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Utah's Foremost Platform for Undergraduate Research Presentation

2018 Abstracts

Behavioral Discipline

November 19, 2020 11:29 PM
Hadli Gates, Dixie State University

Nephrotic Kidney Organoids from Induced Pluripototent Stem Cells

November 19, 2020 11:22 PM
Maxwell Beers; Jace Pulsipher, Brigham Young University

Food, Floors, and Fallen Prophets

November 19, 2020 11:21 PM
Brinnan Schill, Brigham Young University

Predicting Transcription Factor Binding Sites Across Multiple Cell Lines

November 19, 2020 11:19 PM
Lucas Pinto; Dane Jo; Ashton Omdahl; Megan McGhie; Caroline Tyler; Shun Sambongi; Caleb Cranney, Brigham Young University

Defining the interaction between HDAC1 and p15- regulators of β-cell proliferation

November 19, 2020 10:56 PM
Courtney Smith, Brigham Young University

Destined to Dominate? Sexual Dimorphism in Rhesus Monkeys' 2D:4D Ratio and the Role of Prenatal Androgens in Alpha Males and Females

November 19, 2020 10:35 PM
John Capitanio; Elizabeth Wood; Alexander Baxter; Ashley Cameron, Brigham Young University

Does Nkx2.2 Enhance Functional β-Cell Mass?

November 19, 2020 10:24 PM
Aaron Leifer; Jasmine Banner; Collin Christensen; Trevor Lloyd; Kenneth Call, Brigham Young University

Mental Disability in a Normalized Society

November 19, 2020 07:32 PM
Bridget Baldwin, Utah State University

Immigration stress among refugees resettled in Utah

November 19, 2020 07:15 PM
Sayro Paw, University of Utah

The effect of Microbial Metabolites on β Cell Proliferation and Cell Survival

November 19, 2020 07:05 PM
Brooke Smyth; Moroni Lopez; Mimi Ross; Luaren Manwaring; Mathew Austin, Brigham Young University

The Community Ecology of the Music Canon

November 19, 2020 07:02 PM
Hannah Waddel, University of Utah

Polymodal TRP channels functionally co-localize in a subset of mouse retinal ganglion cells

November 19, 2020 06:59 PM
Monika Lakk; Derek Young, University of Utah

Determining the Enzyme Kinetics of Lactase Immobilized on Nanofibers

November 19, 2020 06:37 PM
Jeremy Anderson, Brigham Young University

Prism - A Dance of Light

November 19, 2020 06:34 PM
Rebecca Penn-Pierson, Utah Valley University

The Worth of an MLB All-Star: Are MLB All-Star Players the Key to Wins, the Playoffs, and the World Series?

November 19, 2020 11:19 AM
Cassidy Mickelson, Southern Utah University All-Stars are given the title of being the best a team has to offer but are they helping their teams get more wins, make it to the playoffs and win the World Series? Players are more likely to make the MLB all-star team in the first years of their career, thus a team should identify and purchase these players if it is found that these players could help a team be successful. It is also in the team’s best interest to know how many players they should purchase with an “all-star” status. This study found that while holding home game attendance, salary, earned run average (ERA) and fielding percentage constant, a team should try to have 8-9 all-stars on their team to increase wins and probability of making the playoffs, while 6-7 all-stars will help a team to win the World Series.

Does Game Attendance Effect Winning Percentage?

November 19, 2020 11:16 AM
Taylor Leavitt, Southern Utah University College sporting events are a huge ordeal at most universities across the nation. Students, faculty and community members begin tailgating hours before a football game every Saturday during the season. As soon as football has ended, basketball becomes a main focus and then spring sports take over. This study examines the effects attendance at sporting events has on winning percentages at home games while also considering the opposite, the effect winning percentages have on attendance. The model examines football, men’s and women’s basketball, and gymnastics events at Southern Utah University. The different variables being measured/controlled for on winning percentage include attendance at games, pre-season versus regular season games, special event games such as rivalry or homecoming games, and day of the week. The results of the study indicate higher attendance at Southern Utah University games result in a higher winning percentage. The results also show for men’s and women’s basketball that having a week day game increases attendance at games compared to a weekend game. If a team already has a high winning percentage, games are likely to have higher attendance and therefore help the team to continue to win games. ** The result indicated in the above abstract are only hypothesized results and not actual at this point. **

