2022 Symposium for Student Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity

In Pennsylvania, salt is used to treat roads during adverse weather conditions. The resulting runoff has the potential to contaminate waterways and substrates that support plant communities. In recent years, the conservation of plant communities in potentially contaminated roadside ditches has received increased attention. This study will observe impacts of roadside runoff on jewelweed, Impatiens capensis. Research on this topic is relevant and timely as many of these roadsides function as wetlands; wetland ecosystems are particularly vulnerable to degradation while roadsides are well-known corridors for invasive species. By answering how roadside runoff impacts a common wetland species (jewelweed) in these ditches, we can better assess the health of these ecosystems and their resilience to anthropogenic stressors. We will attempt to answer how roadside runoff impacts jewelweed phenology and physiology across various treatments. Jewelweed seeds will be collected from various populations and grown in a common-garden experiment. Seedlings will be raised and then watered with a solution containing contaminants, including road-salts, in a randomized complete block design. This work will result in a better understanding of human impacts on ubiquitous but understudied roadside habitats and their associated plant communities.

Over the last five years, the Bailey Library staff have collected data on every aspect of their interactions with students, including student evaluations of classes run by the librarians, records on research assistance provided to students, and records on online and in-person chats with students seeking assistance. This study consolidates and analyzes those data to elucidate the impact library services are having on the student body. Information on who uses library services and for what purposes will be provided, along with level of student satisfaction for some of those services.

Recent research indicates that social and digital technologies, such as memes, have profound effects on emotion regulation processes (e.g., Wadley et al., 2020) and further indicates that internet memes have the ability to regulate emotion in clinically depressed populations (Akram et al., 2020). Such research largely suggests that by looking at internet memes, people may modify or change their emotional experiences. Unfortunately, missing from this body of literature is an understanding of whether or not viewing memes can influence emotion regulation processes in the general population, and if these effects apply to emotion variables other than depression. To fill this gap, the current study employs an experimental design to understand if memes regulate emotion.  This presentation discusses the results of a 2 (Emotion Type: anxiety, control) x 3 (Meme Type: anxiety, humor, control) between-group experimental design in which the effects of viewing memes on anxiety were examined. 108 people were recruited from Amazon M-Turk. Results revealed an interaction between emotion condition and meme condition that approached significance (F = 2.11, p = .13); those in the anxiety condition experienced the lowest levels of anxiety when they viewed control memes. Those in the control emotion condition experienced the highest levels of anxiety when they viewed control memes. Results will be discussed in light of mechanisms explaining the processes by which viewing memes impact emotion regulation.  References  Akram, U., Drabble, J., Cau, G., Hershaw, F., Rajenthran, A., Lowe, M., ... & Ellis, J. G. (2020). Exploratory study on the role of emotion regulation in perceived valence, humour, and beneficial use of depressive internet memes in depression. Nature, 10(1), 1-8.Wadley, G., Smith, W., Koval, P., & Gross, J. J. (2020). Digital Emotion Regulation. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 29(4), 412-418.

Melanoma is a serious form of skin cancer due to its ability to rapidly spread to other organs if not treated in the early stages. Like many other types of cancer, there is only palliative treatment for melanoma but no known cure. Primary treatments include surgery, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and targeted therapy. Cancer treatment targeting mitochondrial dysfunction, when the mitochondria release reactive oxidative species that cause damage and changes to the expression of proteins, is a promising approach. MitoNEET is a newly discovered mitochondrial protein that is thought to regulate bioenergetics in cells. Decreasing the expression of mitoNEET subsequently induces mitochondrial dysfunction and apoptosis in melanoma cells. Fluorescence microscopy is used to evaluate changes in mitoNEET expression when exposed to cancer treatments such as isoliquiritigenin (ISL). Human melanoma, A375 cells, were transiently transfected for 24 hours with a mitoNEET-GFP plasmid at a concentration of 150 ng/¼L. After transfection, cells were exposed to ISL for 24 hours and imaged. The initial results show a decrease in protein expression when exposed to 0.1, 1, 10, 100 ¼M and 0.5, 5, 50, 500 ¼M of ISL. Further studies will investigate mitoNEET regulation in response to other cancer therapeutics.

