2014 Abstracts

Matthew Wood, Brigham Young University Health Anatomy Academy (AA) is a recently developed school based educational program for fifth graders that uses college age students as small group mentor educators. This program aims to combat child obesity by improving the children’s understanding of nutrition, anatomy, exercise, and healthy behaviors. Our study specifically aimed to evaluate the impact of this mentoring opportunity on student nurses. As the largest population of healthcare workers, nurses play an essential role in patient and family education, especially in well populations. As healthcare costs increase, it will be increasingly important for nurses to actively participate in prevention efforts that empower individuals to develop healthy lifestyles. Currently, there exists a paucity of opportunities for student nurses to practice providing this health teaching to well populations and a lack of research literature on the subject. Anatomy Academy is one of these opportunities and our hypothesis is that there will be positive changes in the self-perceived abilities of the student nurses. After identifying undergraduate nursing students engaged in AA, we collected pre and post (5 scale Likert) surveys asking the nurses to rate their self-perceived ability of their skills to 1) adapt the message to the level of audience understanding, 2) communicate basic physiological concepts, 3) teach and model the link between concepts and health behaviors, 4) empower children toward healthy decisions, and 5) collaborate with organizations, like elementary schools, toward a common goal of helping children maintain healthy BMI and habits. A demographic survey and weekly reflective journals were also collected. Our results found statistically significant results in every perceived skill and we conclude that mentoring opportunities for student nurses in programs like AA improve their confidence and ability to communicate in a nursing role. We recommend that similar opportunities be included in the curriculum of all undergraduate nursing programs.

Percy Segura, Utah Valley University Health High frequency (HF) ultrasound has been investigated for the detection of breast cancer in surgical samples, and has shown correlations to histology including precursors to cancer development. It is hypothesized that the sensitivity of HF ultrasound to breast cancer is due to changes in the microscopic structure of the tissue. With this approach, better diagnosis of breast cancer can be achieved for purposes such as the assessment of surgical margins in lumpectomy procedures. The microscopic structure of the tissue affects HF waves as they pass through the tissue. These structures can therefore be recorded and distinguished by the HF ultrasound. HF ultrasound will show differentiation between healthy tissue, benign pathologies such as hyperplasia, and advanced cancerous formation. With continuing development, variables are being studied which may skew or produce artifacts in the HF ultrasound results.

Micelle Reed, University of Utah Health For patients with medically intractable epilepsy, a neurological disorder characterized by seizures that are unable to be controlled with medication, surgical resection of the seizure generating zone is necessary to obtain seizure freedom. Intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG) is used for determining areas for resection when noninvasive techniques fail to pinpoint a specific area. High frequency oscillations (HFOs), observed through iEEG, are successful biomarkers for the seizure generating zones and are more localized to the source of seizures than areas of propagation. The most common method for determining HFO occurrence lies in expert epileptologist interpretation of the iEEG data, although this method is limited to small data sets and the expertise of the doctor. This study uses the signal processing techniques of spectrogram analysis and continuous waveform transforms to find high frequency content in sampled patient data. Through the use of Friedman’s Tests, statistical difference between channels is determined and subsequent Wilcoxon signed-rank tests are performed to find the channels with statistically greater high frequency content. This allows for an unbiased, automated determination of seizure generating channels. Localization of the seizure generating area can be decided because of the 1-1 correspondence between the channel signal and macroelectrode placement on the brain. If functional mapping reveals the cost of resection of that area of the brain to be less than the benefit of reduction in seizure activity, surgery will be performed. Through the determination of the true seizure generating zone, surgical resection will lead to the best patient outcome of potential seizure freedom and improved quality of life.

Kevin Crockett, Utah Valley University Health Purpose

Tyler Navarro, Utah Valley University Health PURPOSE: An Exercise Science class homework assignment revealed that a significant majority of the Exercise Science majors were Kinesthetic vs. Visual or Auditory learners. The researchers were curious what learning styles other fields of study had and if, like Exercise Science, other fields of study were dominated by one learning style or another. The purpose of this study was to identify the percentage of different learning styles of majors in various fields of study at UVU. Our hypothesis is that each field of study, by its very nature, would be lead by > 50% of the percentage points by one learning style over the others.

Talmage Wood, University of Utah Health One of the challenges facing emergency room physicians is the number of tests and procedures to be performed on patients who present with chest pain but had negative initial findings. Since heart disease ranks as the leading cause of death in the United States, hospitals have protocols to monitor patients for a period of time before discharging them. At the University Of Utah’s Emergency Department our monitoring protocol was adjusted over a year ago to mandate consultation with a cardiologist for any and all chest pain patients being observed due to negative findings, whereas prior to the adjustment patients were monitored and consulted by normal emergency room physicians or advanced care providers.

