� ���������� �������� ����������� �������� ��������� ������ �����

� ����������

Increasing Robustness in the Bio-Networking

Architecture: A Distributed Approach

Vishakh

Mentors: Tadashi Nakano & Tatsuya Suda

The Bio-networking architecture, which uses

biologically-inspired methods for developing scalable

and adaptive network applications, is being developed

under Dr. Tatsuya Suda at UCI. Inspiration is drawn in

particular from large-scale systems, such as ant and wasp

colonies. Mobile agents, called Cyber-Entities (CEs),

form the architecture and provide services to users in

return for “energy.” One of the issues under

investigation is how to make the architecture more

robust and adaptive. I have developed a model derived

from market economies to constantly propagate

information about population and energy-supply

distributions among CEs, called Price Propagation, to

ensure that more efficient reproductive and migratory

behaviors emerge. CEs continually inform each other

about prevailing conditions in their region. Using this

information, they get a sense of energy supply and

demand trends over the platform and base their

reproductive and migratory decisions on it. This is

similar to how prices are used as indicators of supply and

demand in market economies. A detailed simulation of

Price Propagation has been conducted, with encouraging

results. In all, it is hoped that when these ideas are

adapted fully into the development of the Bio-

networking architecture, we will observe near best-case

performance by the CEs.

Generation of a Recombinant Virus with Delayed

Expression of an Immediate-Early Gene (ICP27) to

Study the Effect on the Levels of Transcription

Kryssia Aguiluz

Mentor: Edward Wagner

Herpes Simplex Virus type 1 (HSV-1) is a human

pathogen that causes recurrent facial lesions. HSV-1 is

an alpha-herpes virus. The viral genes expressed first

during kinetic sequence of gene expression during the

productive infection cycle of HSV-1 are the regulatory

genes. These are called immediate-early genes and are

essential for the expression of the other genes.

Following this, the early genes are expressed. These

genes are necessary for viral DNA replication. Finally,

the late genes, which are structural genes, are expressed.

ICP27 is one of the immediate-early genes. It is essential

for normal DNA replication and has several functions in

the processes of RNA transport, splicing, and DNA

binding. Previous work has shown that altering the

kinetics of expression of the ICP27 gene from

immediate-early to early has little effect on the global

expression of the HSV messages. I am constructing an

additional mutant in which the ICP27 promoter is

replaced with a weak late promoter, the UL 38. This will

provide information on expression where initial levels of

ICP27 are lower and much later than normal.

Development of an Efficient Variable Optical

Attenuator (VOA) Using a Single-Mode Fiber with

Reduced Acoustic Reflection

Mona Ahooie

Mentor: Henry Lee

There is a growing need for a fast tuning Variable

Optical Attenuator (VOA) in a dynamic optical network

with applications in optical blocking and gain

equalization. Currently, VOAs are realized in

microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and silicon-

on-insulator (SOI) waveguide. The fast-tuning VOA

described in this work is based on a broadband all-fiber

acoustic optical tunable filter (AOTF), which has near-

zero insertion loss and is free of optical alignment. The

operation of a single-mode fiber (SMF) AOTF is

characterized by the coupling between the core and

cladding modes. By reducing the cladding diameter of

the fiber to ~21um through chemical etching in a HF

acid solution, and by incorporating a tapered region

between the etched and unetched sections of the fiber to

reduce the acoustic reflection, both ultra-broadband and

large attenuation is achieved, enabling the best

attenuation of ~65 dB compared to previous results of

~18 dB. Cooking oil and soldering oil coatings were also

found to reduce acoustic reflection in the fiber but with

an increase of noise due to its non-uniformity. These

results indicate the dependency of acoustic reflection on

fiber cladding diameter and uniform material coating. The

experimental results show that a VOA based on

acousto-optic coupling on a cladding etched SM fiber

can be achieved by optimizing these parameters.

RASTER: Real-time Adaptive Simplification and

Rendering of Terrain

Mohanned Alhazzazi

Mentor: Renato Pajarola

Efficient interactive 3-D visualization of large digital

elevation models (DEM) with high-resolution satellite image

textures is important in a number of application domains

such as scientific visualization, GIS, flight simulation or

� ��� � ������������� ���� �������� �! ����"��#������

��$�

even interactive 3-D games. The large number of

vertices that define the triangulated terrain surface

require efficient decimation techniques to reduce the

computational load when rendering such large data sets.

In this project, we developed a client-server based

terrain visualization system that uses per-vertex

geometric level-of-detail (LOD) selection and per-

triangle LOD color-texture selection on the client side.

A vertex manager handles requests from the terrain-

decimator process and manages allocation of incoming

vertices form the server into a number of vertex bins.

The vertex bins are used to cache a subset of the entire

DEM stored on the server machine and reduces the

storage to only the vertices required to visualize a certain

region of the terrain. A texture manager selects an

appropriate image resolution for sets of triangles

received from the terrain-decimator process and binds

an appropriate image from the texture pyramid to each

set of triangles. The combination of geometric and

color-texture LOD supports high quality terrain

visualization at highly reduced data complexity, only

requiring a fraction of the full-resolution geometry and

texture detail.

