Fine Arts

Authors: Evelyn Fuentes, Thomas Keate, Christian Riordan. Mentors: Aaron Davis. Insitution: Utah Tech University. Studies predict that extreme weather events, due to climate change, are expected to increase in frequency and magnitude. Specifically, the flooding impacts from a hurricane may lead to the loss of necessary infrastructure, such as water treatment plants, leading to the loss of drinkable water. In response we, as a multidisciplinary team, have developed a purification device that is able to effectively filter water to allow communities and families, without available infrastructure, to receive drinkable water. We are testing different processes of filtration to find the most efficient and cheapest method. This process of filtration would be possible due to a foldable solar array that would power a pump to push water through a filtration system. The solar array would supplement other disaster relief options due to its ability to be used without constant supervision, and it would be capable of continuous, reliable use. This device would allow for the production of drinkable water in the event that water purification infrastructure was down, but grey water was available. The solar array and water purification device would be portable for fast deployment, with options of building a larger device, as part of a disaster relief preparedness package. If successful, this device has the potential to increase disaster preparedness and save lives through providing clean water.

Authors: Dustin Edmonds, Devin Needs, Riley Fisher. Mentors: Brent Feland. Insitution: Brigham Young University. Research questionHow does localized vibration increase blood flow? We know that localized vibrations increase blood flow. We wanted to know if this is done through the release of hormones, specifically histamines. Relevant research contextResearch on blood flow has been done using whole-body vibration but research on the effects of localized vibration on arterial blood flow is scant. To date, there are only a couple of research articles on massage guns despite their prolific use in the sports industry. No research to date has attempted to assess the mechanism behind the increased blood flow that results from localized vibration.MethodsTwenty-one participants completed this study, 11 males and 10 females, mean age of 22.1 +/- 2.0 years. The mean male height 181.3 +/- 9.6 cm and weight 80.7 +/- 19.0 kg. The mean female height is 169.2 +/- 7.5 cm, and the mean weight is 64.5 +/- 9.3 kg. All subjects were “recreationally active” and exercised at least three times a week for thirty minutes a day. Excessive activity or high-level athletes were not allowed to participate. Each subject received localized vibration to the gastrocnemius (vibration of 47 Hz for 10 minutes) with and without an antihistamine drug by reporting to the lab on 2 separate days. The non-antihistamine trial was performed first, followed at least 24 hours later by ingesting an antihistamine (180 mg of fexofenadine) 1 hour before the trial. Blood flow in the popliteal artery was measured using an ultrasound. Measurements (mean and peak blood velocity, volume flow, popliteal diameter, and heart rate) were taken before localized vibration treatment and then taken at intervals for 19 minutes after the treatment.AnalysisWe used a cell-means mixed model to statistically compare the effect of vibration on blood flow with and without antihistamines. This was done by evaluating the blood flow response immediately post vibration and comparing that to baseline values for both control and antihistamine conditions. Results and ConclusionThere was a significant increase in blood flow without antihistamine while administration of antihistamine blunted the blood flow response and resulted in an insignificant increase in blood flow. In the tests with the antihistamine, we saw an insignificant change in blood flow immediately post vibration, resulting from the localized vibration. From this experiment, we hypothesize that increased blood flow from localized vibration is due to activation of mast cells which release histamines and that this cellular activation is force dependent.

Authors: Lauren Heath, John Chaston. Mentors: John Chaston. Insitution: Brigham Young University. Mounting evidence shows that gut microbiota disruption is related to several physiological processes and disease development in mammals; however, the mechanisms by which these processes take place are not fully understood due to the complexity of the mammalian gut microbiome. Studying the fruit fly, Drosophila Melanogaster proves to be a valuable model for understanding the gut microbiome on a smaller scale. Previous research has identified microbiota disruption alters the fly’s ability to cope with thermal stress and causes slower chill coma recovery times. Chill coma recovery is an important survival trait and stress response in Drosophila flies. Microbiota may affect the ability of hosts to tolerate stressful situations. The purpose of this project is to determine the effect of different bacterial strains on the mechanisms of chill coma recovery through a metagenome analysis of different bacterial strains. I hypothesize that certain microbe genes will increase chill coma recovery times. To test this assumption, I will mono-associate by flooding different groups of eggs with a microbe wash and infusing their food with the same bacteria strain. After cultivation, a chill coma will be induced by placing mature adult flies in empty vials on ice for three hours, and then the time for each individual to stand up after their transfer to room temperature will be recorded. Subsequently, I will assess cold tolerance, and evaluate the rates of recovery. With this, we can further identify the mechanisms of the chill coma recovery process by pinpointing specific proteins necessary for this process through a metagenome-wide association approach (MGWA) and gene analysis. If I observe no effect of the bacterial strains on chill coma recovery times, I can test different mixes of microbes to determine if improved recovery rates are a side effect of global metabolic changes caused by decreased biodiversity in the gut of drosophila flies. Studying the metabolic processes of Drosophila allows us to unravel further the mechanisms by which gut microbes affect the fitness and health of their host. My findings may be extrapolated to further understand the human gut microbiome.

