Office of Undergraduate Research

Alexandr Bajenov

Intracellular calcium control many cellular activities in a localized manner, i.e. calcium concentration in specific volumes of the cell controls specific activities. Accordingly, it is of interest to understand how calcium levels rise and fall in different volumes of the cytoplasm. Because there are multiple complex mechanisms controlling the level of calcium in a given compartment, a rigorous understanding requires quantitative computation of the delivery and removal of calcium, binding of calcium by mobile and fixed buffer molecules, and the diffusion of calcium. In this project, we will develop a quantitative model of calcium diffusion in a spherical cell using Matlab. The first goal will implement a simple model of diffusion and binding by endogenous calcium binding molecules. The second goal will extend this model by incorporating calcium uptake and release by mitochondria as described in a recent paper from the mentor’s laboratory. Lastly, we will implement the model in a format that will be widely accessible and flexible in order that other investigators can incorporate new findings into it.

Richard Bednarski

I am requesting funding for a rephotographic survey of 15 historically significant locations in Plumas County, California. The original photographs that I chose to rephotograph were made between the between 1840s and early 1900s. In preparation for this research, I have acquired numerous vintage photographs that are ideal for rephotography. The vintage images and their rephotographs, as pairs, will provide visual evidence of landscape change over time. As historical documents, the portfolio will be
valuable to the California Historical Society as well as within the Fine Arts as a creative interpretation. If this project is funded, it will result in an exhibition of 30 photographs for the Historical Society and the Plumas County Museum.

Chris Carlson

High-intensity exercise under elevated oxygen (hyperoxia) has been shown to increase exercise capacity and improve sustained aerobic power. Although intense exercise is known to contribute to cellular oxidative stress by increasing rates of free radical generation, the effect of hyperoxic training on oxidative stress-generating pathways is not well-described. In this study I propose to investigate effects of brief hyperoxic training bouts on sensitive, specific markers of oxidative stress in student-athletes.

Marc Cerruti

A single nanosecond (nsec) duration, pulsed megavolt-per-meter (MV/m) electric field (nsPEF) has unique and profound effects on adrenal chromaffin cells, a well-established model of neural-type cells that secrete catecholamines. Because this technology has therapeutic potential, my project is to expand ongoing studies to include a determination of how the application of nsPEFs can result in adverse effects that decrease chromaffin cell survival and secretory function. Using fluorescence microscopy, plasma membrane breakdown and apoptosis will be assessed, and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled with
electrochemical detection will be used for the measurement of secreted catecholamines.

Joel Croteau

The generation of hot electrons is of great interest in a number of fields include fast ignition and medical x-rays. At present, the exact mechanisms through which hot electrons can best be generated are still a subject of some debate. This experiment proposes to examine and compare some possible mechanisms of hot electron generation and determine which are most prevalent in which circumstances. The main way this will be done is by observing coherent transition radiation (CTR) from an irradiated target at two different wavelengths, which past observations have suggested will yield information about which of two different generation
mechanisms is more prevalent.

Matthew Della Sala

The purpose of this research is to compare the levels of trust that teachers hold regarding students, their parents, colleagues and the leadership of the school between urban and rural settings. Sixty teachers will complete the Omnibus T-Scale created by Hoy and Tschannen-Moran (2003). The results from the study will be analyzed and submitted to a scholarly journal and presneted to the Nevada State GEAR UP Council.

Sheena Jones

Female limited populations of wild birds might result from either maternal control over egg sex ratios or preferential treatment of sons over daughters by parents. I propose to identify the breeding stage that may produce biased sex ratios and determine the reasons for any observed bias. I will study a population of Mountain Chickadees and manipulate parental workload and body condition to test my hypotheses on parental favoritism for sons.

Leah Land

This proposal is designed to explore the relationship between visual stress and the color charateristics of art. We will measure observer's responses to images that have natural or unnatural colors to test the hypothesis that images that have natural color characteristics are rated less visually stressful. This will allow us to test how color perception and color aesthetics are matched to the colors of the natural world.

Christina Lee

Second generation Asian Americans grow up with a fused experience that is both Asian and American. rough personal narrative, I
will explore the understanding, eect, and consequence of these conditions, focusing mainly on documenting and relaying the
experiences of Korean Americans. I will conduct research and creative work through video, as well as painting that will culminate
in a written Bachelor of Fine Arts thesis paper and visual art exhibition. is research and creative work will also provide the
foundation for my Master of Fine Arts Graduate School applications.

Wayne Mackey

People living with HIV+/AIDS (PLWHA) are living progressively longer lives with the advent of highly active anti-retroviral therapy coupled with this, is an increased understanding of the role nutrition plays in medical therapy and disease recovery/treatment. This
project will examine the dietary intake of PLWHA and their understanding of the role that nutrition/diet therapy plays in the progression, treatment, and long-term care of PLWHA. A convenience sample of PLWHA will be asked to complete a food frequency questionnaire and participate in an interview to explore their beliefs, attitudes and practice related to nutrition/diet
as an aspect of therapy.

Mark Malady

In psychology, the philosophy of treatment is moving towards a non-aversive approach. While some of the time, this approach has been demonstrated as effective; there are a group of individuals who engage in problematic behaviors which appear to be resistant to positive-only interventions. It is in these cases that aversive protocols may be not only effective, but ethically vital. However, there has been very little recent research in the area of aversive treatment and while a values-based approach appeals to some, it flies in the face of a true science. To remain scientifc, we must approach every phenomenon in behavior science and study it completely, discovering and disseminating the proesses underlying such. There is one school in which not only contingent aversive treatment is occuring, but contingent use of electric shock. This residential school has agreed to allow a team to conduct a full review of their data, their treatment procedures and create a full report discussing the advantages, disadvantages and outcomes of this approach over the last 5-10 years. I plan to participate in this review and utilize the findings to further investigate effects of punishment and their implications on recidivism in prison systems.