Tyler Harris, Brigham Young University Health Background

Kristin Walker, Utah State University Health The purpose of this study was to quantify the efficacy of a six-week aquatic treadmill exercise program on measures of pain, balance, mobility, and muscle thickness. Three participants (age = 64.5 ± 10.2) with knee OA completed a six-week exercise training intervention. Outcome measures, collected before (pre) and after (post) the six-week intervention, included visual analog scales for pain, posturography for balance, a 10 m walk test for mobility, and ultrasound for muscle thickness. The exercise protocol included balance training and high-intensity interval training (HIT) in an aquatic treadmill using water jets to destabilize while standing and achieve high ratings of perceived exertion (14-19) while walking. Expected results include, reduced joint pain (pre = 50.3 ± 24.8 mm versus post = 15.8 ± 10.6 mm), improved balance (equilibrium pre = 66.6 ± 11.0 versus post = 73.5 ± 7.1), and mobility (walk pre = 8.6 ± 1.4 s versus post = 7.8 ± 1.1 s) after participating in the exercise protocol (p = 0.03-0.001). We expect that aquatic treadmill exercise that incorporates balance and HIT training will be well tolerated by patients with OA and may be effective at managing symptoms of OA.

Bradley Weaver, University of Utah Health High-grade gliomas, especially glioblastoma (GBMs, WHO Grade IV), are the most common primary brain tumors in humans. Despite recent advances in molecular targeted therapies for cancer, there has been little progress in treatment of GBMs. Median patient survival after diagnosis is dismal: approximately 12 months. Hypoxia is a key clinical marker of GBMs, which contain pockets of necrotic and hypoxic regions within the solid tumor mass. The transcription factors in the Hypoxia Inducible Factor (HIF) family are the master regulators of the cellular response to hypoxia. Their downstream targets include compounds that promote angiogenesis, increase glycolysis, and inhibit apoptosis. Recent research has identified glioma stem cells (GSCs) surviving within the hypoxic microenvironment, and has implicated HIF1α as a potential regulator of the GSC phenotype. GSCs are thought to promote therapeutic resistance and recurrence of GBMs after surgical resection. Clarifying the role of HIF1α in glioma stem cell dynamics is important for targeting both the tumor cells and their environment in new treatment. It is expected that GSC populations with more aggressive phenotypes will express higher levels of HIF1α and have higher proliferation rates under acute hypoxia. In this study, the HIF1α levels and proliferation dynamics of multiple, unique GSC cell lines are investigated. Cell lines used include two GSC lines isolated from primary patient tumors (NSC20/23) and a stem cell enriched high-grade glioma line. Preliminary results suggest that not all populations of GSCs respond the same way to hypoxic stress, and HIF1α may play a central role in stem cell dynamics, but not in the growth of non-stem tumor cells. Probing further into this relationship will increase our understanding of how brain tumors behave, and how to more effectively target them in patients. Further data and conclusions from this project will be available at the time of presentation.

Tyler Harris, Brigham Young University Health Background

Jorgen Madsen, Utah State University Health The gold standard in purification of influenza virus is by means of ultracentrifugation. Although effective, this process is very expensive and thus impractical for developing countries. We hypothesize that column chromatography can be a cost efficient alternative that is as effective as ultracentrifugation. If correct, this method of purification could revolutionize vaccine production in third world countries. We tested the purification ability of column chromatography by comparing two different chromatography resins. The Capto Q resin separates proteins on the basis of protein charge. The Capto 700 resin separates proteins on the basis of both size and charge. Samples following chromatography were collected, and evaluated for virus specific proteins as well as total protein content. After chromatography selected samples were evaluated by electrophoresis to determine protein separation. Although it is evident that some protein separation occurred, the results are inconclusive and suggest more testing.

Brooke Wahlquist, Brigham Young University Health Exposure to the house dust mite (HDM) allergens Der p 1 and Der f 1 has been implicated in the development and exacerbation of asthma, the leading chronic disease among children in the U. S. Indoor relative humidity (RH) is the most important determinant of HDM growth in homes. HDM populations reach a maximum size at 85% RH but can survive at RH levels as low as 54 %. The RH in the commonly arid climate of the western U.S. is often below 55%, and as such, HDM exposure in these areas has not been viewed as a significant health concern. However, studies have shown that evaporative coolers, or “swamp coolers”, can increase indoor RH levels enough in arid climates to support HDM growth. In this study, we propose to evaluate the relationship between HDM allergen levels in the home and evaporative cooler use in 46 single family homes in Utah County. Homes will be recruited from among BYU employees based on the age of home as well as type of cooling system used (evaporative cooler (n = 23) vs. central air conditioning (n = 23)). Der p 1 and Der f 1 will be measured in homes by reservoir dust and area air sampling. Additionally, continuous RH measurements will be taken in the home over a 72-hour period in order to more fully characterize fluctuations in indoor humidity, and their relationship to HDM concentrations. Samples and RH measurements will be collected up to 3 times in each home over the course of 1 year. Samples will be analyzed in the laboratory using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to detect Der p 1 and Der f 1, and by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to detect HDM DNA on air sample filters.