Recognizing that racism is embedded in our society in both institutional andindividualized ways and noticing an extreme deficiency in anti-racism education, our study aimed to understand the impact of an anti-racist book club on honors students' thoughts, feelings, and commitment to action.Book clubs have a long history of challenging learners to examine power structures and patterns within the status quo (Friere, 1993). With this in mind, our book club sought to push students and faculty to examine racism and power within systems. In our study, 21 honors students read the text, This Book is Anti-Racist (Jewell, 2010). Participants met virtually for one hour each week, for four consecutive weeks, to engage in an interactive book club that focused on topics including identity, privilege, systemic injustice and responding to racism.Qualitative and quantitative data were collected in the form of pre- and post- book club surveys (adapted from Polleck, 2010) to measure change in racist views, knowledge, and practices. Analysis using Grounded Theory (Corbin & Strauss, 1990) allowed several key themes to emerge from the qualitative data, including 1) a deeper understanding of self-identity, 2) higher rates of acceptance, 3) inclusion, and 4) celebration of diversity. Honors students also showed a change in belief of what constitutes racism, moving from defining racism as small-scale and interpersonal prejudiced beliefs or actions to believing racism is a complex combination of personal prejudice and systemic oppression. Overall, after gaining insightful knowledge through the book club, honors students showed an increase in empathy and commitment to take action against racism in everyday life. Through book clubs, students can help reverse the deficiency in anti-racism education by taking initiative and creating a real, lasting impact on peers.

User-generated content refers to any messaging voluntarily created by consumers and shared through social media. Marketers value UGC because it is perceived by consumers to possess greater authenticity than paid advertising. This case study examines the relationship between UCG and social media and their use in building brand loyalty. Apple is considered one of the strongest brands in the world due to the cult-like loyalty of users who swear by their technology and see Apple as an extension of their persona. The Shot on iPhone campaign sought to tap into that loyalty by challenging iPhone users to post their best photos and videos on social media. Submissions were reviewed and those selected were featured in Apple brand messages and online. Shot on iPhone did demonstrate its artistic capability, but let consumers showcase their capability through their UCG submissions. The inclusion of UGC established credibility through the authenticity that is associated with this form of social proof. This unique model underscores Apple's consumer centrism while simultaneously expressing the brand's three main tenets - simplicity, creativity, and humanity. The social media metrics of Shot on iPhone speak for themselves, demonstrating the exceptional success Apple achieved in tapping its consumers' brand loyalty. The campaign produced 6 million UGC posts of photos and videos on Instagram alone, generating 6.5 billion media impressions, and 24,000 mentions by global opinion leaders, 95% of which were positive, according to TBWA Media Arts Lab.

Continued anthropogenic activities alter ecosystem composition, connectivity, and function. In western Pennsylvania, regenerating forest ecosystems health and diversity can decline due to this activity. Plant communities within the forest can reflect past and current stressors, particularly the mosses. As a highly specific relatively quick establishing community component, log-fall mosses can be used as a convenient indicator to better understand the impacts of human activities on western Pennsylvania's forests. This is due to log-fall mosses requiring specific habitat requirements, difficulty dispersing horizontally to different forest patches, intense negative reactions to stresses in the environment, and lacking non-native species. These communities can be assessed, correlated to surrounding vascular plants, and genotyped. The results of this study will allow for rapid assessment of the health and diversity of Western Pennsylvanian forests and stressors impacting these systems.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (2022) has identified that the unemployment rate for individuals with disabilities is currently 9.7%. To help close this gap, programming has been developed post-graduation to support adults with disabilities. One of the answers has been post-secondary college programs.  Post-secondary programs are known to benefit persons with disabilities. These programs can help individuals with disabilities with social skills, academic skills, independent living, and employment, which ultimately leads to an overall better quality of life. There are many different types of post-secondary programs that help to meet the diverse needs of students. The following research and conclusions have been made through a literature review. We have reviewed numerous studies that have collected data on the benefits of these programs, with a focus on the different types of post-secondary education programs used in the US, including the different models universities have utilized. Each of these models have different goals. After review, post-secondary programs can have great benefits for individuals with disabilities.

