which witchcraft is represented in art and modern culture. The collage will include music, couture photography, reproductions of various traditional art works, excerpts from novels and poetry, and an interactive “altar.” The “altar,” presented on a small table, will include elements of pop culture witchcraft along side a variety of other objects, as a mean to convey the interconnectedness of modern womanhood and the traditional witch archetype. As female power has been demystified and trivialized through such things as modernity’s war on women and the “Grrl power” movement, monster girl culture has redeveloped. Witchcraft represents a place in which women can exist without needing to bow down to outside pressure, in which we can stride out into the night knowing that we are the most fearful thing in it, in which, as Joseph Campbell says, “all the gods, all the heavens, all the hells, are within you.”

*Title from Shakespeare’s Henry V.

Moral Decision Makers: Being Watched and our Judgments of Others

Presenter: Benjamin Davies

Mentors: Azim Shariff and Bret Mercier, Psychology

Poster: 16

Major: Psychology 

Past research has found that some individuals make moral decisions based on rules (deontologists) while others make moral decisions based a deliberative cost benefit analysis of outcomes (utilitarian). Deontologists tend to perceive moral decisions, which break a societal rule (i.e. killing a person), as immoral even when that prevents the most harm. In this study, we tested whether people will make more deontological moral decisions when they know their responses will be visible to others (compared to when responses are anonymous). Undergraduate participants (n=75) completed a worksheet assessing their perceptions of different utilitarian moral decisions. We informed participants that their answers would either be read by another participant (visible condition) or anonymous (anonymous condition). Contrary to our predictions, participants in the visible condition did not make different moral decisions than those in the anonymous condition. In the second part of the study, participants were given the same moral decision questions, ostensibly completed by another participant, and asked to judge the other participant’s personality. Participants perceived those who made deontological decisions as more moral, trustworthy, warm, and caring, but also as less efficient.

Targeted Aggression in a Troop of Ring-Tailed Lemurs (Lemur catta)

Presenter: Leslie Gotuaco

Faculty Mentor: Colin M. Brand, Frances J. White

Presentation Type: Poster 16

Primary Research Area: Science

Major: Environmental Science

Many lemur species are well known for exhibiting female dominance where there is a single, top-ranking female. These species are often female philopatric, thus females remain in their natal group resulting in matrilines. Previous research has detailed targeted aggression among females, often during birth season and between these matrilines. Here, we present a case study that describes the social behavior, specifically targeted aggression, of a troop of ring- tailed lemurs following the death of the dominant female. Behavioral observations were collected during 46 hours on 7 lemurs on St. Catherine’s Island, located off the coast of Georgia. Observations used all occurrence sampling and focal animal sampling of social behavior. We calculated the percentage of targeted aggression that occurred between all individuals. We found that one female received 33% of the total aggression during the observation period. A more dominant female directed 65% of her aggression toward this lower ranking female. These results highlight that targeted aggression plays a significant role in the aftermath following a dominant female’s death and contribute to understanding the complexity of lemur sociality.

Modeling the Behavior of Pyruvic Acid at the Air-Water Interface

Presenter(s): Benjamin Muller − Chemistry

Faculty Mentor(s): Brittany Gordon, Dr. Geraldine Richmond

Poster 16

Research Area: Physical Chemistry

Studying the air-water interface provides valuable knowledge on important environmental systems like atmospheric aqueous secondary organic aerosol (aqSOA). Many small, aqueous organics that are known to contribute to aqSOA formation can further react in the air-water phase to form hydrated molecules. Since the atmosphere is a complex and variable place with many phases and interfacial regions it is difficult isolating this hydration process within particular organic systems. Modeling this behavior of hydrated organics at this interface is largely unknown. Pyruvic acid (PA) is an abundant atmospheric ketone found in aqSOA. Our research objective is to examine PA at the planar air-water interface using vibrational sum- frequency spectroscopy (VSFS). Sum frequency is a technique that shines visible and infrared light where air and water meet to understand molecular populations and behaviors of ordered molecules. Surface tensiometry measurements from the Wilhelmy plate will reveal the time dependency between PA and this complex system. Both techniques will help characterize how depth, conformational populations and orientation changes between the bulk, surface, and subsurface. This research will act as a platform to easily branch out to other systems of organics for future air-water interfacial studies.

Thermodynamic and structural determination of metal and peptide binding to the human S100A9 protein.

Presenter(s): Patrick Connor

Faculty Mentor(s): Jeremy Anderson & Michael Harms

Poster 16

Session: Sciences

The human S100A9 protein is an important macromolecule found in large quantities in human neutrophils and at sites of inflammation. S100A9 has many functions including killing bacteria and turning on inflammation. It has been identified as a drug target to treat inflammatory disorders such as arthritis, but the mechanisms by which it achieves its diverse functions are poorly understood. In this study we investigated how S100A9 binds to two different types of targets as part of its biological function: 1) metals (which it sequesters to kill bacteria) and 2) innate immune receptors (which turn on inflammation). We measured binding interactions using isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) and changes in protein structure using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR). For the first project, we measured calcium and zinc binding to S100A9 by ITC and observed a large structural change in the protein by NMR. For the second project we measured binding of S100A9 to six peptides from the innate immune receptor TLR4. Only two peptides showed binding by ITC but three showed changes in structure by NMR indicating binding. We are further investigating where these peptides bind S100A9 by NMR. These studies show that S100A9 binds both calcium and zinc and that these metals bind cooperatively together. The peptide experiments showed that the peptides bind weakly to S100A9, which implies that binding may require a larger interface of TLR4. Determining how S100A9 performs these different functions is crucial to determining its role in disease states and what functions are involved.