Breanne Woodbury, Dixie State University Health In this paper I will be discussing the health impacts of immunizations and how it affects the individual, the family, the community, and society. I will present information from both sides of the argument of immunizations, as well as my own conclusion on this controversial subject. Findings from leading experts in the medical field will be cited, including Dr. Paul Offit, co-inventor of vaccines and one of the most trusted advocates for vaccine safety, as well as award-winning scientific writer Seth Mnookin. Their research on vaccines, specifically the ingredients included in vaccines, possible side effects, and the nonexistent correlation between vaccines and autism, will support my thesis of vaccine safety and the need for immunizations. I will include current scientific studies which reveal the very serious results of a vaccine-free society and discuss the desperate need to change the anti-vaccine mindset. In conclusion, I will re-state, with supporting evidence, why immunization is absolutely crucial and why it plays a key role in the health of our society and in our personal daily living.

Alyssa Lark, Brigham Young University Health The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of a community-based sexual assault nurse examiner (SANE) program on sexual assault criminal case outcomes in Salt Lake County, Utah.

Erin Horton, Dixie State University Health OPUNTIA FICUS INDICA: RED BLOOD CELL VIABILITY AND AGGLUTINATION PROPERTIES

Sheri Casey, Utah Valley University Health Justification: According to many studies, low socioeconomics is positively correlated to sports participation. Little research explores the economic relationship correlated with youth sports.

Christopher Hutchings, Brigham Young University Engineering The biocatalysis industry has been rapidly expanding due to the fact that there has been a greater demand for ecologically friendly manufacturing processes. The benefit of biocatalytic systems is that it enables stereo-, chemo-, and regio- specificity in chemical manufacturing. This in turn reduces wasteful byproducts from chemical manufacturing. This is especially valuable in industries where removal of chemically similar but physically harmful waste products is essential. The problem with the traditional biocatalytic processes is that they are hindered from limitations in areas such as enzyme stability, leaching, recoverability, and reusability. These limitations significantly impede the cost-effectiveness of biocatalysis for industrial applications. The processes of enzyme immobilization like adsorption, entrapment, and other such forms of immobilizations provide improvements such as stability, recoverability, and reusability. Though they provide improvements they also go through enzyme leaching, complicated or even toxic conjugation procedures and have a lack of specificity to attachment location from. This ends in being counterintuitive and defeats the purpose of enzyme immobilization. It is here we start to build upon the recent advancements in unnatural amino acid and incorporating them into enzymes to demonstrate a biocompatible and covalent enzyme immobilization process that improves protein stability and enables attachment orientation control. This system we refer to as the Protein Residue-Explicit Covalent Immobilization for Stability Enhancement or PRECISE system, and it permits the covalent attachment of enzymes at potentially any location on the enzyme onto a surface. Using this process, we create reusable enzymes that are more stable and more resistant to harsh conditions. We have also concluded from this process that there is no leaching and increased stability from immobilization with the enzyme with satisfactory results in enzyme activity.

Jeffery Nielson, Brigham Young University Engineering Annually, 500,000 US inhabitants suffer from end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Allogeneic transplantation struggles with few donors and the high risk of organ rejection. Decellularized kidneys reseeded with autologous cells present a promising solution. Proposed decellularization methods require long times or high flow rates that may damage extracellular matrices’ (ECMs’) native architecture and lead to implantation thrombosis. We aim to optimize decellularization to preserve ECM integrity for subsequent recellularization and reimplantation.

Michael Borgholthaus, Brigham State University Engineering This paper seeks to demonstrate the simulated gain characterization of MOS transistors in different regions of channel inversion on silicon. In the weak region of MOSFET inversion a constant value of gain is observed. When current is increased and the device determined to be strongly inverted the gain falls off with the square of k/L from this constant gain. Between the weak and strong inversion regions is the moderate inversion region. In the moderate inversion region the gain rises above the constant weak inversion value before falling off as the channel becomes strongly inverted. If biased to low or moderate inversion, amplifying circuits can achieve higher gain performance at low currents than could be achieved in the typical strong inversion region.

