Undergraduate Research Posters

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  Reviving Project:A Chinese-American culture exchange project

  Yushan Cassie Sun

  Through art exhibitions in Beijing, China and Richmond, Virginia, Reviving project 01 aims to help promote/ revive a craft technique in Qinghai, China that is disappearing due to the urbanized surroundings.

  American artist were invited to collaborate with people from Qinghai to make new pieces incorporating original crafted pieces.

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  Anxiety Reactivity in Monozygotic Twins Discordant for Major Depression

  Sravya Uppalapati

  Transient anxiety is a healthy response to stress. However, constant anxiety elicits negative responses and threatens an individual’s day-to-day living. The onset of anxiety disorders excluding specific phobias is often childhood to late adolescence or early adulthood. Though depression is characterized as a low-energy state unlike anxiety, there is a high concordance between anxiety and depression. “Nearly one-half of those diagnosed with depression are also diagnosed with an anxiety disorder” (“Facts and Statistics”). There are two goals of the study:

  1. To compare the individual response levels between monozygotic (MZ) twins discordant for major depressive disorder (MDD) during an anxiety-provoking task.

  2. To evaluate the relationship between self-report measures and physiological responses in adolescent MZ twins discordant for MDD. To identify how physiological responses vary between MZ twins discordant for major depression during a resting baseline and the 7.5% carbon dioxide (CO2) breathing challenge task.

  The data was analyzed using multiple statistical methods including paired samples t-test and correlational models. We expected that MDD affected twins would self-report greater distress in response to an anxiety-provoking laboratory challenge and exhibit reduced physiological arousal. MDD affected twins demonstrated a somewhat reduced skin conductance response during the anxiety provoking task, suggesting blunted physiological response, which is consistent with other biological markers such as cortisol. There was a significant increase in sympathetic-vagal heart variability rate during the physiological baseline for the MDD affected twins. Although we did not observe any statistically significant differences for SUDS ratings assessed during baseline or inhalation of 7.5% CO2 enriched air, MDD affected twins reported higher levels of distress during the recovery period compared to their MDD unaffected co-twin. The results will shed light on the lasting impact of major depression on physiologic and subjective measures during rest and the biological challenge.

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  Organophosphates in Chlorpyrifos Insecticide: Neurobehavioral Development of Children in Agricultural Communities

  Sravya Uppalapati

  The chemicals found in fertilizers and pesticides are known to adversely affect the human nervous system even at low levels of exposure. Neither the agricultural industry nor the EPA can deny scientific findings regarding the toxic qualities of organophosphates in the insecticide chlorpyrifos, but that does not deter pesticide manufacturers from selling harmful products. In fact, Dow AgroSciences, a pesticide company, states on its website that, “Insecticides, such as chlorpyrifos, provide important protection for our food supply and thus safeguard farm and consumer economy.” To understand the health risks associated with pesticide exposure, I studied the influence of organophosphates in the insecticide chlorpyrifos on children living in agricultural communities, primarily in Salinas Valley, California. I performed the review by analyzing a variety of articles and academic sources that focused on organophosphate exposure and child neurobehavioral functioning. The findings indicate that organophosphates found in the insecticide chlorpyrifos block the enzyme acetylcholinesterase and initiate the accumulation of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, leading to impairments in attention and cognition. Farm children exposed to the chemicals via the mother during gestation period or who are exposed through inhalation or physical contact may be at higher risks for ADHD and autism than reference children who are typically only exposed to organophosphates through diet. Further study is needed to understand gender-based effects following organophosphate exposure. It is only through understanding the damaging effects of chemicals in pesticides that policies can be constructed to effectively reduce pesticide application and encourage alternatives of crop rotation, intercropping, crop diversity, and the use of pests to fight pests in the agricultural society.