Computing Cancer Growth Parameters

Fatima Alim

Mentor: Vittorio Cristini

The necrotic core, a mass of dead cells, is the majority of

a tumor’s mass. The growth of a tumor is dependent on

pressure, the rate of diffusion of nutrients, and growth

factors. In order to study tumor growth instability, we

took human glioblastoma cells grown in different

concentrations of fetal bovine serum (FBS)(1%, 5%,

10%) varied with different glucose concentrations (High

4.5 g/l, Medium 2.75 g/l, Low 1 g/l) to produce nine

tumors grown in altered nutritional conditions. These

tumors were then sliced to an approximate 6 micrometer

thickness and mounted on slides. The tumor slides were

marked and stained using different assays in order for

three main features of the tumor to be observed: (1) the

number of apoptotic cells, (2) the number of mitotic

cells, and (3) the thickness of the viable rim. It is

observed that the mitotic cells are mainly the viable rim

of living cells of the tumor and the mitotic index is

highest in 10% FBS and high glucose concentration and

lowest in 1% FBS and low glucose concentration. The

trend in apoptotic index however, is not as definitive

under the different serum and glucose concentrations.

The viable rim was thicker in 10% FBS and high glucose

concentration and interestingly, we saw that “budding”

of the tumor occurred from the projection of the viable

rim only, which was more active in the high nutrient and

energy conditions. These results define growth

instabilities of tumors and how these affect the tumor’s

growth and invasiveness.

New York, New York: A look at the New York

Satellite Program

Jenny Alvarez

Mentor: Myrona Delaney

Young actors in Southern California have all the wish

fulfillment and bright shiny lights of Hollywood on

which to pin their dreams. When the drama students at

UCI want to experience professional live theatre,

though, their options are limited to the Pantages, the

Ahmanson and a few others. The New York Satellite

Program allows theater-focused students an opportunity

to spend a month in the home of live theater,

Manhattan. Living only a few blocks away from the

Great White Way, students have the privilege of taking

dance, acting and singing classes from working

professionals. These experiences will propel students

through their future careers and the relationships they

form with teachers and fellow students will help them

throughout their lives, even as career choices change.

For one month, students have the chance to leave the

relaxed pace of Southern California and experience the

quick steps of New York life. The mere opportunity to

have Broadway at their disposal is enough incentive for

the trip. This project uses interviews and video

documentation to bring a bit of the New York

experience back to Southern California so that future

participants can better prepare for the program and

students can reap the full benefits of this singular

program.

The Impact of the Iranian American Community

Upon U.S. Foreign Policy After the September 11th

Attacks

Cyrus Ameri

Mentor: Mark Petracca

As a direct result of the regime change, which took place

during the Iranian Revolution, members of the Iranian

upper class immigrated in droves to the United States

during the early 1980s. Over the course of the past two

decades, Iranian immigrants have maintained a strong

sense of cultural identity, while experiencing tremendous

economic success. However, given its considerable

resources, it remains surprising that the community has

yet to engage in any significant form of political

mobilization. As a result, while numerous ethnic

communities have established formidable lobbying

mechanisms on Capitol Hill, the Iranian-American

community has yet to make any significant impact upon

U.S. foreign policy. The Iranian-American community's

failure to engage in effective political mobilization can be

� ���������� �������� ����������� �������� ��������� ������ ���%�

attributed to a variety of factors ranging from struggles

in regards to cultural assimilation to the class-based

conflicts which led to the advent of the Iranian

Revolution. Ultimately, the lack of common political

goals can partially help to explain the inability of the

Iranian-American community to establish the

mechanisms required to bring about change in U.S.

foreign policy.

Childhood Abuse and Avoidance Motivation in

Adulthood

Elizabeth Anderson

Mentors: Michael Poulin & Roxane Silver

Avoidance motivation, defined as a pattern of goal

setting geared towards avoiding undesirable outcomes, is

associated with negative aspects of mental health, such

as negative emotionality and neuroticism (Elliot &

Sheldon, 1998; Elliot & Thrash, 2002). Theorists have

posited that avoidance motivation is largely biologically

determined (Elliot & Thrash, 2002). However, to our

knowledge, no research has sought to disentangle the

role of biology from the role of significant life events

early in life. It is possible that childhood experiences

such as abuse or neglect, which also have negative

mental health implications (e.g., Gibb, Butler & Beck,

2003), may lead to increased avoidance motivation

across the life span. The objective of this study was to

examine the association between negative experiences in

childhood and avoidance motivation in adulthood. A

nationally representative sample of 1107 adults

completed a web-based survey on which respondents

were asked questions about the traumatic events they

experienced during their lifetimes, as well as open-ended

questions about their goals for the future. Results

revealed a significant positive correlation between

retrospective reports of childhood abuse/neglect and

avoidance-related goals. Negative early life experiences

may be a non-biological factor in the development of

avoidance motivation.

Synthesis of Terpenoid Estrogen Precursors

Christian Anguiano

Mentors: Birte Feld & Gregory Weiss

Current treatments for the prevention of breast cancer

are associated with undesirable side affects. For example,

estrogen from hormone replacement therapy can bind

estrogen receptors, potentially inducing cancer. The goal

of this project is the synthesis of structural derivatives of

estradiol for improved cancer prevention. Through

synthetic chemistry, we are synthesizing an aromatic

substrate molecule with a phenoxy ring and a

sesquiterpene chain, which can be fed to a library of

terpene cyclases for enzymatic cyclization. The result

would be a library of structures similar to estradiol, but

with modifications potentially improving estrogen

receptor selectivity. Potentially, an analog could bind to

one estrogen receptor, but not other isoforms. The

synthesis of two different estrogen precursor types will

be shown.