Christopher Burns, Brigham Young University Engineering People around the world suffer from degenerative diseases of the retina that can eventually lead to blindness, including age-related macular degeneration. The human retina does not regenerate spontaneously, increasing the severity and long-term effects of these diseases. Currently, a highly-successful treatment for degenerative diseases of the retina doesn’t exist. Some attempts at retinal regeneration have slowed or stopped degeneration (Lanza). However, restoration of sight to its pre-diseased state requires regeneration of retinal tissue, not simply impedance of degeneration.

Cameron Bell, Brigham Young University Engineering 72-hour emergency kits are often inadequately equipped; they lack means to treat water or cook food, compromising chances of survival in an extended critical situation. Dr. Jones and I aim to develop a foldable, lightweight biomass cookstove to solve this problem.

Daniel Smith, Brigham Young University Engineering Although it is known as a graceful sport, figure skating can take a serious toll on skaters’ bodies. Considering that figure skaters commonly train five days per week, with 50-100 jumps per day, it is not surprising that repetitive stress injuries are a serious issue in figure skating. Because the forces associated with these jumps are poorly understood (including their magnitudes, loading rate, and when they occur) training plans designed to prevent injury are incapable of preparing athletes to best avoid their negative effects.

Mark Lindsay, Brigham Young University Engineering The protein production industry which creates vaccines, cancer drugs, and enzymes for chemical manufacturing and biocatalysis has revenue of over $160 billion a year. However, there are several significant protein production obstacles: high production costs exacerbated by difficulties with protein purification, retention, and stability. By better understanding protein structure and function we can resolve these issues. However, traditional methods of studying protein structure and function are costly and time consuming, taking several days to even a week to study one or a few sites. We have developed a process to study up to potentially hundreds of sites simultaneously in a matter of hours.

Todd Davis, Brigham Young University Engineering Oil shale is a sedimentary rock containing about 10% oil hydrocarbons. The United States has about 4 trillion barrels of oil in large regions of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. The hydrocarbons can be extracted by heating the shale to about 1000 F. This requires excessive amounts of energy, making it difficult to extract more energy than is consumed. We are researching a method to reuse or recycle the thermal energy of the heated shale back into the whole process, increasing the efficiency. This method is analogous to co-current or counter-flow heat exchangers in fluid flow. We are currently researching counter-current flow. To accomplish this we designed our retort (high heat kiln) to move the oil shale through a series of baffles. As it flows, the shale is heated and the oil is extracted as it becomes a vapor. A vacuum pump extracts this energy rich vapor out of the retort where it is condensed into a liquid oil. Meanwhile, the heated inert rock of the shale is returned adjacent to the incoming cold shale (counter-current heat exchange). This proximity of heated shale to cold shale allows the thermal energy to be transferred. 80% of the sensible heat has been recovered in our research. As stated above, the whole mechanism for this process is a rotating retort (kiln). The retort is about a 1 meter in length and ½ a meter in diameter. The kiln, on its small scale, can process about 5 tons oil shale/day. This comes to be about 85 gal Oil/day or 1.5 barrels/day.

Josephine Bastian, Brigham Young University Engineering 3D immersive visualization systems, or CAVEs™, have found wide adoption for use in geosciences, planetary science, medical research, and computer science. However, much of the potential for such systems in practical civil and environmental engineering settings has been severely limited due to 1) extreme costs in both hardware and software; 2) immobility due to calibration and darkroom requirements; and 3) extensive and expensive manpower requirements for both operation and maintenance. This project presents the development and testing of a new mobile low-cost immersive stereo visualization system – the “VuePod” – that attempts to address these challenges through the use of commercial-off-the-shelf technologies, open source software, consumer-grade passive 3-D television monitors, an active tracking system, and a modular construction approach. The VuePod capitalizes on recent functional advancements and cost decreases in both hardware and software and is demonstrated herein as a viable alternative to projector-based walk-in CAVEs and their limitations. A description of the hardware and its assembly, software and its configuration, and the modular structural system is presented as well as results from several benchmark computation and visualization tests.

Cameron Rogers, Brigham Young University Engineering The mechanical properties of materials are greatly influenced by their microstructure. Grain boundaries, part of the microstructure, effect mechanical properties and the manufacturing of crystalline solids. Grain boundaries in nickel have been shone to be more mobile at temperatures approaching the melting temperature (Olmsted, Holm, and Foiles, 2009). However, little is know about their behavior at low temperatures, and the notion that mobility decreases with decreasing temperature may be incomplete. Using the molecular dynamic simulator LAMMPS (Large-scale Atomic/Molecular Massively Parallel Simulator) we are simulating the mobility of 41 Σ3 boundaries in nickel, a face centered cubic (FCC) metal, at various cryogenic temperatures. We have begun to see that these boundaries defy the previously stated notion and move faster with decreasing temperature. Using these molecular simulations we are also investigating the underlying mechanisms for this phenomenon, which could lead to further investigation.

