Indiana University – Purdue University Fort Wayne
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A Life Well Lived
No full textMost people have this stigma or preconceived notion that growing older is a bad thing. What I have found is that we can learn a lot from people who are more seasoned with age, and they are still living and experiencing new things each and every single day. I love hearing their stories, and I think they need to be shared. My project is a collection of these life experiences and reflections, titled “A Life Well Lived”. To create this project I did extensive research through surveys and personal one on one interviews with the elderly population. Many of the people I interviewed multiple times, collecting stories and images about them. I asked them research questions and personal questions regarding their thoughts on aging. I compiled these stories into a project highlighting their outlook on life and their experience. Through this process, I began to understand how people feel about aging and hope to open up a dialogue on the subject. In this way, I hope to reduce the stigma and fear associated with aging.http://opus.ipfw.edu/stu_symp2017/1022/thumbnail.jp
The Firebone Family
No full textam presenting a creative project for an animated cartoon using traditional frame-by-frame animation. I chose to make the animation frame by frame with a style opposite to Disney quality of animation. I expect that the impact I want from this style of animation is that people can enjoy both visually and verbally. I feel that horror films would be fitting for the setting this cartoon takes place in since this cartoon does take place in a horrifying world like hell. I thought it would be neat to have a reference to Doom2 since in that game you play as a space marine who fights demons. Synopsis: As the man manages to dodge the onslaught of knives being swung at him, he hears the demon yell at him in a language that sounds reversed. The man then gets the idea to use a tape recorder that he conveniently had on him in an attempt to understand the demon. The language turns out to be English, but in reverse. This gives the human the idea to communicate to the demon through the tape recorder. The human tells the demon to stop attacking because humans don’t like being chopped up. Intrigued by these words, the demon stops attacking, curious to hear what the human has to say. After communicating through the tape recorder for some time, the demon signals to the little human to hold on for just a moment, and then looks for a more convenient means of communication. The demon spots a fishbowl with two goldfish back at his work table. Taking the fishbowl, he pulls one fish out and then jams it into the human’s ear, and then puts the other fish into his ear. After discovering that the goldfish allow the two to understand each other completely, the demon introduces himself to be Bruce Firebone. The human then introduces himself to be George Marino. After discussing for some time, Bruce decides that George isn’t such a bad guy and decides to invite George to stay with his family for the weekend. In a cave-like house, Bruce introduces George to an abnormally tall imp woman with a thick Russian accent who goes by the name Klavdiya Firebone, who is just short of being Bruce’s height. Climbing on the wall is their son, Henry Firebone, a slim, normal-sized imp who is just short of George’s height. Coming out of a hole in the wall is the family pet disembodied hand, Handy, who tries to strangle George. The main goal I have for this project is to develop a cartoonish style similar to the likes of Peter Hannan’s CatDog and to develop a style of writing based on Hanna Barbera’s The Flintstones and Seinfeld. I hope for this project to help me better understand what it’s like to collaborate with other people and to improve me as an animator and develop cinematic narrative. ______2 is a 1993 science fiction horror-themed first-person shooter (FPS) video game by id Software. It is considered one of the most significant and influential titles in video game history, for having helped to pioneer the nowubiquitous first-person shooter. The original game was divided into three nine-level episodes and was distributed via shareware and mail order. The Ultimate Doom, an updated release of the original game featuring a fourth episode, was released in 1995 and sold at retail. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom_(1993_video_game)http://opus.ipfw.edu/stu_symp2017/1019/thumbnail.jp
47 Seconds
No full text47 Seconds is a fictional story focusing on police shooting between a white officer and black victim. It is meant to mirror current events but is not based on any particular one. The purpose of this story is to illustrate how these tragic events affect the lives of everyone involved. It offers possible reasons for why an officer may shoot a suspect. The intent of the story is to prompt the reader into giving more consideration to those reasons before passing judgement. The idea came from an assignment to write a short story with relevance to current culture or events. I wanted a familiar topic that would resonate with readers. While most would not have personal experience with a police shooting, they would be aware of them. Before I began, I looked at some of the most visible examples of police shootings and considered why they received so much attention. The ones that garnered the most scrutiny often involved a black suspect and white officer. Shootings such as Terence Crutcher of Tulsa, William Chapman of Portsmouth, and Sylville Smith of Milwaukee served as grim inspiration for this piece. Each situation varied greatly but the outcome was the same. Race seemed to be