Modifications to Reduce Conformation Variation

for Structural Studies: The Truncated Forms of

hsp70 Class Molecular Chaperone HscA From

�� ���������&

Phillip Aoto

Mentor: Larry Vickery

HscA, a 66-kDa molecular chaperone that participates in

iron-sulfur cluster biosynthesis, contains a regulatory

ATPase domain and a substrate-binding domain (SBD).

Recently, our laboratory determined the structure of

HscA(SBD) using X-ray diffraction. However, attempts

to determine the structure of the ATPase domain as well

as full-length HscA have failed, possibly due to

conformational variation in the protein. Comparison of

the amino acid sequence of HscA to other hsp70s

reveals an N-terminal extension, and we hypothesized

that these residues may be a source of variation. We

sought to 1) design, express, and purify truncated forms

of HscA, 2) use ATPase assays to determine if

functionality was conserved, and 3) crystallize truncated

forms for structural studies. The N-terminal truncation

resulted in ineffective protein expression, but by altering

the sequence downstream of the start-codon into a

translation enhancer via silent base mutations expression

of the truncated HscA has been successful. The

modified HscA has slightly reduced (1.5-fold) enzymatic

activity but otherwise behaves identically to wild-type,

suggesting that conformational integrity has been

conserved. In addition, preliminary solution NMR

studies suggest the N-terminally truncated HscA is

folded. Efforts to crystallize the truncated protein and

further NMR studies are underway. Additional

truncations to this modified HscA are in progress to

further reduce conformation variability.

Determination of the Effects on Metal Corrosion by

Extracellular Polymeric Substances Produced by

Biofilm-Forming Protective Bacteria

Francisco Arceo

Mentor: Peggy Arps

The biofilms of certain gram-positive aerobic bacterial

strains formed on metal surfaces have demonstrated an

ability to inhibit corrosion in laboratory and field

monitoring experiments. Extracellular polymeric

substances (EPS) produced by these bacteria play an

important role in biofilm formation and may also be

� ��� � ������������� ���� �������� �! ����"��#������

�'(�

involved in corrosion protection. However, their role in

corrosion has not been well studied to date. This study

was focused on the corrosion inhibiting properties of

EPS produced by corrosion protecting bacteria. Two

types of EPS (bound and soluble) were extracted from

two different strains of bacteria, each grown in liquid

culture. They were then studied for their effect on the

corrosion of brass, mild steel and stainless steel

specimens using electrochemical corrosion monitoring

techniques. Results showed that soluble EPS from both

strains reduced the open circuit potential of mild steel

and brass and their corrosion rates were lowered

compared to the LB medium and NaCl control

solutions. However, the stainless steel was either

protected or corroded, depending on the strain of

soluble EPS. Bound EPS was extracted from each strain

and then re-dissolved in a phosphate buffer solution for

the corrosion studies. Results showed that both bound

EPS solutions provide no protection to mild steel. In

contrast the corrosion of brass and stainless steel

samples was decreased in their presence. Surface analysis

of the metal samples by scanning electron microscopy

(SEM) gave the same results as the electrochemical

corrosion measurements.

Memories of War and Their Implication in “Old

Europe”

Apollon Argeris

Mentor: Sarah Farmer

The war in Iraq has generated international opposition,

in particular from the nations of so-called “Old

Europe.” Two nations, France and Germany, have

articulated strong opposition to intervention in Iraq.

This opposition is based upon historical experience with

the acquisition, maintenance and ultimate loss of

empires by both nations. France and Germany

discovered that maintaining imperial systems was

corrupting to their societal fabrics and created gaps

within the republican system of government that

shattered Germany apart and overthrew the French

Fourth Republic. The imperial project demands control

over peoples who have no interest in being dominated

by a superpower. The author maintains that the open

creation and maintenance of an American Empire, in the

form articulated by neoconservatives, is detrimental to

the people of the U.S. In researching the themes of this

topic, the creator of this work understood that an empire

always mandates a “civilizing” mission that is regarded

by the conquered party as always inimical to its own

interests, and therefore invariably creates opposition to

the administrators of an imperial system. A documentary

in DVD format will be created of still photographs,

voice-overs and interviews with UCI professors that

relate upon the themes of this documentary and will be

approximately 30 min in length.

Viscoelastic Response of a Two-Dimensional Bead

Raft

Alex Arjad

Mentor: Michael Dennin

A system consisting of plastic beads floating on the

surface of a fluid may be described as viscoelastic,

meaning that its response to a driving force is neither

fully characterized by an elastic response (i.e., Hooke's

law) or by a viscous response (i.e., a retarding force

proportional to the velocity of the particles.) The

purpose of this experiment is to measure to what extent

the system described above behaves like a solid, and to

what extent it behaves like a fluid. The experimental

setup consists of a circular trough filled with water, upon

which plastic beads float. Then, a torsional pendulum is

placed in the bead raft and driven with a force that has

sinusoidal time dependence. From the resulting

response, the viscous and elastic responses can be

determined. In addition, the “packing fraction” (i.e., the

fraction of the space in the trough that the beads actually

take up) of the system was changed by constricting the

outer barrier of the trough. The response was then

measured for several different packing fractions.

Through this experiment, we hope to gain a better

understanding of viscoelastic materials and their

behavior.