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  Developing a Neuroplasticity-Based Treatment Program for Psychopathy: Treatment Foci and Options

  Mariah Villanueva

  Psychopathy is a neurodevelopmental disorder that is commonly misunderstood as the condition of criminals, and many people believe the best cure is simple confinement for those who ignore society’s laws. Psychopathy, though, is a genuine condition with a genetic basis that manifests itself through neurotransmitter system disruption and hormone imbalances. Psychopathy has a serious neurological impact on an individual, with impairments largely focused in the prefrontal cortex and amygdala, as well as overall negatively affecting the limbic system of the brain. Together, the total impact causes issues with that individual’s ability to empathize, to experience emotions normally, to develop a true sense of morality, and other similar consequences to one’s moral and emotional self. Considering the effects of psychopathy, it does not benefit society to undermine its validity as a genuine neurological condition or to simply define it as untreatable. Confinement and traditional treatment options do not prove substantial choices for working with the core problems of psychopathy, either, as prior cases with psychopathic criminals show. For these reasons, a review of research of psychopathy as a condition and of the use of neuroplasticity in treatment shows neuroplasticity as an increasingly valid treatment option that could be applicable to psychopathy. Neuroplasticity, specifically cognitive rehabilitation, non-invasive and deep brain stimulation, and neuropharmacology, has been proven to successfully treat an array of neurological diseases and disorders. Developing a comprehensive treatment program based on neuroplasticity could prove the most effective option for treating psychopathy, and would also have further applications as a modified plan to help treat psychopathic tendencies in children before the condition becomes full-blown psychopathy.

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  Feasibility of Integrating Tripterygium wilfordii into Modern Cancer Therapy for Increased Efficacy and Minimal Toxicity

  Ngoc T. Vo

  Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the U.S. and millions of novel cancer cases are being diagnosed each year. While chemotherapy and ionizing radiation are effective treatments against these malignant tumors, the adverse effects that accompany such treatments are devastating. In order to find alternative treatment methods with less side effects, we turn to Eastern herbal medicine. Recent scientific research has found that Tripterygium wilfordii, an herbal medicine traditionally used to treat inflammation in China, contains compounds (triptolide and celastrol) that prevent the growth of solid tumors, induce apoptosis, and prevent metastasis of developed tumors. Investigations on these compounds on various cancer cells lines (in vitro and in vivo) have revealed insight into their mechanism, mode of action, and toxicity. In order to circumvent the potentially fatal side effects of triptolide and celastrol, it was proposed that roots of T. wilfordii, from which the compounds are extracted, be used as a treatment for cancer. Methods for testing the efficacy and toxicity of the roots on the different cell lines previously studied are outlined in this paper. If the results from the proposed experiment conflict with expectation, then future studies on combination drugs using triptolide and celastrol with other non-bioactive compounds within the roots should be done to develop new anti-cancer drugs with low toxicity.

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  Evaluation of TCP Header Fields for Data Overhead Efficiency

  Justin k. Yirka

  Bandwidth across the internet is constricted by monetary factors and hardware development, so researchers are left to improve the efficiency of data transmitted in order to improve internet speeds. The transmission control protocol (TCP) is the primary transport protocol on the modern internet, ensuring reliable delivery of the majority of data transmitted. I evaluated the TCP header fields for efficient use of data overhead so as to determine current waste and to suggest possible areas for revision. I examined original specifications for TCP mechanisms, comparing them to modern implementations as determined by updated standards and modern practices in the networking community, and considered the data overhead that header fields related to these mechanisms entail. Consideration of implementations included evaluation of frequency of use as well as necessity of use. Current inefficiency in the data overhead of TCP should be addressed, because many of the header fields are either clearly wasteful or would be more efficient alternatively implemented. Certain core features of the TCP header cannot be revised without drastic alterations to the protocol, such as the sequencing and acknowledgement numbers. Other features, such as the header checksum, are inherent to the integrity of the header. However, most fields are arguably inefficient, as they either are not a continuing necessity for TCP’s function or they may be more efficiently implemented as TCP options. Further, several fields are no longer widely used, and are effectively totally wasteful. The proposed improvements to TCP overhead could result in a reduction of up to several bytes per segment transmitted. Admittedly, the savings of individual segments are only on the order of several bytes, which is a small percentage of most segments including payload. However, this small savings has the potential to result in savings orders of magnitude greater across the general internet. This potential suggests a need for further research into the viability of TCP header revision, followed by implementation of proposals. Results and methodologies used to reach these conclusions are additionally applicable to a variety of ongoing research (e.g., header compression, acknowledgement frequency reduction).