Authors: Cooper Johnson. Mentors: John Chaston. Insitution: Brigham Young University. The main goal of this project is to determine the relationships between microbes in the microbiota of Drosophila and the activity rate of Drosophila at low temperatures. Previous research has already determined that the microbiota leads to changes in fly activity levels at normal temperatures (Schretter, 2019). Studying the relationship at low temperatures with the method I will outline below will help us to have a more holistic view of how the bacteria affect fly locomotion and behavior. This holistic understanding can open doors for other projects that study if manipulation of the microbiota could have a specific desired effect on the fly’s behavior, and it can help us understand how the microbiota’s impacts are affected by drastic changes in temperature. In this experiment we seek to determine how each of 41 different strains of bacteria affects fly activity at temperatures of approximately 17 degrees celsius using several different metrics to measure both locomotion and social behaviors. These metrics would be collected simultaneously by placing flies in a chamber for Drosophila Video Tracking (DVT), which would use a camera and tracking software to record the above-mentioned metrics on fly activity. Using so many different metrics allows us to have a more holistic view of the flies’ activity and to be able to better determine exactly how the bacteria are affecting the flies. In order to connect the data with the microbiota, the flies would be separated into 41 different experimental groups and each group would be “mono-associated” with one of the 41 different above-mentioned bacterial strains. Mono-association means that each of the fly eggs would be bleached, and then divided in groups, with each group being grown in an environment containing a specific type of bacteria. This means that each fly experimental group would have one species of bacteria in their microbiota, and therefore we can associate changes in fly behavior to the differences in the Drosophila microbiota. Having determined which bacteria affect the fly activity at low temperatures, we would use Metagenome-wide association to determine which bacterial genes are causing this change. Metagenome-wide association involves comparing the genomes of bacteria shown to cause changes in Drosophila activity in order to identify the similar protein-coding sequences that may be the causes of these changes in activity. To confirm the findings at that stage, the genes are expressed in a bacteria that doesn’t express them normally, and flies are analyzed to see if the changes in activity persist. If they do, we can safely say that the changes are due to that specific gene sequence. We expect that the mono-associated flies will show differences in activity level, because it has already been established in a previous study that the microbiota in the flies has a statistically significant effect on the activity level of the flies, meaning that the presence of certain bacterial cultures in the flies lead to a difference in activity. Therefore, if there is no difference in activity level, it is most likely due to the low temperatures, and it may then be necessary to perform the experiment again at different temperatures to determine at what point the temperature negates the effect caused by the bacteria present in the fly microbiota. We aim to study the relationship between the microbes present in the fly microbiota and their activity level at low temperatures and identify the mechanisms by which the microbes affect the fly activity level.