Simon Pinsky

Sick patients, especially those with cystic fibrosis, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), often have severe problems when they naturally clear the mucus from their lungs and airways. This clearance problem is closely related to the elastic and viscous properties of the mucus. Our research will focus on the development of a set of mucus simulants to experimentally determine the optimal ratio of their viscosity and elasticity over the temperature range 37 – 40C which maximizes the mucus clearance from the airways in laboratory replications. This, in turn, could guide the development of appropriate medical therapies

Claire Shelton

Electric cars are becoming more and more popular, and thousands of them are already registered across America. With this growing demand for electric cars there will also be huge demand for electric recharging stations. However, for those stations to work owners would need to measure the power being consumed by their customers with a DC kilowatt hour meter. Unfortunately, there are none currently on the market. Thus, I propose to design and build a high power DC kilowatt hour meter that would measure power consumed by a customer, calculate the total cost, and print an invoice for the energy used.

Mike Springer

Helicenes, which are chiral screw-shaped molecules, (Figure 1) have enormous potential utility in the fields of nanoelectronics and nanomechanics. Though there are numerous synthetic routes to helicenes, the reactions produce a mixture of righthanded and left-handed molecules (enantiomers), and are only suitable for short, nonpolymeric helicenes. Our strategy circumvents both these limitations. Previous research in the group has demonstrated the synthesis of polymeric helicenes using RCM (Figure 1).
The focus of this proposal is to introduce a chiral bias into the “arms” of a synthetic intermediate, which will then cause the system to fold into a single enantiomer.

Christine Taylor

The university has developed a new interdisciplinary renewable minor to foster awareness of green energy and sustainability. The new minor degree is also intended to develop student knowledge, skills and abilities for employment in a lucrative economic sector. The purpose of the proposed project is to explain student likelihood of interest in renewable energy education as a function of risk perceptions; environmental attitude knowledge level; social values and beliefs; and academic major.

Mariacatherine Tuddao

Many transportation agencies nationwide usually used marked crosswalks at signalized or unsignalized intersections. Over the years, questions have been raised concerning whether marked crosswalks are actually safer than unmarked crossing. Some studies have shown that at low pedestrian volume locations, unmarked crosswalks actually have lower crash rates because pedestrians take more cautions when crossing unmarked crosswalks. Currently, there are no specific guidelines in Nevada regarding when marked vs. unmarked crosswalks should be used at unsignalized intersections. The purpose of this research is to determine whether marked crosswalks at uncontrolled locations are safer than unmarked crosswalks based on Nevada’s traffic conditions. This study will examine pedestrian crashes at selected uncontrolled intersections throughout the Reno and Sparks area, and conduct statistical analysis regarding the factors affecting pedestrian safety at marked and unmarked crosswalks.

Stephanie Wakeling

The proposed research is explicitly designed to help us understand one of the metabolic responses to stress in a threatened species; desert tortoise. Stress has been studied by measuring stress-hormones in blood, and then used as an indicator of the health of populations of animals. Recent research indicates stress hormones must be assessed in context to its interactions with other body processes and biochemicals in the body of the animal. The correlation of stress hormone and glucose level may be of particular importance, and will be assessed in 10 male and 10 female desert tortoises. I predict glucose levels will peak shortly after stress-hormone levels.

Emilie Wark

Mind reading has been defined as a type of interpersonal communication where one person knows another well enough to be able to suggest what the other is thinking. Studies have been conducted in the area of social psychology to explore this phenomenon, which emphasize the nature of the relationship between persons as a determinant in mind reading accuracy. Though mind reading is commonly characterized as a subjective phenomenon, the present study addresses this activity as a type of observable behavior. This research explores the connection between the level of intimacy in the relationship and its role in mind reading accuracy.

Jack Webster

Mind reading has been defined as a type of interpersonal communication where one person knows another well enough to be able to suggest what the other is thinking. Studies have been conducted in the area of social psychology to explore this phenomenon, which emphasize the nature of the relationship between persons as a determinant in mind reading accuracy. Though mind reading is commonly characterized as a subjective phenomenon, the present study addresses this activity as a type of observable behavior. This research explores the connection between the level of intimacy in the relationship and its role in mind reading accuracy.

Lauren Zlott

Research has shown that children with speech sound disorders (SSD) are at-risk for poor academic outcomes (e.g., Catts & Kahmi, 2005). Haskill and Tyler (2007) reported that children with SSD frequently demonstrate grammatical difficulties. These children often do not produce word-final consonants and their production of word-final consonant sequences is especially affected (e.g., Elbert & Gierut, 1986). Typically, they have difficulty producting English grammatical markers ilike regular and past tense -ed or possessive's. The purpose of the proposed project is to develop stimuli that can assess the grammatical knowledge of children with SSD.

Amanda Zuver

Research has shown the acquisition of spoken and written language is a major obstacle to academic achievement and vocational success for Deaf individuals throught the world. Reading comprehension remains low throught the formal schooling years and into adulthood (Nelson, Loncke & Camarata, 1993; Paul & Quigley, 1994). Children with hearing loss (HL) have difficulty decoding the incoming sound signal and will perceive words differently than children with normal hearing mechanisms (Bernthal & Bankson, 2004). The primary research question to be investigated is: What are the effects of grammatical instruction on language and academic outcomes of young children with hearing impairments?

University of Nevada, Reno
Maintained by: Karin Saxon