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  Redefining the Past: Women in Classical Mayan culture

  Lucia Aguilar

  It is important to acknowledge that a majority of research done in archaeology and anthropology or most sciences has had a strong androcentric bias. In my own personal experiences I noticed growing up taking history classes that always taught women in the past were primarily responsible for their household and children or other typical roles women were constantly simplified to. There were always the occasional exceptional women in society that we hear about who “pushed boundaries” or “broke barriers” stepping into male roles, but what about taking a second look at the past without a Western androcentric bias. In some ancient societies, like the Mayans, there were not as many strictly structured gender roles. Through interpreting the variety of roles women played and flexible gender roles in Classic Mayan culture, one can better develop less myopic interpretations of the influence women had on the past and their roles in societies.

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  Examining a Link between Paraquat, Alpha-Synuclein Fibrillation and Neurodegeneration: A Review

  Nikhil Ailaney

  Parkinson’s disease is a progressive and chronic disorder that causes motor system dysfunction due to a lack of dopamine in the central nervous system. Although this disorder has been researched extensively, the etiology of Parkinson’s disease remains unknown. Paraquat, a commonly used pesticide, is a known neurotoxin and is used extensively worldwide. In order to determine if people who live in agricultural regions that use paraquat are more susceptible to Parkinson’s disease I examined a possible link between paraquat, the fibrillation of the protein alpha-synuclein and neurodegeneration. To conduct this review, I analyzed epidemiological studies on the correlation between pesticides and Parkinson’s disease, research on the link between pesticides and the protein alpha-synuclein and research on the link between alpha-synuclein and Parkinson’s disease. From this review, I found that areas that are exposed to high levels of paraquat experience elevated rates of Parkinson’s disease in their populations, that paraquat is positively correlated with the aggregation of alpha-synuclein, and that an increase in alpha-synuclein causes neurodegeneration due to an imposed neurotoxicity or through an oxidative stress pathway. This review clearly points to a strong correlation between paraquat exposure and the pathogenesis of Parkinson’s disease. This review leads to the recommendation of future research that solely tests the effect of paraquat on alpha-synuclein fibrillation and neurodegeneration in mice. This work would clarify the definitive link between paraquat and the pathogenesis of Parkinson’s disease thus informing the practices of those who use pesticides.

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  Prevalence and problematic outcomes associated with dating violence in emerging adults

  Elisabeth Alison and Chrissy Ammons

  Dating violence is a prevalent problem among emerging adults. As young people explore novel romantic relationships, conflicts inevitably arise that sometimes escalate to the point of violence (Salvatore, Collins, & Simpson, 2012). It is important to understand the prevalence of dating violence among emerging adults and the negative implications that may result. The current study explored the predictive relationship between sexual, psychological, and physical forms of dating violence in both perpetrators and victims on internalizing outcomes. Participants included 209 undergraduate students (78% female) at Virginia Commonwealth University enrolled in an Introduction to Psychology course, between the ages of 18 and 25 (M = 19.38). Participants were 50% Caucasian, 23% African American, 15% Asian American, 7.2% multiracial, and 4.8% other; 9% indicated Hispanic ethnicity. Preliminary results indicated that dating violence was a prevalent concern among this sample of emerging adults; 53% of participants experienced at least one instance of dating violence perpetration, and 45% had experienced victimization. In addition, multiple regression analyses indicated that dating violence perpetration significantly predicted internalizing outcomes, F(3, 205) = 5.10, p < .01, R2 = .26. The model for dating violence victimization also significantly predicted internalizing outcomes, F(3, 205) = 8.40, p < .001, R2 = .33. Finally, differential results emerged between the various forms of perpetration and victimization. From our analyses, the results strengthen the notion that we need to examine each form of dating violence separately to understand how different forms of dating violence contribute to problematic outcomes in emerging adults.

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  A collaborative analysis of land use and frog diversity across spatial scales

  Chelsea Althouse, Michelle Arnold, Myles Denardo, Miranda "MJ" Foster, Joseph Green, Kathleen Lau, Philip Louden, Joseph Neale, Nathaniel Stearrett, Alexandrea Stylianou, Alexander Welch, and Julie Charbonnier