A Novel Approach: Pauline E. Hopkins--The

Emergence of The New Woman of Color in the

Late Nineteenth Century

Carole Autori

Mentor: Alice Fahs

The life and works of Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins, one of

the most productive black woman writers at the turn of

the last century, are examined for evidence of her role in

influencing African American women to emerge from

the Victorian “cult of domesticity” and to enter the

modern era as a New Woman of Color. Hopkins’s life

was a testament to her belief in the benefits modernity

offered women. Yet twentieth-century critics have

chastised her seeming acceptance of the “cult of true

womanhood,” charging that she “undermined” her

characters “even as she elevated them.” This paper re-

examines Hopkins’s work within the framework of the

nineteenth century, rather than the twentieth, and finds

she employs her fictional characters, particularly in

Contending Forces, to address two distinct groups of

African American woman. The first group was

descended from free Northern blacks; and, the second,

the freed slaves who migrated from the south. Her

� ���������� �������� ����������� �������� ��������� ������ ��')�

fictional characters both validate the lives of southern

women as they were integrated into a free society as well

as pattern the more immediate role of the New Woman

Hopkins envisions for middle- and upper-class Northern

women at the start of the twentieth century.

Neural Network for Spatiotemporal Filtering in

Binaural Sound Localization

Ahmed Azam

Mentor: Michael D’Zmura

Natural sonic environments present multiple, spatially-

extended sources of sound replete with reverberation.

Examples include the rustling of leaves caused by wind,

the sounds of passing traffic, and clusters of

conversation at a cocktail party. Extensive research on

sound localization has resulted in both sophisticated

models based on binaural signals and technologies for

reproducing complex sonic environments. I have learned

that many localization models take use of time-lagged

cross-correlation of the two ears’ signals to determine

the azimuthal location of a sound source. With this

procedure, a system can use interaural time delays, an

appreciable cue to source direction for frequencies at

and below about 1 KHz to estimate source azimuth. The

difference in intensity levels of the two ears’ signal

caused by the shadowing of the head, is captured by a

further stage of processing, potentially involved lateral

inhibition. This low-level processing of interaural time

and intensity differences is believed to be applied to

signal components that lie in single frequency bands.

Assessing Potential for Assortative Mating in

Plants: Do Early Bloomers Mate with Early

Bloomers?

Suzanne Badieozzaman

Mentor: Arthur Weis

The purpose of this experiment was to test whether or

not the fundamental condition of assortative mating by

flowering time exists outside a greenhouse environment

in a natural population. It was hypothesized that early-

flowering fathers should predominately mate with early-

flowering mothers, and similarly for late mothers and

fathers. Genetic variation in flowering time should lead

to a shift in the genetic composition of the mating pool

over the course of the season. I also applied the notion

of “gene trap” in an experiment to determine the genetic

composition of the pollen pool over time in a wild

population of Brassica rapa. I used rapid cycling Brassica

rapa�with the yellow leaf (yl) mutation as the "trap plants".Trap plants were placed around the wild populations atregular intervals. Since the maternal genotype of themothers (rapid-cycling B. rapa ) was the same duringeach interval, differences in offspring phenotype would

be due to genetic differences among the fathers makingpollen during each interval. Thus, by looking at theflowering time of the offspring produced during eachinterval, the flowering time of their fathers could beinferred. Offspring fathered by other "trap plants" couldbe eliminated from the analysis based on their yellowleaf phenotype. Preliminary results did not support theidea that early fathers sired earlier offspring, and latefathers sired late offspring (p=0.18) due to the smallsample size, thus these negative results on geneticvariation for flowering time are inconclusive. Contrary toexpectations, the offspring sired early in the seasonflowered later than those sired late in the season(p=0.006); this backward effect could be due to anunusual genetic interaction between the rapid cyclingstrain flowering time genes and those of the wildpopulation.

Strain-Sensitive Array for the Study of Bone Surface

Mechanics

Vasudev BaileyMentor: William Tang

We present results towards the development of animplantable strain gauge array for monitoring strain onsurfaces of bones with high resolution. The mechanicalcharacteristics of thin film metal strain gauges embeddedin a flexible substrate made from poly-dimethyl-siloxane(PDMS) under various loading conditions have beensimulated using ANSYS® finite element analysis tool.Various gauge designs were subjected to stresses fromseveral different directions. Linear relationships betweenfractional change of resistance and nominal resistancewere found for both tensile and compressive stressapplied on the gauges. The simulation indicated thatexternal stresses are effectively transmitted through thePDMS and into the thin-film metal device. Fabricationof the device has begun. Microfabrication masks weredrawn using Macromedia Freehand 10.0 and designswere implemented on flexible transparency films.Approximately 50 nm of gold were sputtered betweentwo 100 um thick layers of PDMS. Electricalconductance was measured. Adhesion tests were alsocarried out to determine which material worked best foradhesion of the flexible gauge to bone. Severalbiocompatible adhesives were tested. Silicone rubbersealant proved to be an effective glue. The device wasattached to the high density rigid Polyurethane Foamusing a uniform layer of silicone gel and was subjected totensile forces. The membrane was subjected to loads upto 90g after which it caused failure, which correspondsto 66.7% strain. Further testing is being done tooptimize the fabrication and to further characterize themechanical properties of the gauge.

� ��� � ������������� ���� �������� �! ����"��#������

�'*�

Metaphorical Constructs of Computational

Problems

Courtney BairdMentor: Paul Dourish

Throughout history, philosophers, linguists, andcognitive scientists have argued over how human beingsthink. Linguist George Lakoff and philosopher MarkJohnson claim that the human conceptual system, thesystem by which humans both think and act, “isfundamentally metaphorical in nature.” I interviewed 23students to gain insight on how human beings thinkabout computer science and computational problems.Classes, objects, and reference variables are the buildingblocks to Java. My data demonstrated that beginning ICSstudents often conceptualize objects, classes, andreference variables in a manner that is contradictory tothese building blocks’ functions. ICS students mustknow how to group and sort data efficiently andeffectively. My data indicated that both ICS students andnon-ICS students conceptualize grouping schemes in avariety of different manners--manners that computerscience textbooks usually do not deal with. My data alsoindicated how students conceptualize computationalproblems before they begin solving them.