Authors: Levi Pouwer, Keaton Helquist. Mentors: Jared Nielsen. Insitution: Brigham Young University. OBJECTIVE: To identify brain regions and networks underlying acquired-brain-injury-induced insomnia. BACKGROUND: In patients of tertiary-level mental healthcare facilities, symptoms of chronic insomnia are prevalent in 78.2% of the population. Additionally, among those who suffer from acquired brain injury, few symptoms are as generally pervasive as that of chronic insomnia. Meta-analyses of insomnia patients with fMRI data have failed to identify consistently affected brain regions. Individual studies have suggested several brain regions are involved in insomnia, including the anterior cingulum, orbitofrontal cortex, the insula, caudate nucleus, and the anterior capsula interna. However, few regions have consistently been implicated in the pathophysiology of insomnia. Moreover, little is known regarding the collective brain networks involving insomnia. DESIGN/METHODS: A comprehensive systematic literature review was conducted to identify case studies of individuals afflicted with acquired brain injury-induced insomnia (N=53). The review process was facilitated by employing Cadima, specialized literature review software. To establish a reference baseline for comparison, a substantial cohort of resting-state functional MRI (fMRI) scans from healthy control subjects (N=1000) was meticulously acquired. Subsequently, lesion network mapping analysis, as outlined by Fox et al. in 2018, was applied to the lesions observed in the 53 patients. This method allowed us to assess the impact on functional connectivity and analyze its implications by comparing the patients' lesion networks with the baseline scans obtained from healthy controls. RESULTS: In the context of lesion network mapping analysis, our study revealed that 45 out of 53 patients diagnosed with acquired brain injury-induced insomnia exhibited brain lesions that were functionally connected to both the left amygdala and the left anterior insula. Moreover, in 39 out of 57 patients, the lesion networks also included bilateral anterior insula and the hypothalamus. Comparative analysis of these lesions with a normative database unveiled a substantial disparity in functional connectivity to the left amygdala and left anterior insula in patients suffering from acquired brain injury-induced insomnia. This finding underscores the relevance of tissue within these regions and tissues functionally connected to these areas in relation to the onset of lesion-induced insomnia. CONCLUSION: The observed functional network connectivity among the left amygdala and the left insular region in relation to insomnia introduces a potentially more intricate mechanism underlying the onset of insomnia, in addition to the previously proposed factors such as hyperarousal in cortical regions and subcortical neuropathologies. Our findings highlight the possibility of a deeper connection between the initiation of insomnia and limbic structures, specifically emphasizing their role in emotion and sleep regulation. This suggests that the neural mechanisms influencing anxiety may have interrelated effects on the mechanisms influencing insomnia. It is evident that further investigation, particularly among psychiatric patients afflicted with insomnia, is warranted to delve into the activities occurring in these regions and to elucidate the potential interplay between anxiety and insomnia. This research paves the way for a deeper understanding of the complex relationship between neural pathways and the development of insomnia, ultimately offering valuable insights for future clinical and therapeutic considerations.

Authors: Connor Hough. Mentors: Johnny Chaston. Insitution: Brigham Young University. Many variables can have an effect on the microbiota (microbial community associated with an organism) which can, in turn, affect the health and lifestyle of the microbiota's host organism. One such variable is geographic latitude (distance away from the earth's equator) which was the subject of a portion of a study performed by Walters et al. in 2020 and a similar study performed by Henry et al. in 2022. Walters et al. determined that latitude had a significant effect on the composition of the gut microbiota in Drosophila melanogaster (fruit flies) while Henry et al. determined that latitude did not have a significant effect. To better understand what variables may have caused a difference in the results of these two studies I plan to perform data analysis on the data provided from both Walters et al. and Henry et al. Particularly, Henry et al. provided data about the microbiota of other sample types associated with D. melanogaster across the latitudinal cline such as the fruit fly excrement, the leaves in their environment, and their diet which consisted of apples and grapes. While this data was mentioned in Henry et al.’s paper I feel that a more in depth analysis of these sample types could bring insight about how these microbiota affect one another and how latitude affects each of them separately. I will use QIIME (a bioinformatics data analysis software) data analysis methods, such as alpha and beta diversity metrics, and R to analyze the data provided and create graphs. Because each sample type in the data was recorded with unequal sample sizes I will also need to make a new taxonomic graph of the sample types when measured proportionally to each other. To do this I will use QIIME to group the original feature table metadata from Henry et al. by sample type and return a new table with an equal number of samples for each sample type. With this done I will then be able to make a new bar plot using QIIME. I will then use this new set of adjusted data to analyze the relationships between latitude and each sample type as well as the relationship between each sample type to one another. I will also perform these data analytics methods on the data provided on fruit fly gut microbiota by Walters et al. and compare the results with the fruit fly gut microbiota provided by Henry et al.. I hypothesize that further analyzing the data from these sample types will reveal new correlations between the microbiota of these sample types and with latitude. If no new information is learned through this analysis then it will solidify Henry et al.’s claim that latitude does not significantly affect the microbiota. Alternative outcomes may show that there is not a correlation between the microbiota of sample types which would indicate that the microbiota exhibits a neutral behavior and is not selective. However, if my hypothesis is correct then these correlations would show that the microbiota of separate sample types are related to the microbiota of other sample types and that latitude does have a significant effect on the microbiota of each sample type. The results of this analysis will open up more pathways for study about the reason behind these correlations or the lack thereof.

