Tag: Poster 49

MyMcKenzie: Creating a Portrait of the McKenzie River

Presenters: Cassidy Ventura, Mason Trinca and Rick Gurule

Mentor: Peg Boulay

AM Poster Presentation

Poster 49

Through photography and interpretation, as a group of Environmental Studies students in the Environmental Leadership Program, we created a portrait of the McKenzie River. As we have discovered the river and its people, we sought to reflect the river’s colors and motion, as well as the many relationships people have with this remarkable place. Our mission is to connect people to the McKenzie River, showing its beauty and how it influences people lives in numerous ways. We accomplished this by allowing people to follow our journey through our website, photo essays and photo exhibit to contemplate their own relationship to this majestic river. The themes represented in our poster and photographs include ‘Interaction’ showcasing the important roles this river plays in so many of our lives; ‘The Changing Colors’ devoted to all the colors of the McKenzie River that we experienced; and ‘Motion’ following the McKenzie River from the rapid falls of Sahalie to the steady waters of its confluence as it is in constant motion.

Asymmetrical Heteroatom Substitution in the Indenofluorene Framework

Presenter: Nathaniel O’Neal

Mentors: Michael Haley and Jonathan Marshall, Chemistry

Poster: 49

Major: Biochemistry 

Semiconductors are a key component in electronics because they allow for the control of electron flow throughout a device. Research has shown that organic molecules can act as semiconductors and could prove superior to current semiconductors in use. To further this field of study the Haley lab has developed and experimented on the indenofluorene, an n-type organic semiconductor. However, most of the work done on the framework has been on symmetrical heteroatom substitutions. This has left me with the task of using synthetic chemistry techniques in order to produce asymmetrical heteroatom substituted indenofluorene molecules known as benzo-indaceno-thiophenes. Theoretically, this asymmetry will allow for superior stacking of the molecules in a crystal structure and allow for more efficient electron transfer than its symmetrical predecessors. To date, the substitutions have not made a significant of enough change to the overall motif of the structure to produce a notable difference but the knowledge garnered from such experimentation is valuable to the field as a whole.

Radiole Regeneration of the Feather Duster Worm, Schizobranchia insignis

Presenter: Shannon Brown

Faculty Mentor: Richard Emlet, Kelly Sutherland

Presentation Type: Poster 49

Primary Research Area: Science

Major: Marine Biology

The annelid feather duster worm, Schizobranchia insignis, is a prevalent marine invertebrate found along the coastlines of the Northeastern Pacific Ocean. The regenerative ability of feather duster worms is frequently studied as a model for regeneration because the annelid phylum demonstrates a pronounced array of regeneration processes. The main purpose of my study is to examine the regeneration of a single radiole in S. insignis. Previous studies have examined the regeneration of the entire posterior and anterior region of the worm; however, limited information is available on radioles, the anterior appendages used for feeding and respiration. By cutting S. insignis radioles and observing resulting regeneration, I was able to categorize the regeneration into 12 distinctive stages with detailed descriptions of the external and internal structures that developed during each stage. In addition, to support potential regenerative conclusions, I performed an overall survey of the feather duster worm’s branchial crown and found that there is a non-significant positive linear relationship between the number of radioles and the weight of the S. insignis. Although a full analysis of the data has not been completed, I expect that the information collected for this study will provide additional knowledge to the currently limited regeneration field.

Characterization of GaSbP as a photocathode For Water-Splitting

Presenter(s): Ashlee Vise − Chemistry

Faculty Mentor(s): James Young

Poster 49

Research Area: Natural/Physical Science

Funding: Department of Energy SULI Program

A photoelectrochemical cell (PEC) functions as an integrated water-splitting device using the sun’s energy to produce clean hydrogen gas. Barriers in the PEC field includes finding a cathode that has a (1) valence and conduction band that straddles the redox potentials of H2 and O2 , (2) photocurrent density greater than 1 mA/cm2, and (3) high photocurrent onset potential. Theoretical calculations have shown that different compositions of GaSbxP1-x alloys may meet these criteria. For this reason, we grew samples and performed a variety of characterization techniques to analyze the films. The present work shows that films with less than 13% antimony have IPCE (incident photon-to-current efficiency) of up to 60%, direct and indirect p-type band gaps that lie between ~2.0 and 2.2 eV, and photocurrent densities that reach 2 mA/cm2. These films show promising characteristics although they do not meet all of the requirements to perform unassisted water-splitting. Future work for this study includes growing more films that span a wider composition range in order to fully characterize the GaSbxP1-x material system.

The Role of the Auditory Cortex in Speech Sound Discrimination in Mice

Presenter(s): Erin Petruccione

Co Presenter(s): Temerity Bauer

Faculty Mentor(s): Santiago Jaramillo

Poster 49

 Session: Sciences

The ability to communicate in languages besides our native tongue is an important skill in a globalized world. In order to learn a new language, a person must learn new ways of categorizing speech sounds. While several strategies have been developed for second-language learning, the neural basis of how we learn a new language are largely unknown. To investigate the neural mechanisms responsible for learning sounds from a new language, we taught mice to discriminate between different sets of speech sounds. The anatomy and physiology of the auditory system of the mouse is such that principles learned in this animal model may provide important hypotheses for how learning occurs in humans. Mice were successfully able to categorize speech sounds according to spectral features (which differentiate the sound /ba/ from /da/) or temporal features (which differentiate /ba/ from /pa/). In the second part of the study, we used optogenetics to test whether mice were able to discriminate among speech sounds when their auditory cortex is inhibited. We accomplished this by expressing a light- sensitive protein in the neurons of the auditory cortex so they could be inactivated with green light. Preliminary data suggests a decrease in performance during optogenetic inactivation, indicating that categorization of some speech sounds in mice depends on the activity of the auditory cortex. A full characterization of how performance is affected during auditory cortex inactivation is underway. Identifying the neural mechanisms of speech sound categorization will inform better approaches for effectively and efficiently learning a foreign language.