Gender Differences in Engineering and the Physical

Sciences: Factors Influencing Women

Undergraduates to Switch Into Majors Outside of

Their Departments

Dale Balilo

Mentor: Lisa Torres

Despite women’s entrance into many non-traditional,

male dominated occupations, women continue to be

underrepresented in both the technical and scientific

fields. The number of women with baccalaureate degrees

in engineering for example, continues to be a fraction of

the total degrees earned. Among the various and

competing explanations for this disparity is the notion

that particular fields of knowledge are considered by

undergraduate students to be “gendered.” That is,

undergraduates perceive that some college majors

require personal characteristics or skills that are

“naturally” suited to women (empathy in the social

sciences, for example) and men (analytic ability in

engineering). Students perceive and react to subtle social

cues as to what majors are gender-appropriate through

interaction with peers, family, and educators. At the high

school level, research has shown that socialization by

educators influences the performance and decisions of

males and females entering the science fields. While

studies tend to focus on women’s career decisions prior

to entering college, this study explores the factors

prompting women who declared a major in engineering

or mathematics, but later switched to a non-

science/technical one (approximately during their junior

year). This population provides unique insights into the

factors affecting women’s career decisions post-high

school, but prior to the baccalaureate. “Switchers” are

women undergraduates who initially were committed

ideologically and academically to a non-traditional major

(and presumably a non-traditional career) but for

unknown reasons did not complete the degree. Using

methods of in-depth interviewing and field observation,

I focus on the influence of college educators, peer

groups, individual meanings, and parental influences on

both women and men who have switched majors.

���+����������"� ������+��,

Gregoria Barazandeh

Mentor: Caesar Sereseres

Significant factors that can enhance academic success

among students with disabilities include appropriate and

reasonable accommodations and ongoing

communication between students and faculty. The more

informed students and faculty are about student

disabilities; the more likely these students will achieve

their educational potential. In investigating this subject,

informal meetings and discussions were conducted with

students with disabilities and faculty to identity their

knowledge about disabilities and level of communication

and interaction with each other. They were also asked

for suggestions. Information was also gathered from

published medical literature and data on physical,

learning and psychological disabilities and academic

accommodations for them, identified by the Disability

Services Center (DSC) as the most common at UCI.

Contact with various disability-related organizations,

agencies, and individuals provided further data

supporting the development of a handbook for use by

students with disabilities, faculty, and administrative

staff. An outline of the handbook’s content and

structure was also developed. The Disability Fact Sheet

Handbook was then created using the collated data. Once

the handbook was complete, a workshop was held to

outline its use to DSC staff and Peer Educators at UCI.

With the generosity of the Donald A. Strauss Public

Service Scholarship Foundation, the Undergraduate

Research Opportunities Program (UROP) and the

Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) at

UCI, this project was expanded by revising the

handbook to meet the needs of other UC campuses. The

handbook’s aim is to increase understanding, reduce

misconceptions by students and faculty, and provide the

campus with information that can modify behavior

positively and create a stronger, more sensitive learning

environment conducive to assisting students with

disabilities even further.

� ���������� �������� ����������� �������� ��������� ������ ��'��

Protecting the Earth from Asteroids: Planetary

Defense by Airborne Laser Beams

Nella Barrera

Mentor: Haris Catrakis

This project will explore techniques to defend the earth

from the natural threat of space objects, such as

asteroids, that could collide with Earth from outer space.

It will also explore the feasibility of using aircraft

equipped with laser systems to defend against incoming

asteroids. The idea is to launch a laser beam from an

aircraft targeting the asteroid in order to eliminate it or

deflect it enough so that the collision with the earth is

avoided. The research will first focus on evaluating the

accuracy of a laser beam launched from feasible aircraft.

To target an incoming asteroid located in space, a very

high accuracy of the laser beam direction is needed

because the asteroid is at large distances from the Earth

and is moving very fast. This required accuracy will be

evaluated and compared to the accuracy of an airborne

laser. Because aircraft generate air turbulence as they fly,

any airborne laser beam has to be propagated through

aircraft-generated turbulence and this affects the

pointing accuracy of the laser beam. These fluid-optical

interactions, or aerooptical interactions, reduce the

accuracy with which the laser beam can be directed.

Because the aerooptical distortions associated with

aircraft-launched laser beams are relatively large, the

airborne-laser accuracy will likely be much lower than

the required accuracy. In order to improve the airborne-

laser accuracy, it will be necessary to reduce the

aerooptical distortions and this will involve the

evaluation of turbulent-flow control techniques and

adaptive laser-beam control methods. This research,

therefore, will be able to determine what is

technologically necessary and practically feasible to

improve the airborne laser capability for a successful

interception of the asteroid by the laser beam.

Role of Fc Gamma Receptor Polymorphisms in

HIV

Anne Basa

Mentor: Donald Forthal

Fc gamma receptors are transmembrane proteins which

are capable of binding the Fc portion of IgG. These

receptors are found in a subset of leukocytes and their

binding results in cell-specific responses, among them

the release of chemokines. These molecules have

important roles in the immune response. MIP-1α, MIP-

1β and RANTES have been shown to inhibit HIV

infection by blocking the binding of the virus to the

chemokine receptor CCR5 on CD4+ cells. In cells, such

as natural killer cells (NK), engagement of the Fc gamma

receptor by immune complexes (IC) stimulates the

release of chemokines. It has been recently reported that

specific polymorphisms in Fc gamma receptors result in

different binding affinity for antibodies. These

observations have prompted us to investigate the role of

Fc gamma receptor polymorphism in the immune

response. NK cells isolated from healthy donors were

cultured in the presence of different concentrations of

immobilized IgG to stimulate chemokine release.