  Amphibians are sensitive to changes in land use because they require both upland terrestrial habitat and aquatic wetland habitat to complete their life cycle. Our previous work demonstrates that land-use change including road density, development, and wetland area impact amphibian diversity. We build upon this previous work to examine the relative influences of these factors across different landscape scales. Incorporating scale within our model allows us to explore by which mechanism different factors impact amphibians (e.g. do roads increase roadkill in the immediate surrounding area or do they isolate populations at the larger scale?). North American amphibian monitoring program (NAAMP) compiles data from standardized roadside surveys of calling frogs and toads across the majority of the contiguous United States to examine the impacts of human activity on amphibian populations over time. In this study we used NAAMP call data from 18 eastern U.S. states and National Land Cover Data to address the following research questions 1) How is the impact of road length and landscape change mediated by distance from the habitat and 2) how do species differ in the relative influence of these effects over the landscape? We quantified landscape features (e.g., habitat types, wetland –forest connectivity, road density and arrangement) using a GIS program and calculated amphibian diversity estimates of each survey at six locations ranging from 300 meters (local scale, the core terrestrial habitat) to 10, 000 meters (associations should decline at this distance). This approached allows us to explore the relative influence of factors at the regional level to build a predictive model to answer our research questions. This project is supported by the National Science Foundation, Transforming Undergraduate Education in Science program coordinated by David Marsh and the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis.

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  The Origins of Mesoamerican Civilization

  Oliver Aurand

  This research project will attempt to unravel the various threads of cultural influence that existed in Archaic Mesoamerica. Of particular interest will be to test the validity of the theory that there is a “mother culture,” usually posited as the Olmec, which was responsible for the innovations that led to the social complexities of later cultures such as the Mayans and Aztecs. Alternately, it is possible that innovations developed by several different cultures were shared through diffusion due to strong trade networks and other methods. This research question is important because it deals with the evolutionary development of advanced social structures and complex societies. Historical data will be examined to see if there is any bias towards one of these competing viewpoints. Of particular interest will be to look for parallels between the development of these civilizations and ones that developed around the same time in the Middle East and Asia. Finally, several archaeological case studies will be examined to attempt to fit the evidence within one of these theoretical frameworks and show how archaeological evidence can facilitate theory formation.

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  Beta-Testing of an Intervention Workbook to Promote Humility

  Fatemeh Barghamadi

  A Beta-Testing of an Intervention Workbook to Promote Humility Fatima Barghamadi and Caroline Lavelock Abstract Background: Humility is a virtue that minimizes the importance of the self in the interest of others. It has been associated with a host of benefits, including better self-rated physical health, better relationship quality, higher academic performance, higher patience and empathy, and higher ratings of job performance (Davis et al., 2013; Krause, 2010; Peters, Rowatt, & Johnson, 2011). Lavelock et al. (under review) tested a workbook intervention to promote humility, and in its inaugural efficacy study, this workbook promoted trait humility in its participants over and above alternative virtue workbooks, a positivity workbook, and a non-action control group. Objective: The present study seeks to replicate the results of Lavelock et al. (under review) with an updated version of the same humility workbook intervention. We hypothesized that this 8-hour self-directed workbook would produce higher levels of trait humility than in positivity workbook or a non-action control condition. Method: Participants (N = 72) completed a workbook intended to promote humility (n = 24) or enhance general positivity (n = 24), or they were assigned to a non-action control condition (n = 24). Assessment occasions occurred at pre-test and two-week follow-up. Results: The humility workbook did indeed significantly increase trait humility between pre-test and follow-up. Participants in the positivity and non-action control condition participants did not improve in trait humility. Conclusion: We conclude that this workbook intervention to promote humility appears efficacious in its beta-testing. Keywords: virtues, interventions, workbooks, humility, positivity

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  Combined manipulation of leaf litter and microbial larvicide enhances local control of Culex mosquitoes