Neil Hinckley, Brigham Young University Engineering Due to the increasing interest in combining the physical and digital world devices which allow users to naturally interact with digital systems are becoming much more important and prevalent. In order to improve upon standard haptic controllers and interfaces we explored compliant haptic devices, which us a compliant member to provide tunable force feedback to users. We were able to produce a prototype device and demonstrate some of the capabilities and advantages of compliant haptic devices.

Ryan Putman, Utah State University Engineering Spider silk possesses superior mechanical properties to most other biological or man-made materials. In particular, research has demonstrated that spider silk is as strong as Kevlar, yet much more elastic. The unique feature of both strength and elasticity naturally piques interest in numerous scientific fields (e.g. medical sutures, automobile seat belts, or athletic performance wear). However, the limiting factors in using spider silk on a commercial scale are the production of sufficient protein product and the ability to do so in a cost-effective manner. An additional challenge is due to the territorial and cannibalistic nature of spiders, which makes harvesting their silk from large “spider farms” an infeasible task. To overcome these limitations, an approach using synthetic biological engineering principles has been employed. This emerging field of study provides a powerful tool, the use of standard biological parts called BioBricks. Using these standard DNA parts, a genetic circuit with the necessary regulatory components was engineered to recombinantly produce a synthetic spider silk protein in the microorganism Escherichia coli, which will provide a more consistent and sustainable source of spider silk than by harvesting directly from spiders. Expression of this recombinant protein has been verified through SDS-PAGE protein gels and subsequent protein immunoblot. The next step is to create a genetic circuit that will be used to secrete the spider silk protein outside of the E. coli bacterium. This could greatly reduce the downstream processing costs associated with protein purification as well as potentially increase overall yield. Therefore, a genetic tag that targets products for secretion has been fused to the spider silk coding regions. Further testing is required to determine the difference in overall protein yield from secreting as opposed to non-secreting strains of the engineered bacteria. Once these values are determined, the production can be optimized and scaled-up.

Bryce Ostler, Utah Valley University Engineering Much of SQL’s power derives from SQL’s declarative rather than procedural nature: a programmer describes the result desired rather than how to produce the result. Systems using SQL must translate SQL’s declarative language into a procedural language in order to execute queries. Relational Algebra (RA) is a procedural language that SQL can be transformed into and executed on a computer using a RA engine. Optimizations are applied to RA code to improve the performance of a translated query. The author of this abstract will present a simple RA engine written in Python and how it has been used as part of a Database Theory course.

Brad Hancock, Brigham Young University Engineering Fischer-Tropsch (FT) synthesis is a reaction used to convert carbon monoxide and hydrogen into high-quality liquid fuels. The reaction takes place in the presence of a cobalt- or iron-based catalyst. An important factor in how well a catalyst works is how highly it is dispersed on a given support. Sugar can be used to increase the viscosity of the impregnation solution to change the dispersion of the cobalt on the alumina support. The present study will determine the effect of adding sugar to the impregnating solution and dispersion of cobalt on the alumina support.

Sean Bedingfield, Utah State University Engineering The delivery of zinc ions using ZnO nanoparticles within the body has been shown to cause the destruction of tumor cells and may also treat neurodegenerative disorders. The silane capping of ZnO nanoparticles is employed as a post-synthesis method to protect them from dissolution in polar solvents. Preliminary research demonstrates standard methods of silane capping result in aggregation of nanoparticles. Aggregation produces particles significantly larger than the original diameter of the nanoparticles, making them too large for some medical applications.

Arthur Castleton, Brigham Young University Engineering More than one in three people die because of organ failures such as congestive heart failure. The major issues of heart transplants include a scarcity of donors, immunorejection and blood clot formation. Over the last decade bioartificial organs have emerged as a potential alternative to traditional transplantation because they eliminate the need for immunosuppressants, DNA testing, and the use of another human’s organs. In this study an economic, effective, and rapid decellularization process that produces minimal damage to a cardiac extracellular matrix (cECM) is described. In addition, a static blood thrombosis assay was used to verify the effect of exposed cECM on clotting. Also an aorta was recellularized and analyzed.

Rex King, Brigham Young University Engineering The purpose of this research is to use slab coupled optical sensors (SCOS) to take high voltage measurements at high frequencies. Voltage dividers are currently used to take high voltage measurements. However, these voltage measurements are limited to bandwidths up to the range of 1MHz. SCOS sensors are electric field detectors developed by the BYU optics lab which couple light from a D-shaped fiber into a lithium-niobate slab wave guide. This light couples at certain frequencies and the frequencies at which these resonances occur will shift in proportion to the applied electric field. The electric field measurement can be used to measure voltage.