an important factor relating to the attention these shootings received. For that reason I considered several different roles and narrative arcs involving race. Initially, I considered a black officer and white victim to show the inverse of the idea that black suspects are much more likely to be shot than white suspects. It felt less impactful and relevant because whites are not perceived as being discriminated against. An event mirroring current issues carried more weight. Using the inverse of the current events, a black officer and white victim, felt like I was trying to promote the idea that these shootings happen to everyone and aren’t an issue. That wasn’t what I wanted to convey and seemed likely to alienate and further polarize readers. By choosing details mirroring current events and then showing that event from a different angle, I hoped to lessen the divide and inspire more understanding in the reader. I wanted to show the weight of taking a life, regardless of race. The fatal encounter was left until the latter portion of the story to keep the focus on the officer instead of the shooting. The focus is often on the person who is shot and the person who pulled the trigger is viewed as a perpetrator. I wanted to illuminate how convoluted the idea of the victim actually is in these situations. It isn’t meant to detract from the tragedy of these events but amplify it. Most officers don’t want to take a life anymore than someone wants to lose theirs. The outcome of these situations can be hard to comprehend. When race is involved, it can become an easy scapegoat. I wanted this story to convey that idea and show how tragic these events can truly be for everyone involved.http://opus.ipfw.edu/stu_symp2017/1014/thumbnail.jp
Neuman Systems Model: Celebrating Academic-Practice Partnerships
No full textThis book describes the advantages of including the Neuman Systems Model within nursing curriculum and provide real world classroom examples for a variety of courses. Chapters are written by professionals from education and practice with student contributions detailing how Neuman has been incorporated and integrated with Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN). A wholistic view of nursing care encourages students to shift from a task-oriented focus to learned behaviors that take into account the multiple influencing variables in each situation. This comprehensive emphasis in focus is especially pertinent in clinical decision making as students and practicing nurses determine nursing action priorities in rapidly changing situations.http://opus.ipfw.edu/ebooks/1000/thumbnail.jp
Thrips Choice Tests on Uninfected/Infected Soybean Plants Demonstrate Mechanism of SVNV Transmittance
No full textFrom its original discovery in 2008, the Soybean vein necrosis virus (SVNV), first prevalent in Tennessee, has since spread to fifteen states in the Northern region. Typically vectored by thrips, the Tospovirus genus virus’ effects are gaining attention even as SVNV’s agricultural importance has yet to be fully assessed. Currently, soybean thrips is considered the primary vector or most efficient transmitter of the virus, whereas tobacco thrips and eastern flower thrips are secondary vectors. The purpose of this study was the following: Investigate the mechanism by which thrips spread the virus from plant to plant by conducting choice tests. Choice tests were conducted in enclosed structures to isolate an individual leaf connected to two distinct living plants. Six SVNV-infected thrips were released inside the enclosure. This allowed for random choice of the thrips. The choice-test can explain whether infected thrips (1) prefer to feed on uninfected plants rather than infected plants or (2) thrips show no feeding preference at all. A series of twenty non-choice tests were completed using two uninfected plants to reveal thrips preference in a control setting. The results showed an approximately 1:1 preference for the two leaves, which laid the groundwork to support the non-random preference of virus transmittance. A second set of twenty choice tests were completed using one infected and one non-infected plant to reveal thrips preference. The choice-test showed all of the infected thrips preferred to feed on the uninfected plant. This suggests that as SVNV-infected thrips feed and infect a healthy plant their offspring will become infected which could lead to increased virus transmission as a result of increased population of viruliferous thrips.http://opus.ipfw.edu/stu_symp2017/1017/thumbnail.jp
Diversity of the Cloacal Mycobiome of the Juvenile Green Sea Turtle (Chelonia mydas)
No full textThe animal microbiome has rapidly become of great interest in current research as the microbiome is considered to be of vital importance to the survival of its host. Most studies have focused on bacterial communities due to their large populations and their smaller genomes. However, there are other understudied groups, such as fungi, which may also be important to improving our knowledge of their roles with their hosts. In this study we aim to identify the fungal communities within the cloaca of green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) with the secondary goal of discovering whether these communities vary by ontogenetic shift in habitat. Pelagic-stage turtles were sampled from the Port of Venice, Louisiana while neritic juveniles were sampled from along the beachfront of Santa Rosa Island, Florida. Cloacal swabs were collected and stored at –20˚C until DNA extraction. The fungal ITS regions were amplified using PCR and cloned into the pGEM-T vector for selection and sequencing. Samples from six individual turtles resulted in 30 clones which show that the majority of the fungal communities in the cloaca are dominated by the phylum Ascomycota, which includes the genera Candida, Cladosporium, Podospora, and Epicoccum. Other fungi identified include strains of Exophiala and Malassezia. The overall fungal community of the cloaca is primarily dominated by cellulolytic fungi, especially in the neritic sea turtles. A majority of the fungi identified are common on the dermis of animals, while others, such as Epicoccum nigrum, may even have some antimicrobial properties to aid the host in avoiding pathogens. At present, and to the best of our knowledge, there have been no other studies made in an attempt to characterize and identify the mycobiome of healthy, juvenile green sea turtleshttp://opus.ipfw.edu/stu_symp2017/1013/thumbnail.jp