We study the minimum number of colors with which the intersection points of a set of line segments can be colored so that no segment contains points with the same color. Through a combination of graph theoretical, geometric, and computational approaches, we obtain novel results about the minimum required number of colors for such a coloring for different arrangements of segments. This work has potential applications in various fields, including scheduling, resource allocation, and pattern matching.

The title of the research is Communication and Conducting High School Choirs: During COVID-19 and Beyond. The opportunity to participate was made possible by Slippery Rock University Student Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity grant, which supplied $500 toward the project. The purpose of the research is to identify the process through which choral conductors determine the gestures that will most effectively communicate with their high school choirs, identify how conductors determine the quality of a performance and why this is important, and highlight the impact of COVID-19 on the ability of choral conductors to communicate with their high school choirs. The research is intended to act as a resource for educators and pre-service educators, like myself, who wish to further analyze the effect conducting has on performance. Because COVID-19 has caused schools to close and us to wear face masks, communication between the conductor and the performers has been impacted. This research originated from my perspective as a performer, wondering about conducting during a time absent of COVID-19, and has allowed for new insight from a conductor's perspective during a pandemic. In order to accomplish this, it was required that the thoughts of real high school conductors were noted. Ten high school choral conductors, all having taught in Region 1 of regions listed by PMEA, volunteered to participate in an interview (the means by which interviewees were obtained were not influenced by independent desire, but rather by inviting any eligible participant on a "first come, first serve" basis). Interviewees were gifted $50 for their participation. Interviews were conducted and recorded over Zoom; Zoom automatic transcriptions were on. Using the recordings, transcriptions were checked and edited for accuracy. Themes were retrieved from the interviews to further interpret the data. The next step in the process is to finalize my findings and discuss them. Throughout the process, numerous themes have appeared, all acting as valuable information for future choral conductors/educators. From acquired data, it seems as though the role that communication plays has proven to be a crucial area of interest among conductors. Emerging themes have dictated interpretation of the data and will be used as a framework for the discussion to come. The paper is intended to be submitted to PMEA News or ACDA Choral Journal to serve music educators and performers in their studies.

Every three years, the SRU Bailey library participates in a national survey regarding different users' customer satisfaction. This study compares the expectations and satisfaction levels of the 2018 respondents and 2021 respondents. Preliminary results suggest decreasing expectations and satisfaction levels. Within specific years discrepancies between expectations of and experiences at the Bailey Library are elucidated. Accessibility to resources and information will also be a focus in this study.

Hinge pattern resistance training exercises prioritize hip flexion and extension, and are often paired with squat pattern exercises to develop the lower body musculature comprehensively. However, few studies have examined biomechanical differences between various exercises that fit within the hinge movement pattern to optimize their selection towards specific goals and considerations. Differences in the kinetic chain of an exercise may alter muscle activation, and therefore exercise-specific applicability. For example, a Romanian deadlift (RDL) is a closed-chain exercise, while a reverse hyperextension (RH) is open-chain. To develop our understanding further, the muscle activation of the RDL and RH was compared in apparently healthy males. To determine load for the study, participants completed repetition-maximum (RM) testing on the RDL and RH. On a follow-up visit, surface electromyography (EMG) of the longissimus, multifidus, gluteus maximus, semitendinosus, and biceps femoris (lumbar/hip extensors) was measured using standard procedures. After a standardized warm-up protocol, participants completed maximal voluntary isometric contractions (MVICs) in the five muscles mentioned above. Participants then completed five slow (2s concentric, 2s eccentric) repetitions of the RDL and RH at 50% of estimated 1RM. The testing order was randomized. A repeated-measures ANOVA was then used to compare muscle activation (%MVIC) between the RDL and RH. Changing from a closed- (RDL) to an open-chain (RH) increased muscle activation in the gluteus maximus (+19.5%), biceps femoris (+27.9%), and semitendinosus (+18.2%). Interestingly, the differences in gluteus maximus, biceps femoris, and semitendinosus activation in these exercises were found specifically in the eccentric phase of contraction. Simple alterations in the execution of hinge movement may therefore alter the activation of muscles that impact lumbar/hip extension.