The Ethics of Assistive Technology

November 19, 2020 11:08 AM
Kimberly Jones, Utah State University The purpose of my research project is to analyze the ethics of what prevents assistive technology from being used for children and adults with multiple disabilities. A person with multiple disabilities by definition cannot perform a number of everyday functions on their own, leaving them to rely entirely on others. The parents of these individuals, as well as their lawmakers, have historically been opposed to new assistive technologies for these individuals for a variety of reasons. I am going to examine why parents and lawmakers may be opposed and how different ethical frameworks can suggest solutions to these problems. In particular, I will use two ethical frameworks to look at this issue. The first is the ethics of care as described by Joan Tronto. This ethical framework is especially fitting because individuals with multiple disabilities by definition cannot care for themselves; they rely entirely on care from others. I will research how care, which is framed as trying to better the world around you, is being used for them already and see where it might be lacking. Care is all about community and recognizing as well as fulfilling the needs of others. The second framework I will use is virtue ethics as described by Shannon Vallor. Virtue ethics is all about self-cultivating certain virtues in order to live a good life. I am going to examine how assistive technology may allow individuals with multiple disabilities to cultivate virtues for themselves in ways they never could before, as well as how other people involved in making decisions for them (such as parents and lawmakers) may feel compelled to allow assistive technology or may feel compelled to ban it based on their virtues. This framework helps expand the research into a place it’s never gone before by asking certain questions that have never been asked. Such questions would be: what is different about cultivating virtues in oneself compared to in a person with multiple disabilities? How does care ethics suggest the community look at the situation and handle these individuals who rely so wholly on others? Where does this assistive technology fit into these frameworks and how does it change the way we have done things for these individuals in the past? I do not want to look at this issue in a binary way; rather, I want to ask questions that have not been asked before and see where they lead.

Understanding the Switch to Sexual Reproduction in Facultatively Apomictic Boechera

November 19, 2020 11:01 AM
Bo Price; Kaylynn Ashby; Marianne Maughan, Utah State University Apomixis is an asexual reproductive process that omits the reducing step of meiosis (apomeiosis) thereby producing unreduced eggs that will develop into embryos without the need of gamete fusion (parthenogenesis). The lack of reduced gametes leads to progenies that have identical genomes, i.e., diversification by egg and sperm fertilization is prevented, from generation to generation. Facultative apomixis is the ability to switch from apomixis to sexual reproduction by completing the meiosis divisions to produce reduced haploid gametes. It is understood that the switch to sexual meiosis in facultative apomixis is triggered by environmental stress signals. Sexual reproduction is induced by stress to create a competitive advantage by allowing genetic diversity to increase the possibility of species adaptability and survival. Boechera is a genus of flowering angiosperms that has multiple facultative apomictic species. To understand the molecular cascade that is triggered to cause apomixis to switch to sexual reproduction, Boechera facultative apomictic ovaries were treated exogenously with hydrogen peroxide to induce oxidative stress. RNAseq is being used to identify gene expression differences between apomictic and sex-induced ovary development as a first step toward elucidating the molecular switch from apomeiosis to meiosis.

Designing a Carbon Infiltration-Carbon Nanotube Filtration Device to Separate Oil from Fracking Waste

November 19, 2020 10:57 AM
Brian Jensen; Phillip Ng, Brigham Young University The purpose of this project is to invent a device capable of filtrating oil from fracking waste using a system of Carbon Infiltrated Carbon Nanotubes (CI-CNT) and its passive filtration properties. Fracking produces harmful waste material that pollutes clean water. A large-scale CI-CNT device that can filter large amounts of the microscopic oil particles from the waste will offer drilling companies a viable option to reuse the fracking mixture collected from after the fracking process instead of burying their unusable waste material underground, thereby causing less environmental damage. Pyrolytic CI-CNT’s can isolate water and oil molecules due to their superhydrophobic and oleophilic properties, unique cylindrical nanostructure, and functional groups. The CI-CNT’s will be grown on a stainless steel substrate that will give us the robustness and material properties needed to withstand the forces from fluid flow. We have designed a long channel with unique mechanical features that we anticipate will effectively separate oil from fracking waste as it interacts with it by splashing, rolling, and flowing across its surface.