Authors: Hannah Smith. Mentors: Jeff Parker. Insitution: Brigham Young University. The Arabic language uses a rich system of patterns called verb forms to create verbs with related meanings from roots made of consonants. For example, the root k-t-b, in form I, kataba, means ‘to write.’ When it appears in form II as kattaba, it means ‘to make someone write.’ In form III, kaataba, it means ‘to exchange letters,’ ‘to correspond’ (Wehr, 2019). There are ten commonly used verb forms, although not every root is used in every form. As Arabic has been exposed to English and speakers borrow verbs from English into their Arabic, they make choices about how and whether to integrate these foreign words into the verb forms. For example, the verb ‘to block (on social media),’ with the derived root b-l-k, is used in form II, ballaka, ‘to block.’ Other borrowed verbs, however, don’t get integrated in this way. Instead, they are used as a noun with a native Arabic verb, usually ‘amila, ‘to do.’ For example, English ‘to delete’ becomes ‘amila daliit, literally ‘to do a delete.’ This study aims to understand what factors influence when and how completely borrowings from English like these are integrated into the verb forms in Jordanian Arabic (JA) by interviewing university students in Amman, Jordan. The interviews are primarily focused on four forms in which borrowings in JA frequently appear (Salem, 2015). Initial data from a group of eight participants shows a general acceptance for the borrowings in their base forms, with much more variation in speakers’ intuitions regarding their usage in other forms. For example, all eight participants perceive ‘to block,’ ballaka, as a completely acceptable word used by most people. However, only two participants felt the same way about its counterpart form, taballaka, ‘to be blocked,’ whereas two other participants perceived it as something no one would ever use. Furthermore, some participants perceive verbs that rely on ‘to do,’ such as ‘to delete,’ to be in the beginning stages of integration, with three of eight interviewees stating that some of these verbs actually are acceptable in verb form II. Thus far, the perceptions of all the borrowings seem to indicate that speakers believe that integration of borrowed verbs is a gradual process. Furthermore, in addition to other factors, the extent to which the verbs are integrated in JA seems to be affected in large part by cultural perceptions of how foreign the verbs are, a factor that has not been noted in previous studies on the subject.

Authors: Megan Sorensen, Lianna Olsen, Maleah Bowen. Mentors: Ryan Kellems, Cade Charlton. Insitution: Brigham Young University. This research explores how virtual reality can help children with autism. It explores the effects of an intervention using virtual reality to assess the usability of virtual reality for children with autism.There are more than 200 studies that show that video modeling is a viable way to teach students with autism various skills. Research has started to explore if virtual reality is also a successful way to teach students with autism similar skills. Different studies have been conducted regarding social skills and cognitive skills and how they can be taught using virtual reality. There is very little research about fine-motor skills and virtual reality for individuals with disabilities. Our research adds to that research, but specifically explores fine-motor skills and the feasibility of using virtual reality with children with autism. The study uses a single subject research design with 5-10 participants with autism. Before starting data collection, the participant completes a brief tutorial for how to use virtual reality. One tutorial is for how to use the controllers and the other is for how to use the hand-tracking feature that allows the participant to use their hands instead of the controllers. The study is an alternating-treatment design. The individual is given a specific task to complete using the playroom items found in the “First Steps” application on the Oculus Quest. For example, they are asked to stack blocks, throw paper airplanes, etc. They either complete the task using the controllers or with the handtracking feature based upon a random schedule and the latency of the trial is measured. The data compares hand-tracking and controllers and measures whether the participant is getting faster with every trial. It was hypothesized that the students will be able to learn how to use the virtual reality interface and that they will be able to generalize the skills learned to other settings and/or skills, and that the interventions will be viewed by the participant and parents as socially valid ways to learn. It was anticipated that the participant will get increasingly faster at completing the tasks for both hand-tracking and with the controllers. It was also anticipated that the rate of completing tasks with controllers will be faster than that of hand-tracking. Preliminary date has shown this relationship to be true. Future research will explore the specific practices of how virtual reality can be best used for children with autism.