The dance community struggles to address dancers' mental and physical wellbeing, causing negative effects that could lead to anxiety, depression, body image and self-esteem issues. Dancers' mental and physical health take a toll when they are taught to place their physical bodies above their mental and emotional health. Dance educators focus on bettering dancers' physical movement yet are not so attentive when it comes to supporting the rigor and intensity that comes with. How can we erase the stigma around dance and mental health by creating a nonjudgmental environment that honors dancers' emotional and physical wellbeing? To complete this research, I used many peer reviewed articles to analyze the positive benefits dance improvisation and Ruth Zaporah's, "Action Theater" has on dancers. Throughout my research I found that improvisation as well as the skills learned in "Action Theater" help dancers increase mindfulness, self-agency, self-awareness and emotional expression, all aspects that improve one's mental and physical health. I found that dance artists such as Ruth Zaporah effectively accomplish this with improvisation, Buddhist practices, and setting mental and physical limits. I argue that the dance community can address and better support mental health through improvisation and mind-body centering techniques. In my presentation, I will examine Ruth Zaporah's Physical Theater method called "Action Theater," and improvisational exercises used to support dancers' mental health as consideration for dance curricular at the collegiate level.

Attending the Alvin Ailey Summer Intensive in New York City, I was able to advance my dance education and artistic leadership that I am currently receiving at Slippery Rock University. The cultural diversity offered in the Ailey curriculum is difficult to find elsewhere. The scope and range of classes offered are unparalleled, which allowed me to become a more well-rounded and diverse dancer. After two weeks, I was enamored by the Horton technique, which helped me develop my research for my Senior Capstone I project. The Horton technique is one of the more obscure American modern techniques, and there has been an increase in its demand in schools and academies worldwide in the last 10 years. After extensive research and experience, I have determined the importance of including the Horton technique within university modern dance studies, arguing that a technique that is more inclusive of dance forms from numerous cultures is most likely to benefit dance students in the twenty-first century.

The goal of this project is to determine the potential cytotoxic effects of the pesticide imidacloprid. Imidacloprid is a widely used pesticide in the United States agricultural system despite being banned in Europe due to its damaging effects on non-target species. This compound is a neonicotinoid and has been consistently used for insect control on crops in the United States since the late 1980s. Previous studies indicate possible DNA damage of human cells and significant cellular absorption in the human gastrointestinal tract. This study will use human embryonic kidney cells to determine how imidacloprid may affect the metabolic activity of human cells. Cells will be treated with 0.1-100µM imidacloprid. The effects of imidacloprid will be determined using cellular proliferation and cytotoxicity assays that determine the number of viable cells after treatment. It is expected that results will show dose-dependent toxicity of imidacloprid on HEK 293T cells. This study will provide further insight into the toxicity of imidacloprid and develop a valuable model system to further analyze these effects.