Parker Rosquist, Brigham Young University Engineering This paper presents a newly discovered class of foam-based nano-composite materials with self-sensing properties. By embedding nano-particles in high-elongation foams, materials are created that display piezoelectric characteristics when any deformation is applied. When used in place of regular padding materials, they become impact sensors for a range of applications. The physics behind the phenomenon, and the optimization of the material response, are explored in this article.

LeGrand Shumway, Brigham Young University Engineering Ion traps are widely used in the field of mass spectrometry. These devices use high electric fields to mass-selectively trap, eject, and count the particles of a material, producing a mass spectrum of the given substance. Because of the usefulness of these devices, technology pushes for smaller, more portable ion traps for field use.

Christopher Werner, Brigham Young University Engineering Preparation of DNA linear expression templates (LET) via Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) is significantly faster than procurement of DNA via cell growth and plasmid purification. Unfortunately, linear templates have not consistently achieved protein yields comparable to plasmids in cell-free protein synthesis (CFPS). Possible reasons for lower LET yields were investigated by producing a number of different extracts. Extracts were differentiated by varying harvest time after induction and modifying the extract preparation procedure. These extracts were tested with py71 sfGFP plasmid (producing a reporter protein) and LET’s created through PCR from the same plasmid. Protein yields obtained by fluorescence measurement were plotted against combined tRNA and rRNA amounts obtained through DNA electrophoreses and densitometry. A correlation was seen between tRNA and rRNA amounts and a normalized LET yield (LET yield divided by the plasmid yield under identical conditions). We considered two reasons for this correlation. First, the increased tRNA and rRNA indicated and increase in the concentration of cell translation machinery present, which increased the kinetics of the reaction, allowing LET’s to produce protein quicker before degradation by Deoxyribonucleases (DNAse). Second, the increased tRNA and rRNA amounts acted as a shield for mRNA from Ribonucleases, allowing more of the mRNA to be translated before LET’s were degraded by DNAse’s. Further work must be done to verify the accuracy of this correlation, as well as to determine the cause for increased LET yields in extracts with higher tRNA and rRNA amounts.

Mitchel Faulkner, Brigham Young University Engineering Introduction

Craig Daniels, Brigham Young University Engineering Martensite is a steel phase that has a body-centered tetragonal crystal lattice. It significantly affects the material properties of steel, particularly hardness and strength. Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD) is a microscopy technique that is used to characterize the crystal and grain structure of metals by analyzing diffraction patterns. Martensite is traditionally difficult to identify using EBSD techniques because its diffraction patterns are too similar to the ferrite phase, which is body-centered cubic (BCC). The martensite crystal is modeled as BCC, but with an imposed tetragonal strain. “High resolution” EBSD can reveal the absolute strain of the crystal lattice, and is sensitive enough to measure the strain imposed in the model. This technique uses cross-correlation to compare experimental diffraction patterns to kinematically simulated patterns, and returns the absolute strain tensor. The tensor is rotated into the crystal frame, and the principle strains are used to create a tetragonality index. This tetragonality index can then be used to identify martensite. Further, the lattice parameters of martensite are related to the carbon content. A theoretical tetragonality index can be created using only lattice parameters. If the experimental index can be fitted to the theoretical index, this technique could be used to characterize the carbon content of steel at a sub-grain level.

Nathan Madsen, Brigham Young University Engineering A scatterometer is a type of radar used to measure the backscatter of the earth’s surface. In 2014, NASA will launch a new scatterometer, RapidSCAT, and mount it on the International Space Station (ISS). An integral part of the processing code for RapidSCAT is the X-table. X relates the power received by the scatterometer to the backscatter of the surface. It depends on the antenna, processor, and frequency of the sensor, as well as the sensor’s position, velocity, and attitude. The ISS’s comparatively unstable orbit renders previous methods of X-table generation inaccurate. By incorporating position, velocity, and attitude data from a revolution of the ISS, a table that is accurate for that revolution has been produced. This table can be made accurate for up to 8 revolutions of the ISS, by parametrizing variations in X with another variable. Different methods of estimating the relationship between these variables are attempted. Because the table will have to be recalculated repeatedly through the mission life of the sensor, tradeoffs between accuracy and processing time are explored.

Jason Ellers, Utah Valley University Engineering Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) technology is becoming more popular among Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) developers. The ease of development and the maintainability makes FPGAs a very attractive option in many performance and efficiency critical applications. The purpose behind this project was to implement an arcade style game on top of a VGA driver. The project was developed on a Xilinx Spartan-3E Starter board using Verilog, a hardware descriptive language.