Samples of cell culture supernatants were assayed by

quantitative ELISA for three beta chemokines: MIP-1α,MIP-1β, and RANTES. Our preliminary data indicates a

consistent release of MIP-1α (1200 pg/ml out of 1X105

cells with 2.5 mg/ml of immobilized IVIG), and MIP-1β(3000 pg/ml). No release of RANTES has been

observed. We are currently establishing whether there is

a correlation between the Fc gamma receptor genotype

and the amount of chemokines released from NK cells.

Rice Paddy Methane Production and Oxidation in a

California Paddy Field Deduced from Carbon

Isotopic Measurements

Kathryn Bearden

Mentor: Stanley Tyler

Knowledge of rice agriculture and its methane emissions

is important to better understand and possibly control a

radioative trace gas that effects our global climate. In

order to manage methane production in irrigated rice

paddies both methane production, oxidation pathways,

the relationship between growing practices, and methane

emissions must be better understood. Last year my

research addressed the question of how rice straw

fertilizer affects rice paddy methane production (and

ultimately emissions) from two field treatments: one in

which a field had the after-harvest rice straw from the

previous fall plowed back into the field, and one in

which the previous year's rice straw had been burned

and removed the previous fall. This year, two more field

treatments were contrasted: one in which a paddy field

was flooded the previous winter and one in which had

no winter flooding. The objective of this research is to

address the question of how winter flooding and rice

straw fertilizer affect rice paddy field methane emissions.

This study is part of the first determination of pathways

of methane production and oxidation in rice paddies

using isotopic measurements of field parameters and

isotopic fractionation factors that incorporate bacteria

and internal plant gas from the very field being studied.

Adding data from the alternate paddy field conditions

will complete this study and give a more accurate

determination of methane emissions in rice paddies.

� ��� � ������������� ���� �������� �! ����"��#������

�''�

Improving College Going Rates in the Coachella

Valley

Priscilla Beas

Mentor: Rudolph Torres

The proposed study will examine college-going rates in

predominately Latino high schools in the Eastern

Coachella Valley area of California. The four-year college

going rates in the area, relative to state standards, are

low. I hypothesized that the college going rates remain

low due to the lack of exposure (i.e. outreach programs,

common culture) to the topic of higher education. I

went about my project by first testing my hypothesis

through survey data analysis and qualitative interview

analysis. The purpose of my study was to discover why

the college going rates are so low and to find ways to

increase the college going rates in this community.

Through my work I learned that my hypothesis held

true; students who participate in outreach programs and

are exposed to the topic of college, generally pursue

higher education. Those who don’t participate in

outreach programs and aren’t exposed to the topic of

college, generally don’t pursue higher education. I think

my work is important because I believe higher education

is a vital factor in attaining a comfortable life (i.e.

financial stability, satisfying career), and through results

of my work I will propose policies that will help increase

the rate of college bound students in this community. I

conclude that in order to increase the college going rate

in this community, middle and high school students

should be required to participate in an outreach program

and the topic of college should be emphasized on a daily

basis at school and in the home.

ATM (Ataxia-Telangiectasia Mutated) Has a Role

in Mitochondrial Pathway of Apoptosis

Andrew Behesnilian

Mentor: Leman Yel

Ataxia-Telangiectasia (A-T) is a genetic disorder

characterized by immunodeficiency, ataxia and

telangiectasia. ATM (Ataxia-Telangiectasia Mutated) is

the defective gene in A-T, which shows an altered

programmed cell death (apoptosis). The function of

ATM in apoptosis is not clarified. Since DNA damage

activates the mitochondrial pathway of apoptosis, and

since A-T cells have defects in DNA damage repair, we

hypothesize that ATM has a role in the mitochondrial

pathway of apoptosis. We examined cell viability and

apoptosis induced by etoposide, an agent that causes

DNA damage, in fibroblast cell lines from two patients

with A-T and one control subject. Cells treated with

etoposide 50 uM were studied for cell viability using an

MTT assay. At 24 hr of etoposide treatment, A-T cells

showed higher cell viability (99% and 84%) compared to

the control (81% and 79%), which was due to decreased

apoptosis demonstrated by Hoechst staining. In A-T

cells, mitochondrial membrane potential (∆ϕ) assessedby JC-1 staining was less than in control cells.

Cytochrome c and apoptosis-inducing factor (AIF)

release was determined by immunohistochemistry using

fluorescence imaging. At 24 hr of etoposide induction,

65% of A-T cells released cytochrome c from

mitochondria to the cytosol compared to the 90% of the

control cells. AIF was released in 85% of A-T cells and

95% of control cells. These results show that etoposide

induces apoptosis through the mitochondrial pathway in

A-T and suggest that ATM renders cells with apoptotic

susceptibility through the mitochondrial pathway.

