#1 Kenzie Thomas, Kelsey Shoemaker, and Paul Jackson
College of Applied and Natural Sciences Agriculture and Forestry
“The ‘Edge Effect’ Reduces Loblolly and Longleaf Pine Seedling Quality”
We evaluated “edge effects” in longleaf and loblolly pine seedlings grown in forest tree seedling container systems. This “edge effect” phenomenon is a common problem in container nurseries, but very little research has been done to document the impacts on seedling quality.
#3 Christina Doolittle and Julia Earl
College of Applied and Natural Sciences
“The Effects of Tannic Acid and Water Color on Chlorophyll Concentration”
Chlorophyll is a direct indicator of algal biomass, too much of chlorophyll can have negative impacts on fish, wildlife, and humans. This experiment explored whether tannin, watercolor, or both has an effect on chlorophyll levels.
#5 Samuel Donn and Rebecca Giorno-McConnell
College of Applied and Natural Science
“Possible Inhibition of Alanine Racemase using D-cysteine”
Total decontamination of Bacillus anthracis (B. anthracis) spores requires the germination of the spores themselves before sterilization, this is due to the resistant nature of the spores themselves. The alanine racemase (Alr) enzyme is present in the spore coat and exosporium of the B. anthracis spores, and is responsible for converting L-alanine (germinant) to D-alanine (germination inhibitor) and vice versa, affecting spore germination. Previous studies in Bacillus cereus spores indicate that D-cysteine can inhibit Alr activity and increase germination, allowing standard sterilization methods to be viable.
#7 Vance Melmoth, Megan Burns, Annabeth Rawls, Caitlyn Fontenot, and Jennifer M. Hill
College of Applied and Natural Sciences
“Fipronil Pesticide Cause Declines in Zooplankton Populations”
Fipronil is an insecticide that makes its way into aquatic ecosystems through agricultural, residential, and commercial use. Freshwater zooplankton are microinvertebrates and arthropod crustaceans, vulnerable to insecticides. Fipronil pollution causes declines in zooplankton populations.
#9 Margaret Lott, Annie Roche Hendrick, Trevor Mills, and Kacie Mennie
College of Education and Human Sciences
“Memory for Scenes”
This project explores the organization of scenes in memory, contributing to our understanding of event memory and factors influencing the reliability of eyewitness testimony. Investigating the direct binding of objects within scenes and the role of attention, the study finds that attended objects are better remembered when paired with attended cues than unattended objects or isolated items. These results highlight the importance of attention in the binding of objects to scenes and have implications for memory encoding processes.
#11 Stuti Khatiwada, Sudhir Amritphale, Hussain Shaikh, and John Matthews
College of Engineering & Science
“Dynamic Sequestration of Carbon Dioxide”
Steel and cement industries are considered as one of the largest contributors for Carbon dioxide emission in the US. This research focuses on development of models and structures made from industrial waste (especially steel and cement waste) and river aggregates to capture carbon dioxide emitted from these industries.
#13 Ethan Jamerson, Gavin Soniat, and Elisabeth Fatila
College of Engineering & Science
“Developing Metal-organic and Organic Working Scintillator Materials”
There exist to few scintillating materials available today, and one path to create new materials is to focus on organic and metal-organic compound. However, one issue with this is the innate insolubility of many of these compounds, meaning that it is often necessary to modify the compounds or to use different reaction methods.
#15 Ben Willis and Elisabeth Fatila
College of Engineering & Science
“Trials and Tribulations in Lanthanide Coordination Chemistry”
Lanthanide chemistry is very complex and unpredictable, as the number of bonds formed (or ligands added) is subject to substantial variation. This project seeks to study how using different lanthanides, beta-diketonate ligands, and methods impacts this variability.
#17 Emmanuella Kabran, Kevin Singh, and Terri Maness
College of Liberal Arts/College of Applied and Natural Science
“Biophilic Design: Connecting People to Nature through Architecture”
The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the significant impact of spatial constraints on our daily lives, highlighting the severe restriction on our ability to breathe freely within defined spaces. This recognition prompts a reevaluation of the design and purpose of our built environment by breaking away from technology and trusting nature to repair what we have broken.
#21 Kate Horton, Morgan Bourgeois, Kristin Jackson, Jeanne Dugas, and Jamie Newman
College of Applied and Natural Science
“The Influence of Perturbing a Hormone Signaling Pathway on Human Adipose Stem Cells”
Adult stem cells are undifferentiated cells that can self-renew and differentiate into specialized cells, such as fat cells. Human adipose-derived stem cells have implications for regenerative medicine in areas of wound repair, degenerative diseases, and obesity treatments. We are researching the effects of manipulating the Growth Hormone Releasing Hormone that is involved in the synthesis and destruction of fat cells to hopefully combat the obesity epidemic.
#23 Sophia Owens and Simone Camel
College of Applied and Natural Sciences
“The Prevalence of Orthorexia Nervosa Risk in Future Nutrition Professionals”
Orthorexia Nervosa is the with obsession and avoidance of unhealthy/unclean foods; research indicates 4-32% of nutrition and dietetics students are at increased risk for other eating disorders. ON appears related to academic performance and BMI. Of concern, 10% of future professionals may present with ON in addition to other eating disorders.
#25 Rachel Williamson and Julia Earl
College of Applied and Natural Sciences Biological Sciences
“The Impact of Leaf Species Diversity in Ponds on Cope’s Gray Treefrog Oviposition”
Frogs oviposit their eggs into ponds based on many different cues. Here, we tested if diversity of leaf species had an effect on oviposition.
#27 Zackley Pearson and Patrick Scott
College of Business
“Did short selling bans in 2008 lower stock market volatility?”
Do short selling bans lower stock market volatility? Using Arima models and Time series graphs, we are going to test the effectiveness of short selling bans when concerning stock volatility.
#29 Lauren Niten and Patrick Scott
College of Business
“Do Tariffs Make or Break Economies?”
This research project’s goal is to analyze how tariffs impact economic growth in developing countries. While controlling for variables such as FDI and poverty rates.
#31 Kansas Cooley and Patrick Scott
College of Business
“Advancing Technologies Affects On Energy Cost”
Some technologies that have affected energy costs are smart grids, solar panels, and wind-turbines. The following technologies allow customers to manage their own energy and find the parts in their home or business that are taking the most energy. In the energy efficiency sector of power companies, it is their job to help customers lower their energy bill by implementing new advanced technology. Power companies are even incentivizing the use of new technology, so on their end, energy costs are lowered as well.
#33 Trevor Mills, Annie Roche Hendrick, Margaret Lott, Hannah Hendry, Tristen Roussell, and Kacie Mennie
College of Education and Human Sciences
“Preliminary results of a pilot Study on Content Warnings”
Preliminary results of a pilot study on Content warnings.