  Katie Bellile

  Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (Bti) is a naturally occurring insect pathogen widely used as a microbial larvicide for mosquito control. The toxicity of Bti is specific to mosquitoes and a few other dipterans. It is applied to aquatic habitats colonized by mosquitoes and produces proteins that paralyze the digestive system of larvae that consume it. While Bti is an effective larvicide, it can also deter oviposition by female mosquitoes. Thus, reduced production of adult mosquitoes at the local (i.e., pond) scale may reflect both reduced colonization and reduced larval survival. It is important to distinguish between these mechanisms. While deterring oviposition can reduce local mosquito production, these eggs may be redirected to other suitable habitats and contribute to adult recruitment at the landscape scale. In contrast, larval mortality reduces both local and regional recruitment. Thus, to maximize mosquito control across spatial scales, we should attract rather than deter oviposition to Bti treated habitats, creating mosquito “sinks”. As mosquitoes often preferentially deposit eggs in aquatic habitats rich in organic matter, we hypothesize that increasing leaf litter to attract oviposition will increase the efficacy of Bti treatment. We tested this hypothesis using a 2 x 2 factorial experiment in which we manipulated litter abundance and Bti presence and quantified Culex spp. mosquito oviposition, larval abundance, and adult emergence. Each treatment was replicated 7 times in aquatic mesocosms arrayed in an old field at the VCU Rice Center. Bti had no effect on mosquito oviposition or larval abundance. In contrast, increasing leaf litter 50% resulted in a fivefold increase in egg rafts and mosquito larvae. The effect of Bti on adult emergence depended upon leaf litter. Bti reduced emergence by 75% in high litter treatments, but had no effect in low litter treatments. In summary, high litter combined with Bti application increased mosquito colonization fivefold but produced no more adults than low litter treatments. Thus, even though we found no evidence that Bti deterred oviposition, attraction to litter resulted in increased efficacy of Bti application. Our results suggest a potential cost effective, chemical insecticide free approach to enhanced mosquito control.

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  A Review of Life Stories for Themes of Agency and Communion Within an Undergraduate Population

  Courtney Jane Belmonte and Jennifer Wartella

  Career decision-making and exploration are important activities for graduating undergraduates, yet previous studies reveal many students have not initiated this process in part due to lack of identity formation at this stage of development. A life story review exercise has been identified as one possible strategy for solidifying identity formation and increasing career decision-making and exploration. The Life Story exercise is a writing project that prompts students to write about key experiences that shape their identity. Previous research has demonstrated that these stories often revolve around themes of agency and communion. A recent study indicated that students that completed the Life Story exercise demonstrated significant increases in career decision-making and trend toward increased identity formation as well. This current study seeks to further understand the relationship of these variables. Further analysis for the presence of life stories themes (agency and communion) revealed that students who included themes of agency (the agency theme achievement in “High Point” stories, t=6.59, p<.05, and status/victory themes in “Turning Point” stories, t=4.39, p<.05), but not communion, in their stories were related to higher scores on career decision making and exploration. As such, students who wrote about these themes indicated greater career decision-making and exploration than students who did not; differences in communion themes were not related to career decision-making or exploration scores. Inadequate power may explain the lack of additional thematic statistical findings.

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  Using the Life Story to Promote Identity Formation and Career Decision-Making in an Undergraduate Population

  Courtney Jane Belmonte and Jennifer Wartella

  Career decision-making and related preparation can be problematic for undergraduates approaching graduation. Previous studies reveal lack of identity formation can be an important barrier that partially accounts for challenge. Accordingly, this study explores whether a written project that prompts students to look at key experiences that shape identity can strengthen identity formation and career-decision-making in this group. Students completed an LS paper as well as questionnaires before and after paper submission. It was expected that undergraduate identity formation and career decision-making would increase following paper completion. Results partially confirmed this hypothesis. Statistically significant differences were found in career decision making (students endorsed greater career decision-making upon LS completion), t(19)=2.37, p<.05 but not identity formation, although a trend toward increased identity formation emerged. Accordingly, the LS paper could be a viable activity for increasing career readiness in college undergraduates.

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  Public College or Private Business? Virginia’s Higher Education Problem

  Samantha Bentley

  With the financial consequences of the Great Recession still impacting states heavily, Virginia’s ability to economically support its 15 public higher education facilities has become a massive challenge. As Virginia pushes forward in its attempts to combat these outcomes, access to higher education should be at the forefront of their agenda. Equal access to higher education for all students in Virginia cannot be met through the state’s current economic policies. The inadequate amount of money spent on funding for Virginia’s public universities is only the beginning of the state’s inability to sufficiently support its higher education programs. Research of Virginia’s budget and policies regarding higher education shows a sharp decrease in the amount of state spending per full time student, ultimately hurting low-income and middle class student’s ability to access higher education. Through a close examination of federally and state funded investigations of higher learning institutions, along with scholarly studies done by individuals and groups, such as the College Board, prominent in the field of education, I have found that within the state of Virginia, significant portions of Virginia’s budget have been taken away from higher education over the past 20 years. This finding is in addition to Virginia’s inability to fund the vast number of students entering college and the current amount of power Virginia’s legislators and governor allow each university’s board of visitors to have over their schools budget.