Erika Handly, Brigham Young University Engineering The development of an effective treatment for cancer is one of the most important goals for research today. One method of treatment is a targeted delivery mechanism using encapsulating drug carriers paired with a release mechanism. The Pitt laboratory has developed a potent chemotherapeutic called eLipoDox that uses a liposomal delivery construct combined with ultrasound release. eLipodox is composed of a liposome that encases an emulsion and the drug Doxorubicin. The emulsion droplet is a perflourocarbon stabilized by a lipid bilayer that contains a high vapor pressure solvent that will expand and burst the liposome upon sonication. The liposome is an artificially made lipid bilayer membrane that effectively encases the drug and does not allow the drug to diffuse freely through the body. Doxorubicin works through intercalating DNA, or distorting the structure of DNA, which is effective in treating tumors. However, it can cause heart failure and thus can have deathly effects for human patients. Encapsulating Doxorubicin minimizes the effects of Doxorubicin to other parts of the body while increasing the efficiency of the drug. Currently, the efficiency of loading the chemotherapeutic drug into the liposome is only around 34 to 38 percent, which is not ideal due to how expensive the drug is and the labor required to make the carrier. Thus, the purpose of this research was to systematically examine loading parameters and test the optimized carrier on a human cancer cell line. Higher temperature, greater sonication rounds, and lower concentration of drug on the exterior all correlated to greater loading efficiency. Cell death was also demonstrated with the optimized construct.

Varvara Jones, Utah Valley University Engineering Mobile devices are promising tools today to people’s life thanks to lower-cost hardware, steep subsidies from wireless carriers and the popularity of mobile apps. Equipping with touchscreen is the point of fulfillment for all that a mobile device promises to deliver to normal users. However, few mobile devices today have been built that address accessibility and usability of the touchscreen for a wide range of physical capabilities and challenges. In this research, we investigate human capabilities, environmental factors and hardware ergonomics that can improve the usability when people with impairment disabilities use a touchscreen-equipped mobile device.

Dayton Minore, Brigham Young University Engineering Microwave scatterometers, which use radar backscatter measurements from satellites to infer wind vectors near the ocean’s surface, have the ability to monitor global wind speeds at high resolutions. Such data is used for weather forecasting and climate research. However, scatterometer observations can be contaminated by land proximity. Consequently, current methods do not use measurements within 30 km of the coast (about 10.6 million square kilometers worldwide) in the data set. This unused data can be utilized by a recently developed algorithm that can measure winds as close as 5 km to the coast. The author proposes that areas near land can be systematically targeted for special processing, providing valuable near coastal wind data. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the targeting method on a global scale, a sample 4-day data set will be processed. The data is to be stored and published in compatible file formats to current wind data, so that it will be easily usable by wind-vector users.

Jeremy Hunt, Brigham Young University Engineering Unnatural amino acid incorporation is a power tool in the synthetic biology toolbox that allows for unique residue chemistry to be incorporated into proteins. This technology has many promising applications in areas such as protein-protein interaction, biotherapeutics, biosensing, and biocatalysis. One challenge of uAA-incorporation is the current inability to properly predict the impact of the novel uAA-residue chemistry on proper protein folding and function. Therefore, a screening technology would be desirable to rapidly assess the viability of uAA-incorporation sites. Cell-free protein synthesis (CFPS) provides a promising basis for rapid screening technologies. The open environment of CFPS has a variety of advantages over conventional in vivo systems, such as direct monitoring, selective protein expression, and facile deployment of synthetic pathways. Another primary benefit CFPS has over in vivo expression is the ability to directly express proteins from PCR-generated products, known as linear expression templates (LETs). The use of LETs decreases the labor and time to expression of recombinant proteins. Thus, LET-based CFPS is a propitious system for rapid screening of uAA-incorporation. Here we demonstrate uAA-incorporation using LET-based CFPS and identify how this technology can significantly reduce time and labor to rapidly express proteins containing uAAs.

Charity Anne Rowley, Brigham Young University Health Background: Since 2009 groups of professors and students from the College of Nursing have been traveling to Guayaquil, Ecuador and assessing anemia rates and nutrition among the school children there. The adverse effects of anemia can include: weakness, fatigue, shortness of breath, and poor concentration. Initial anemia rates were discovered ranging 30-50%.

Brittni Carr, Brigham Young University Health Purpose/Aims: To examine religiosity and family hardiness in parents raising children with disabilities (CWD) to determine if there are differences according to parent gender and type of disability and if there is a relationship between the variables.