Examining the Impact of President Carlos Salinas

de Gortari’s Reforms on Mexicali, Mexico

Carolina Beltran

Mentors: Vicki Ruiz & Caesar Sereseres

In the past ten years, Mexico has experienced many

social and economic changes. Following the reforms of

President Carlos Salinas de Gortari, most notably the

NAFTA agreement, the different regions of Mexico

experienced changes in varying ways. The residents of

the Mexican border town of Mexicali, have witnessed

firsthand the economic opportunities and restrictions of

free trade with the United States. Some studies on the

impact of Salinas’ term as president and NAFTA have

concluded that although the interior region of the

country suffered a decrease in their living standards, the

northern border region experienced prosperity. These

studies tend to focus on economic indexes such as:

production, investment and growth. In contrast this

research has aimed at gaining a ‘human’ perspective on

the changes that have occurred in Mexicali, which has

shifted from an agricultural base to a foreign-owned

maquila industry. In order to obtain this perspective from

the citizens of Mexicali, oral histories have been

recorded that have indeed demonstrated that despite

economic liberalization and the underlying global trend,

reforms have been perceived as having limited success, if

any, and that Mexicali residents are very aware of the

obstacles that impede not only the development and

growth of their city, but those that impede Mexico’s

advancement as an equal of the United States and other

developed countries.

The Happiest Place on Earth? False Childhood

Memories at Disneyland and Their Consequences

Shari Berkowitz

Mentor: Elizabeth Loftus

Over the last several decades, researchers have

successfully planted false beliefs and memories into the

� ���������� �������� ����������� �������� ��������� ������ ��'-�

minds of people. One question that naturally arises from

this work is whether false memories have long-term

effects. Do false memories affect later thoughts or

behaviors? Do they have repercussions? To address this

question, in the current research, some participants

received information designed to make them believe that

they had a negative experience with a Pluto character at

Disneyland, namely that they had their ear licked in an

uncomfortable and inappropriate manner (Bad Pluto).

Other participants received information designed to

make them believe that they had a positive experience

with Pluto, namely that they had their ear licked in a

happy and playful manner (Good Pluto). Relative to

controls, both groups became more confident that they

had their ear licked by Pluto when visiting Disneyland as

a child. To determine whether there were consequences

of such false beliefs, participants were later asked how

much they were willing to pay for a Pluto stuffed animal.

Those who fell sway to the Bad Pluto suggestion wanted

to pay less for the stuffed animal. Those who fell sway to

the Good Pluto suggestion wanted to pay slightly, but

not significantly more. The results indicate that it is

possible to create both negative and positive false

childhood memories at Disneyland and those false

memories can sometimes have consequences for

participants. Additionally, these results have theoretical

implications for memory distortion research, and

practical implications for the legal system.

Black Identity in a Non-Western Society: An

Investigation of African Self-Consciousness in

Belizean College Students

Doriane Besson

Mentors: Jeanett Castellanos & Thomas Parham

Investigation into the development of racial identity for

Blacks has traditionally focused on the ways in which

Blacks obtain and sustain a connectedness to their

heritage and develop a positive sense of self, in relation

to the realities of residing in a discriminatory and racist

society. Most examinations of Black identity reflect the

development and experiences of Blacks in western

societies where Blacks are the minority and the

dominant culture is White or Eurocentric. This current

study is a continuation of a previous study, which

investigated the Black identity of Belizean college

students in Central America. The previous study

examined the racial identity of Blacks in Belize in order

to investigate how Black identity is reflected in a post-

colonial society in which Blacks are representative of the

dominant culture. In order to further examine Belizean

racial identity, a comparative sample of African

Americans was obtained to compare and contrast

identity formation. The African Self-Consciousness Scale

was administered to both 180 students attending the

University of Belize and 100 students attending UCI and

California State University, Long Beach. It was

hypothesized that there would be a moderate level of

African Self-Consciousness for Belizean students, a

higher level of consciousness for African American

students, and that demographic variables such as

socioeconomic status, political affiliation, and district of

origin would influence their consciousness.

Foreign Policy Attitudes of the Iranian-American

Diaspora

Brian Bezner

Mentor: Wayne Sandholtz

Under the Shah, Iran became a modernized, westernized

state that allowed men and women to enjoy several

freedoms. After the revolution of 1979 the social and

political structure of Iran changed and caused many

people that had grown up under the Shah to begin

feeling as though they did not belong. As many Iranians

immigrated to the United States and began to assimilate

into the American culture many of them began to form

political views toward their homeland. These political

views were greatly influenced by the western ideals that

they had enjoyed while in Iran and the way that the

American culture viewed politics. The foreign policy

attitudes of the Iranian-American Diaspora began to

differ based on age, gender, income level and religion.

By surveying a large cross section of the Iranian-

American community as well as interviewing key leaders

within the community I was able to collect valuable data

that noted the different foreign policy attitudes, based on

the above criteria, within the Diaspora. This information

will allow us to assist the Iranian-American community

in expressing their foreign policy attitudes so that the

United States will form a foreign policy with Iran that

will produce the best result.

Database of Small Molecules Able to Restore

Function to p53 – Collaborative Cancer Research

Effort to Find New Anti-Cancer Drugs

Vadim Bichutskiy

Mentor: Richard Lathrop

Over the past fifteen years, p53 has emerged as the

central tumor suppressor protein that protects humans

from cancer. It plays nemesis to most cancers by

destroying damaged cells or repairing them. Consistent

with this important role, it is estimated that up to 50%

of human cancers show evidence of having this tumor

suppressor protein inactivated due to p53 gene

mutations. The cancers caused by the p53 gene

mutations are the most difficult to treat with standard

chemotherapy and radiation therapy. We believe that the

p53 gene mutations provide a unique opportunity for a

� ��� � ������������� ���� �������� �! ����"��#������

�'.�

new, powerful and targeted therapeutic approach:

directly restoring function to the inactive mutant p53

protein. Small molecules that are able to restore function

to p53 would have an enormous impact on how

successfully cancers with such mutations can be treated.