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  Detecting Changes in Coherence in Trauma Narratives Using Latent Semantic Analysis

  Rose Bono

  Repeatedly writing about a traumatic event can be therapeutic. This may be due to fuller cognitive processing of the traumatic memory. Greater written coherence, or the degree to which ideas relate to one another within a document, is one potential marker of cognitive processing. This investigation set out to determine how assigned writing topic affects coherence in a set of personal narratives (n=246). Participants were asked to come into the lab three times to write about either their daily activities (neutral condition) or the most traumatic event of their lives (trauma condition). The resulting narratives were submitted to a program called Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA), a corpus-based method of detecting meaning from text based on the interrelationships of all words in a series of documents. LSA can assign ratings of textual coherence similar to those of human judges and was used to analyze how the coherence of these narratives changes over the course of three 20-minute writing sessions. An ANOVA revealed that neutral narratives were more coherent than trauma narratives overall, but that from the first session to the third session, neutral narratives decreased in coherence while trauma narratives increased in coherence. This meaningful increase in coherence for trauma narratives suggests that participants were cognitively processing the trauma between writing sessions, creating a consistent and intelligible mental representation of the event. This may be a mechanism by which expressive writing about a traumatic event produces mental and physical health benefits.

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  Characterization of Metal Transport by the Streptococcus sanguinis Endocarditis Virulence Factor SsaB

  Sarah Brusko

  Streptococcus sanguinis, present in the biofilm colonizing human tooth surfaces, may be beneficial in the oral cavity, though it also serves as a causative agent of an extra-oral disease, infective endocarditis. Previous mutagenesis of lipoprotein genes from S. sanguinis strain SK36 identified the SsaB gene as necessary for virulence in a rabbit model of endocarditis. Based on homology, we suspected that SsaB was a metal transporter. A procedure utilizing inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry was optimized and implemented for determination of the concentrations (μg metal per mg of cellular protein) of 17 metals in SK36 and ssaB mutant cell lysates. Data revealed that the ssaB mutant reproducibly accumulated lower concentrations of both manganese and iron, but showed no significant difference in accumulated concentrations of magnesium, or any of 14 additional metals for which there were standards, or in signal intensities for 60 other elements analyzed for which there were no standards. This data suggested that SsaB binds both manganese and iron to facilitate transport. When grown in brain-heart infusion (BHI) broth, both strains accumulated more iron than manganese. To assess whether this was due entirely to the higher concentration of iron relative to manganese in BHI broth, SK36 and the ssaB mutant were grown in all-purpose tween (APT) broth, rich in both metals. Both strains accumulated more manganese than iron in APT broth. Higher accumulation of manganese in APT broth compared to BHI broth for both strains suggested that manganese is accumulated through both SsaB-dependent and SsaB-independent mechanisms. Relative cellular abundance of iron and manganese in S. sanguinis varies dramatically depending on relative abundance in the growth medium, highlighting the importance of using physiologically relevant media in future studies. This data also implies that S. sanguinis is flexible in its metal requirements and is rather efficient in sequestering iron, which would otherwise react with cellular hydrogen peroxide to produce DNA-damaging hydroxyl radicals.

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  Epilepsy: Distinguishing Symptoms from the Divine

  Alexa Buchin

  Epilepsy is historically connected with divine or psychotic factors, discouraging epileptics from seeking or receiving the proper medical treatment. Uncovering neurological correlates of religious experience is aimed at separating normal religiosity from hyper-religiosity as a symptom. Finding an answer to this problem would have larger implications on the separation of medicine and religion, giving patients the treatment they deserve. What neurological correlates with supernatural experience are suggested by studies involving temporal lobe epilepsy, and how does this research help to separate normal religiosity from hyper-religiosity as a symptom? It is important to draw a line between medicine and religion, and while this line cannot yet be definitely drawn, brain imaging has begun to locate supernatural experience within the brain. Studying temporal lobe epilepsy can help to distinguish between normal religiosity and hyper-religiosity. I examined the history of epilepsy, finding that the progress of science was hindered by epilepsy through the lens of the church and magical medicine. Other studies found parts of the brain associated with religious/supernatural experience; the temporal lobe, frontal lobe, parietal lobule, superior frontal gyrus, and limbic system have been found to play key roles in this phenomenon. These findings helped to define Geschwind syndrome, a personality disorder in a subgroup of temporal lobe epilepsy patients. Treatment for epilepsy has become more medically based, but because of stigmas surrounding hallucination and seizures some patients still don’t get the treatment they need. The implications of this research are leading to new ways to separate medicine and religion, which will be positive for the progress of science.