The study of bacteria has been an ongoing process for hundreds of years. While the field itself covers broad areas, one of the cornerstones is accurate and definitive classification of individual isolates. Through a polyphasic approach, including classical physiology and biochemical testing along with 16S rRNA gene analysis and genome sequencing, a vast number of bacteria have been officially identified, however, in spite of our best efforts, less than 1% of all bacteria have actually been properly taxonomically classified. Over the past several decades, the field of microbiology has made significant advances in the area of molecular analysis which have resulted in much more accurate classification methods. A polyphasic taxonomic study was carried out on strain TSed Te1T, isolated from sediment of a stream contaminated with acid mine drainage. Nearly complete 16S rRNA gene sequence homology related the strain to Gordonia, with 99.52 % and 99.36 % similarity to G. namibiensis and G. rubripertincta, respectively. Computation of average nucleotide identity (ANI) and digital DNA-DNA hybridization (dDDH) with the closest phylogenetic neighbor of TSed Te1T revealed genetic differences at the species level, further substantiated by differences in several physiological characteristics. The dominant fatty acids were C16:0, C18:1 w9c,, and 10 methyl C18:0, very characteristics of the genus Gordonia, as was the DNA G + C content of 67.6 mol %. This isolate was also resistant to very high levels of tellurite, selenite, and vanadate, a unique ability possessed by limited bacterial species. On the basis of results obtained, this bacterium was assigned to the genus Gordonia as a new species with the name Gordonia metalliredigo.

Viral infectious diseases have been proved to be a major threat to our public health, including the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Two pillars of fighting viral infectious diseases are vaccines and antiviral drugs. Despite the immense achievements of our COVID-19 vaccines, yet the pace of antiviral drug development is dreadfully slow. Besides Remdesivir, only two more compounds (currently under development by Pfizer and Merck respectively), are showing significant progress in treating COVID infections. The presented study is the first in the line of pursuing a series of chemically modified compounds, which are designed based on the antiviral drug Molnupiravir (EIDD-2801) developed by Merck. It has currently finished the phase II/III clinical trials with a promising positive result and was granted an emergency use authorization by U.S. FDA. The newly designed targets adopted the carbocyclic sugar framework to improve the antiviral activity by increasing the cyto-stability compared to the parent compound. Carbocyclic nucleosides are also known for their prominent board-spectrum antiviral activities with distinct drug action mechanisms. Their antiviral activity stems from inhibiting a host enzyme Adenosylhomocysteine (AdoHcy) hydrolase, then consequentially stop the capping progress, a major step in forming the mature viral mRNA. The designed compounds combine the features of Molnupiravir (nucleobase) with the carbocyclic rings to pursue a class of dual antiviral mechanism drug candidates. Potential pro-drug structures are also included to test the pharma kinetic properties. The proposed synthesis strategy successfully achieves the key intermediate via a Mitsunobu coupling reaction. Optimization of the reaction conditions for the critical synthesis steps is detailed in the following discussion.

The objective of this study was to determine how active transporters (pumps), located at the plasma membrane of a cell, are regulated. We use two species of yeast (Schizosaccharomyces pombe and Saccharomyces cerevisiae) as model Eukaryotes to study how such pumps are endocytosed. In eukaryotes, endocytosis is initiated once membrane proteins are ubiquitinated. This ubiquitination tag allows the cell to properly select membrane transporters and place them into endocytic vesicles. Ubiquitination is determined by a ubiquitin ligase/adaptor complex; featuring a core ubiquitin ligase enzyme bound to a variety of arrestin family adaptors which determine which pumps are targeted. Previous studies in cerevisiae have suggested that a positively charged basic groove on the arrestin Art1 interacts with a negatively charged acidic patch binding site on the methionine pump Mup1. Charge inversion experiments provide key evidence for this model: adding positive charges to the Mup1 acidic patch completely blocks endocytosis, and compensating negative charges added to the Art1 basic groove restore it. The exact position of the charge inversion pairs is highly specific, suggesting lock and key binding. We set out to test whether this mechanism of binding also occurs in S. pombe for the pump/adaptor pair Cat1/Any1 (which are structurally similar and closely related to Mup1/Art1). Here we test the acidic patch/basic groove binding model by systematically mutating the cytoplasmic surface of the Cat1 pump. Course grain mutation mapping identified a 5 amino acid, negatively charged acidic patch that is indeed critical for endocytosis. We are currently testing the effect of introducing positive charges in this region, and introducing corresponding negative charges into the hypothesized Any1 basic groove.