Matthew Mogensen, Southern Utah University Health The anti-inflammatory effects of omega-3 fatty acids (n-3) and their possible role in the regulation of asthma are promising for those suffering from the disease. Omega-3 fatty acids have been linked to the reduction of eicosanoids, which are signaling molecules that regulate the inflammatory response. Inflammation in the respiratory system is one of the most widespread symptoms of asthma and therefore poses the most risk to asthmatic individuals. This two phase study will test the effectiveness of n-3 in individuals with varying severities of asthma. In both stages of this study, a placebo or n-3 in the form of a krill oil capsule containing the omega-3 fatty acids eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) will be administered, lung volumes and capacities will be measured weekly, and the frequency/severity of asthma attacks will be recorded. Phase one of the study will test whether n-3 reduces asthma symptoms with no activity modifications, while phase two will test whether n-3 is effective in reducing asthma symptoms associated with exercise. The two phases of the study will be separated in order to isolate the duration of n-3 ingestion as a variable in the experiment. As this is an ongoing experiment, results are not yet available. However, if n-3 is effective, we expect to see an increase in lung volume and a decrease in the frequency and severity of asthma attacks in individuals. These results would suggest that n-3 could be an effective and simple treatment that, when taken daily, could reduce the frequency/severity of asthma attacks and help improve quality of life for asthma sufferers.

Andrew Mackay Breivik, Utah Valley University Health The central research question of this project is to determine the reproducibility of high frequency (HF) ultrasonic signals in breast cancer detection. Previous studies on surgical specimens of breast tissue have shown that HF ultrasound (20-80 MHz) appears sensitive to a range of breast pathologies including fibroadenomas, atypical ductal hyperplasia, fibrocystic changes, and carcinomas. A measurement in the ultrasonic signal called the peak density appears most sensitive to the pathology of the breast. The reproducibility of this parameter has not been quantitatively measured in a comprehensive manner. In parallel to a clinical study being conducted at the Huntsman Cancer Institute, we are conducting a laboratory study of the reproducibility of these measurements using chicken and bovine tissue. The ability to reliably determine the pathology of breast tissue with a real-time intra-operative tool would greatly aid in the surgical removal of all malignant tissue, as well as greatly reduce the occurrences of repeat surgeries to remove margins of cancerous tissue that remained. The results of this study will reveal the degree of variability in the signals, thus supplementing previous studies as well as determining the reliability of the results from the current clinical study. The research methodology included the following. Fresh chicken breast and bovine tissue were cut into 4x3x0.5 cm and 4x3x1.5 cm cubes. The tissue was tested at room temperature (23.4oC) using HF ultrasound. Pitch-catch and pulse-echo waveforms were obtained in triplicate measurements of two types: Three measurements with the transducer not leaving the tissue, and three measurements with the transducer lifted off the tissue between measurements. A total of 640 measurements were acquired and analyzed to obtain the spectral peak densities. Preliminary results indicate that the measurements are reproducible to a statistically significant level, thus removing one possible source of uncertainty in the data.

Kristen Hamblin, Brigham Young University Health Empathy is an essential characteristic in nursing. In fact, the skill of empathy, the ability to understand the feelings or situation of another, is of paramount importance to the nurse-patient relationship. Additionally, empathetic interactions often lead to increased patient satisfaction, compliance, and overall quality of life.

Siena Davis, Brigham Young University Health In the U.S., exposure to radon gas (222Rn) is the second leading cause of lung cancer after tobacco smoke. 222Rn is a naturally occurring environmental carcinogen produced during the radioactive decay of uranium-238, which is found in many soils throughout the U.S. Because 222Rn is a gas, it has the ability to travel through the soil and into homes through cracks in foundation walls. Inhaled 222Rn has the potential to emit alpha radiation in the lungs, and long-term exposure is responsible for approximately 21,000 lung cancer deaths per year in the U.S. 222Rn is a colorless, odorless, and tasteless gas, so the only way to know it is in a home is to test for it. Studies show that even in areas with high radon levels, homeowners frequently do not test or mitigate their homes as recommended. This study aims to understand the psychosocial factors that influence whether Utah residents perform radon testing and mitigation. Radon-related lung cancer deaths would be significantly reduced if the psychosocial factors that influence radon testing and mitigation were better understood and used to design and implement effective interventions. To understand the psychosocial factors that influence radon testing, we will survey residents (n = 50) of the county who come to UCHD specifically to purchase a radon test kit. The survey will be based on social cognitive theory (SCT) constructs. We will administer the same survey to a comparison group (n = 50). The comparison group for the study will be individuals who visit UCHD’s office of vital records. Individuals from the study group with indoor radon levels above 4 pCi/L will be contacted by telephone 30 – 60 days after testing to complete a second survey. This survey will measure SCT factors that influence participants’ actions to reduce radon levels in their home.