Effects of Portal Protein Primary Structure Mutations on Viral Genomic Packaging Capabilities
No full textThe process by which bacteriophages package and maintain double-stranded DNA within the protein capsid has been subject to a great deal of research in recent years. Given the increased interest in particular fields of medicine, such as gene therapy, the desire to understand how the DNA packaging motor in the bacteriophages operates has opened many doors for revolutionary scientific research in the fields of biology, chemistry, biophysics and nanotechnology. Due to the universality of the structure of bacteriophages, the study of one particular bacteriophage could provide insight into other types of bacteriophages. As such, the bacteriophage Phi29 was utilized, and its DNA packaging motor is composed of a portal protein, packaging RNA and a viral ATPase. The focus of the research is on the portal protein that is a channel protein in the capsid of the bacteriophage through which the genome DNA can translocate during the DNA packaging. Many previous studies has indicated that the portal protein may not only serve as a passive conduit for the genome DNA but also play other critical roles during the packaging process. However, they are still intensively debated and discussed today. A recent study in our lab has found the portal protein may serve a Flashing Brownian ratchet in the packaging process, which can assist the packaging of the genome DNA against its concentration gradient across the portal protein at the late stage of DNA packaging. In order to study the relationship between the structure and the function of the portal proteins, we performed planar bilayer membrane measurements for mutant portal proteins. Within this experiment, we were able to establish a potential gradient across the membrane and use this potential to establish an ion selectivity for the membrane. From this point, the abilities of the portal protein to package an anionic genome were inferred. Our results have shown that the charges of the inner-ring amino acids alter the ion-selectivity of the channel which is pivotal to understanding the impacts of charges of amino acid residues on the genome packaging efficiency.http://opus.ipfw.edu/stu_symp2017/1004/thumbnail.jp
The Role of Scytonemin in the Adaptation to Oxidative Stress in Cyanobacteria
No full textCyanobacteria are photosynthesizing organisms that live in environments open to solar ultraviolet radiation. In order to survive in these environments, some cyanobacteria produce sunscreen pigments. For these organisms, sunscreen pigments such as scytonemin intercept photons before they can harm cellular machinery, DNA, or produce reactive oxygen species (ROS), which are toxic to the cells. The specific aims of this project were to determine how the presence of scytonemin in the cyanobacterium Nostoc punctiforme contributes to fitness under oxidative stress and to provide insight into the molecular response to oxidative stress with and without the protection of scytonemin. To assess the physiological response, cells were first induced to produce scytonemin with long-wavelength UVA radiation. Then they were stressed with methylene blue for 30 min to induce production of ROS and evaluated for antioxidant enzyme activity. A control group without scytonemin and methylene blue stress were similarly evaluated. The gene expression response to oxidative stress was also measured with quantitative-PCR (qPCR) by targeting basic metabolic genes such as psbA (photosynthesis), rbcL (carbon-fixation), and nifH (nitrogen- fixation). In addition, the expression response of genes which encode for antioxidant enzymes such as katE and cat (catalase) and superoxide dismutase (sodA), were also measured. For the antioxidant enzyme activity analysis, cells with scytonemin produced less antioxidant activity than those without scytonemin, regardless of the presence or absence of oxidative stress. In the evaluation of the gene expression response, the results were more variable. Gene expression of nifH was upregulated in cells with scytonemin and oxidative stress, while the expression of rbcL was downregulated under similar conditions. In cells with scytonemin, expression of cat and katE were upregulated, while sodA was downregulated. Interestingly scytonemin appeared to suppress the antioxidant enzyme activity response while increasing the transcriptional response of catalase enzymes. This discrepancy could be explained by the fact that gene expression occurs before the translational or enzymatic response. Since the cells were only stressed for 30 min it is possible that the corresponding functional proteins were not active at the time of cell harvesting. Future studies will involve a temporal analysis of this response in order to better understand the contributions of scytonemin in coping with oxidative stress in N. punctiforme.http://opus.ipfw.edu/stu_symp2017/1002/thumbnail.jp