Student Hunger

November 18, 2020 09:04 PM
Sidney Cushing, University of Utah

The Collaborative Process: How law enforcement agencies and universities research together

November 18, 2020 09:02 PM
Steiner Houston, Weber State University

Soviets, Socialists, and the Spartacus Ballet

November 18, 2020 08:34 PM
Arden Laga, Utah Valley University

The effects of Janthinobacterium lividum on Zion Canyon Tree Frogs with Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis infection.

November 18, 2020 08:00 PM
Dallin Hilton; Siera Theobald; Janessa Bassett, Dixie State University

The Effects of Cocoa Flavonols on β Cell Survival

November 18, 2020 07:53 PM
Brooke Smyth; Lauren Manwaring; Moroni Lopez, Brigham Young University

The Nuance of 'Thou': A Multi-Genre Analysis of Shakespeare's Second-Person Pronouns

November 18, 2020 07:02 PM
Braxton Thornley, Dixie State University

Identifying the Effects of Cocoa Flavanols on Cellular Respiration of β-Cells

November 18, 2020 06:51 PM
Matt Austin; Brooke Smyth; Lauren Manwaring; Moroni Lopez, Brigham Young University

España sin esperanza: la visión de Larra

November 18, 2020 06:15 PM
Kolton Pierson, Southern Utah University

The Quiet Breaking Us Down

November 17, 2020 01:59 PM
Morgan Sanford, Utah State University

Incorporating Early Female Composers in Today's Violin Repertoire

November 17, 2020 01:38 PM
Jane Etherington, University of Utah

Modeling Whirling Disease with Environmental Limits

November 17, 2020 01:33 PM
Neil Duncan, Dixie State University

The Power of Perseverance: The Untold Stories of the Rwandan Genocide and Beyond

November 17, 2020 01:29 PM
Benjamin Passey, Brigham Young University

FAI: A New Way to Measure State-Anger

November 16, 2020 11:01 PM
Logan Ashworth, Southern Utah University

Deletion of Nr4a nuclear receptors on β-cells in hyperlipidemia

November 16, 2020 10:51 PM
Weston Elison, Brigham Young University

Povidone-Iodine Vapor Kills MRSA

November 16, 2020 10:48 PM
Benjamin Ogilvie; Jon Mitton; Jordan Tucker, Brigham Young University

Laboratory safety misconceptions among first year chemistry students.

November 16, 2020 10:43 PM
Daniel Sullivan, Dixie State University

Stroke Optimization for Petroleum Rod Pumping

November 12, 2020 03:07 PM
Craig Schoenberger; Nathan Van Katwyk; Jens Griffin; Insu Kim, Brigham Young University

β cell Proliferation Inhibition and Histone Modification

November 12, 2020 03:04 PM
Parker Booren; Talon Aitken; Samuel Grover; Nathan Jensen; Jackie Crabree, Brigham Young University

Investigating the antimicrobial activity of humic acids

November 12, 2020 02:00 PM
Michelle George, Dixie State University

PLGA Biocompatible Polymers and Dermal Drug Delivery

November 12, 2020 01:38 PM
Matthew Bradley, Brigham Young University

Religious Fundamentalism, in relation to Substance and Behavioral Addictions

November 12, 2020 01:34 PM
Sophie A. George; Christena Jensen; Sarah Janson; Miguel Diaz; Chantel Sloan, Dixie State University

The Effect of Cocoa Flavanol Metabolites on β-cell Insulin Secretion

November 12, 2020 01:32 PM
Matt Austin; Brooke Smyth; Lauren Manwaring; Moroni Lopez, Brigham Young University