To determine the quality of community-engaged learning efforts on the SRU campus, the Office for Community-Engaged Learning (OCEL) has developed a set of sixteen civic-learning outcomes for faculty to incorporate into their lesson plans. To support faculty in that effort, the OCEL has developed a set of pre- and post-assessment tools aligned with each of the civic-learning outcomes. The civic-learning and engagement outcomes are also used to assess the Bonner Leader Program. This presentation will discuss the method by which the pre- and post- assessment tools were created and discuss the first set of results from their usage. For every course that used these tools, there was a statistically significant difference in student understanding of civic engagement and responsibility by the end of the course.

Plastic bottles are a major source of the kind of waste and pollution that is destroying our global ecosystem. Most plastic bottles are made out of PET plastic, a material that also works well as filament for Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) 3D printers. This project seeks to create a unified device to both collect plastic bottles and process the collected bottles into filament. This device is designed to be placed in locations like food courts and cafeterias where people can easily and conveniently dispose of their plastic bottles. Once a deposited bottle enters the processing chamber, a hollow needle pierces the cap, and heated pressurized air is pumped into the bottle. At the same time, air is pumped out of the processing chamber through pores on the inner walls, vacuum forming the bottle by sucking it to the inner walls of the chamber, which are specially shaped to mold the bottle into a tight helix of filament. The study is still ongoing, but the main hope is for the device to be low cost and low maintenance; simply plug in the device, allow bottles to be collected as people dispose of their drinks, and occasionally return to retrieve the new filament spools. Ultimately, this project has the potential to reduce SRU's carbon footprint and significantly lower the cost of operating the 3D printers on campus.

Tastebuds are small individual structures found in the mouths of animals with backbones. The description and distribution of tastebuds is well documented in mammals, however less so in reptiles more specifically in lizards. The distribution of tastebuds in lizards has been documented in the tongue and lower jaw in several specimens of different lineages. The purpose of this study is to examine the upper jaws of Christinus marmoratus, an Australian gecko. This study utilized preprepared histological slides of the upper jaw of 6 specimens of Christinus marmoratus. Taste buds were found within 3 specimens a total of 7 tastebuds, with 3 having no tastebuds. Previous studies have shown the absence of tastebuds on the tongue of Gekkonid lizards, but not in other lizards. This absence may be due to the fact that geckos utilize their tongue to clean the scale covering found on their eyeballs. Geckos have been found to have many tastebuds on the lining of the lower jaw, and the absence of tastebuds on the top jaw may indicate that their sense of taste is focused in the lining of the lower jaw.

Dance programs across the United States offer an array of dance genres as part of their curriculum. It is common knowledge that Ballet, a highly codified European system of movement and dance, is a genre that is presented to the dance community as a foundation for dance training. Many programs require Ballet because it supposedly assists a dancer's success in the development of other dance techniques and, therefore, is at the forefront of dance curriculums. As a result, the Ballet technique and aesthetics have influenced the course of Jazz dance's natural development, straying it from the elements that could very well further train a dancer towards versatility: juxtaposition, improvisation, ephebism, embrace the conflict, aesthetic of the cool, and according to some scholars, polyrhythm and polycentrism. In a field that hires versatile dancers, I question why a genre that was born and developed in the United States is not considered a foundational technique in its own country? Through this research, I will discuss Jazz dance's history up until the 1950s, what influenced the trajectory of Jazz dance's evolution, how did its trajectory changed Jazz dance's original form and the components of an authentic Jazz aesthetic, and discuss its significance to a dancer's foundational training. As a result of my research, I would like to see dance programs consider Jazz dance as an equal in foundational training while making more authentic choices of this aesthetic.