Authors: Sara Peel, Addisyn Bushman, Adam Rice. Mentors: Xinru Page. Insitution: Brigham Young University. Social media has become a tool used in everyday life by individuals worldwide. While this tool can help individuals build new social connections and strengthen relationships, it can be a lose-lose situation for certain populations. Recent work has found that autistic users are one of these populations that experience greater harm and negative experiences using social media. These additional harms stem from differences in how autistic individuals perceive social media norms and interpret online interactions. We have developed 16-week’s worth of digital educational material based on this research to teach autistic young adults social media literacy for Facebook and Instagram, to mitigate some of these social media challenges. With input from a multi-disciplinary team of autism researchers and a panel of autistic students at our university, we created these educational materials to be taught in 1-hour weekly sessions to individuals with autism in a classroom environment. The materials consist of topic-based slides and associated practice exercises that employ a decision-based learning approach that breaks down complicated decisions into several simpler choices. To determine whether participants have learned safer online behaviors, we administer scenario-based assessments at the beginning and end of each session, conduct daily diary-based check-ins, and weekly one-on-one interviews, and analyze behavioral data collected from their personal social media accounts such as posted comments and responses to connection requests.We are currently deploying the 16-week educational course at a local day program to autistic young adults who have no intellectual disability and have had negative experiences using social media. Initial results indicate that the educational materials are helping mitigate the harms of social media. Participants have shared that the educational sessions taught them to disconnect from potentially unsafe users, learn social tags and interaction norms, and change safety settings within each app that they weren’t aware they had control over. In addition to the current longitudinal study, we have several other field deployments planned in the coming months which will allow us to refine the digital assets for this educational intervention in preparation for making them available to the public.

Authors: Ty Wilson. Mentors: Amita Kaundal. Insitution: Utah State University. Climate-induced environmental stresses and the increased use of fertilizers to meet the increasing demand for food significantly threaten food production and soil health. In natural environments, microbes are vital to the growth and development of plants. Their presence in the soil allows for enormous flexibility and nutritional availability for plants, particularly those living in harsh conditions. A plant’s microbiome, especially the underground, plays a significant role in its growth and development and mitigates environmental stresses. Idaho and Utah are particularly challenging environments due to extreme temperatures and arid soil. However, despite these difficult environmental factors, the native plants of Utah and Idaho can thrive. Here, we are exploring the rhizosphere microbiome of Shepherdia x utahensis ‘Torrey,’ a hybrid of two highly drought-tolerant buffaloberry species, S. argentea and S. rotundifolia native to the Intermountain West region of the US to isolate plant growth promoting bacteria. In this study, we isolated drought-resistant plant growth-promoting microbes from the rhizosphere of hybrid buffaloberry. Root samples of hybrid buffaloberry were collected from three locations in Utah: the USU campus, Greenville Farm USU, and the USU botanical garden, Kaysville. The rhizosphere was removed from these root samples and pooled together. The bacteria were isolated on five different bacterial growth media twice. The isolated microbes were then purified using the streak plate method. Forty-six unique isolates were selected based on morphological characteristics and tested for four plant growth-promoting traits. Fourteen bacteria could show the ability to fix nitrogen fix, 18 produced a siderophore, 17 could solubilize phosphate, and 11 produced catalases. IAA production, ACC deaminase, and protease activity assays are in progress. All isolates will be identified by 16S rRNA Sanger sequencing.

Authors: Kylie Hansen. Mentors: Janis Boettinger. Insitution: Utah State University. Cache Valley, Utah, has unique soils due to environmental events such as Pleistocene pluvial Lake Bonneville. This lake extended about 20,000 square miles in Northern Utah, and its depletion left numerous shorelines, the most relevant being the Bonneville and Provo shorelines. These various water levels influence the geological formations in Cache Valley and the different characteristics of soil formation. An important soil-forming factor used to characterize varying soils is the parent material. Parent material is the original sediments the soil formed on and can be various things such as sediments deposited by gravity, streams, lake sediments, or wind. These different materials depend on the location and alter the soil properties. A dominant soil parent material in the Lake Bonneville area is sediment deposited by this lake. This type of parent material is identifiable by coarser-sized sediments, such as cobbles, gravel, and sand. This pattern is evident on terraces in Cache Valley’s lower soil layers, but the near-surface layers have fewer rock fragments and more fine sand, silt, and clay. This distinct difference in particle size leads to the question of what is the parent material source in the surface horizons of soil formed in Lake Bonneville deposits in Cache Valley. There is not much literature on this question and little documentation compares the soil profiles for different Lake Bonneville terrace levels (Bonneville shoreline compared to Provo shoreline). We hypothesize that the different particle sizes of parent material in the surface of soils formed dominantly in Lake Bonneville deposits is eolian sediment transported and deposited by wind. To determine this, we will sample soils across Cache Valley and analyze the fine and very fine sand sediments in plane-polarized and cross-polarized light. This process will identify various minerals within each soil horizon, showing possible differences in the upper and lower horizons. The minerals present in each soil will indicate the parent materials, allowing us to understand what is causing the different textured horizons in these soils and where the sediment originated from.