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  The Republic of The Philippines: Epidemiology and Epigenetics

  Alexander A. Burkard

  A brief, yet concise investigation was conducted on the Republic of the Philippines, with a keen interest in the epidemiology of the current urban areas of the nation (+150,000 inhabitants), as well as possible epigenetic change that may be induced from disease or environmental stressors upon these same groups of people. G6PD deficiency, a common disorder among persons in urban dwellings within the Republic of the Philippines (Hsia 1993) was found to have a strong correlation of incidence with members of other nations in localized proximity to the equator. Additionally, low birth weight in infants has been identified as a potential epigenetic cue in those of the emerging, current population (Kuzawa 2012).

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  The USSR's Role in Imbalanced Sex Ratios at Birth and Human Trafficking in the South Caucasus

  Abigail Burns and Abigail Burns

  Since 1990, the population of the South Caucasus has exhibited abnormally high sex ratios at birth (SRB), with male births exceeding female births. In the same period of time, human trafficking in South Caucasus has also increased, particularly in the capitals and major cities of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. While the two phenomena have been compared and researched together in other regions of Asia, there is a lack of research on the relationship between imbalanced SRBs and human trafficking in the South Caucasus. After analyzing the relevant research, the two phenomena were discovered to be distinctly correlated. By means of economic collapse and reinforced traditionalism, the withdrawal of the USSR became the key link between human trafficking and imbalanced SRBs in the three countries. Specifically, the conditions created caused a deepening of discriminatory practices against women, which fuel both imbalanced SRB and human trafficking. The evidence for this strong correlation between human trafficking and imbalanced SRBs suggests a greater relationship between the two, which, with more research, may prove that imbalanced SRBs cause increases in human trafficking. If this is the case, the discovery will not only change how local governments address both issues but also how other nations affected by the same phenomena handle them.

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  Susurrations of the CCC

  John Bush

  The purpose of my research is to explore the use of anecdotal evidence and primary sources to locate and explain deviations from official records. For this study, I chose to look for a boxing ring constructed at the behest of the Commanding Officer of Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Company 2386 at Camp SP-24V in Chester, Virginia.

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  Have I Made My Point?

  John Bush and John Bush

  The purpose of my research is to use Experimental Archaeology to explore how individuals relate to, and behave in, their environment. For this study, I chose to use materials and techniques that would have been available to pre-contact populations in what is now the Commonwealth of Virginia, to manufacture lithic tools, or projectile points and knives (PP/Ks).

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  Enhanced Single Molecule Mass Spectrometry Via Charged Metallic Clusters

  Amy Chavis

  Water-soluble metallic clusters have been used for a number of important applications. One of the most stable clusters is Au25(SG)18, which are negatively charged in solution and highly monodisperse making them ideal for characterization and analysis applications. We present here a new application where these clusters are shown to increase the mean residence time of polyethylene glycol (PEG) molecules within an alpha hemolysin (αHL) nanopore. The effect appears over a range of PEG sizes and ionic strengths. This increases the resolution of the peaks in the single molecule mass spectrometry (SMMS) current blockade distribution and suggests a means for reducing the ionic strength of the nanopore solute in the SMMS protocol.

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  History of the Patient’s History: Exploring Origins, Developments, and Debates of the Art of Clinical Case-Taking

  Joanne Chiao

  The development of patient-centered and narrative medicine in the late modern era transformed interactions between western medical doctors and their patients. The healing process now involved treating not just the illness, but interacting in more complex ways with the whole individual. This limited study focused on the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) publications in the 20th century and examined various historical relationships between and among patient medical history-taking and the patient narrative. Relationships included medical education reforms, diagnostic technology, information technology, and medical science knowledge. These categories and variables, when compared to various historical contexts, provide greater insight on both past and contemporary patient-doctor interactions of the U.S. practice of medicine. For the physician, personal “illness narratives” initially were treated as the gathering of “raw data,” in the form of the patient’s medical history, but later came to be viewed as facilitated by the quintessential medicinal art—the “art” of medical history-taking.