Stimuli (e.g., beer bottle) related to alcohol have been shown to elicit relapse in persons with substance use disorders. Therefore, it is important to understand the relationship between these stimuli and their ability to elicit alcohol consumption. Conditioned place preference (CPP) is a behavioral procedure that can be used to gauge the rewarding and aversive components of alcohol using visual cues. In the current experiment quail were administered ethanol (alcohol) (1 g/kg [ethanol=5; water=6]) and confined to a chamber with one colored light and on alternative days quail were paired with another light and administered water. Following conditioning the quail were given free access to both chambers and lights.Orientation to the light was measured manually. A one-way between subject's ANOVA was conducted to compare the effect of treatment (ethanol, water) on time spent orientating to the light paired with treatment. There was no significant difference between the subjects that received ethanol versus those that received water, F (1,10) = 1.478, p = 2.55. However, this was not surprising as we had a small sample size. Therefore, we looked at only the 5 subjects that received ethanol. We ran a paired sample t-test with the subjects that received ethanol and found a significant difference between the time they spent orientating to the ethanol paired light from the pre-test (M=3.41, SEM=1.77) and the post-test (M=0.04, SEM 0.01), indicating a possible aversion to ethanol, t (4) = -3.183) = p = 0.03.This is one of the first (pilot) studies to investigate discrete cues (light) in a visual model (avian) of CPP. Because cues in the environment have been shown to increase the probability of relapse, this model may be important for future research in behavioral and pharmacological treatments for cue induced relapse of alcohol treatment seeking users.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease that affects over 5 million Americans. The disease is characterized by the formation of senile plaques of the amyloid beta and neurofibrillary tangles within the brain that can impair the patient's memory and behavior. These symptoms of AD develop slowly and worsen over time. Currently there is no known cause or cure for AD, therefore treatment is restricted to alleviating symptoms. A new approach to AD focuses on mitochondrial dysfunction, which is when the mitochondria release reactive oxidative species that cause damage and changes to the expression of tissues, proteins, and genes. MitoNEET is a newly discovered mitochondrial protein that is thought to regulate bioenergetics in cells. The focus of our research is to help resolve the mechanism of AD by evaluating mitoNEET as a potential target for treatment. Fluorescence microscopy is used to evaluate changes in protein expression. This was used to assess changes in mitoNEET-GFP when exposed to current AD therapeutics. One treatment is isoproterenol, which is a bronchodilator that has been shown to upregulate mitoNEET. Our preliminary studies verify that isoproterenol upregulates the expression of mitoNEET in N2a cells after a 24-hour exposure. The results show a two-fold increase in the relative integrated density when exposed to 1, 10, and 100 uM of isoproterenol. We did not detect a significant difference in relative integrated density of mitoNEET-GFP when exposed to donepezil hydrochloride (5, 50, or 500 μM), rivastigmine L-tartrate (0.5, 5, 50, 500 μM), or galantamine hydrobromide (0.1, 1, 10, 100 μM). Further studies will investigate mitoNEET regulation in response to oxidative stress.

In this talk, we consider certain combinatorial and geometric aspects of 3-dimensional manifolds. A 3-dimensional manifold is a space that locally looks like Euclidean space, but globally the object can be much more complicated, and it exists in a higher dimension which cannot be directly visualized. Here we investigate the geometries that can arise, and we begin by explaining the 2-dimensional case of hyperbolic surfaces. In the 3-dimensional case, we explore several classical examples using the method of face pairings for construction. Our approach is to analyze this construction combinatorically, and then visualize the manifold using a computer program. We go on to investigate a new family of 3-manifolds introduced in 2022. Our research provides an amazing world of thought behind how our universe could be designed. The universe takes on the shape of a 3-dimensional manifold and depending on its shape it could be possible to look into the night sky and see another Earth!