Such a strategy could be further optimized by combining

these novel compounds with conventional

chemotherapies or radiation therapies. The objective

now is to find small molecules that are able to restore

function to p53 and that can be developed into anti-

cancer drugs. Toward this goal, we are developing a

database that is able to integrate small molecules data,

such as computational docking results and assay results,

from different research laboratories into a common

framework accessible by all involved researchers through

the Internet. Such a database would provide for a more

efficient data sharing, increased productivity, and

improved chances of accomplishing our objective.

Identify the Promoter of Pro-Apoptosis AL Gene

Encoded by Herpes Simplex Virus

Huan Bien

Mentor: Guey-Chuen Perng

Gene expression is strictly regulated to maintain

physiological normality in virus-infected cells. Analysis

of promoter regions within a gene will further advance

knowledge of how genes are expressed. A particular

gene encoded in Herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1), a

pro-apoptotic gene AL has been cloned and sequenced

but the promoter region has yet to be defined. The goal

of my research is to identify the core promoter element

of AL using transient transfection assays. I have

designed three sets of specific PCR primers for putative

AL promoter region. The amplified PCR fragments have

an overlapped at each end and are 1150, 960, and 500

base pairs (bp), respectively. All of these three PCR

products have MluI and HindIII restriction sites to

facilitate the direction cloning of the fragments into

indicator vector, pGL3. These ligation mixtures were

transformed into E. Coli competent cells, plated onto

ampicillin resistant plates, and incubated overnight. The

obvious colonies were picked and inoculated in LB-

medium with ampicillin to amplify the targeted plasmid

overnight. The plasmid DNA was extracted by using

mini plasmid isolation kit, digested with MluI and

HindIII restriction enzymes followed by agarose

electrophoresis. Thus far in my research experiments, I

have successfully obtained two sets of AL promoter

fragments into the pGL3 plasmid; 960 bp and 500 bp,

respectively. I have continually been cloning last piece of

promoter fragment, 1150 bp. After cloning all sets of

primers into the indicator plasmid, I will perform

transfection assays in tissue culture with several cell lines

to measure the promoter activity by measuring the

Luciferase activity.

Women Image Disorders

Briana Bowie

Mentor: Donald McKayle

Women Image Disorders can be seen from all around,

often hidden but never out-of-site or mind.

Unfortunately for women, the mass media tells women

that their bodies are unacceptable. This voice from the

media isn't only heard, but seen and demonstrated

through imagery. The pressures to be perfect have

increased the popularity of plastic surgery as a fast and

easy way to cut off, stuff in, slim down, and tummy tuck

to an ideal body. So I decided to take my talent of dance

and choreography and create a dance that suggests

looking deeper inside oneself to know that self-

confidence and beauty comes from within. To start my

dance I began to brainstorm ideas that would connect

with the audience visually. I decided that the dancers

would dance with knives in hand to further relate to the

topic of plastic surgery. The dancers’ facial expressions

and bodily gestures expressed sarcasm, hunger, and hate

for their knives. It was also very important to me to get

not only the dancers’ point of view on plastic surgery but

other women as well. I wanted to understand the need

or reasoning for seeking such a drastic procedure. I also

asked these women who their role models were, and

while many named women, far too many had no answer.

What I learned during this process is that many women

say that they would not undergo plastic surgery but that

they do have an image disorder because of the media.

The Graham Technique: From the Studio to the

Stage

Alexandra Bradshaw

Mentor: Lisa Naugle

The Martha Graham technique is widely recognized as a

milestone of modern dance. Founded by a pioneering

American dancer in the mid 1920s, Martha Graham's

innovative movement vocabulary, choreographic

brilliance, and concepts of performance craft have

survived long after her death in 1991. Graham-based

modern dance lives and breathes in the canon of

contemporary dance, continuing to be practiced and

performed throughout the U.S., Europe, Asia, and South

America. During the summer of 2003, I underwent a

rigorous training program in the Graham technique at

the Ailey School in New York City. This experience not

only enriched my artistic appreciation for “Martha’s

genius,” but improved my technical skills to such a

degree that enabled me to participate in Bonnie Oda

Homsey’s re-staging of Martha Graham’s 1936 dance

� ���������� �������� ����������� �������� ��������� ������ ��'��

work entitled “Steps in the Street,” part of UCI’s Dance

Visions 2004 winter concert. This presentation

introduced the audience to fundamental concepts of the

Graham technique (use of the “contraction,” the

“spiral,” and initiation of movement from the pelvis)

and investigated how these ideas translate to stage

performance. Dancers on stage will demonstrate several

technique exercises with live accompaniment by

percussionist Erik Leckrone. The live demonstration will

be followed by a video excerpt from UCI’s 2004 re-

construction of “Steps in the Street,” which conveys a

powerful message about the devastation of war through

the dancers’ rigid unison and evocative emotional

delivery.

Explorations in Improvisation: Choice and Chance

Anne Brashier

Mentor: Lisa Naugle

Improvisation is choice making in the moment, a

creative process, and method in live performance.

During the past three years, I researched dance and

drama improvisation as part of my own creative process,

and investigated how performing artists throughout

history have used this approach in building their art

form. The focus of my research explores how several

contemporary artists in the U.S. use improvisation in the

development of choreography, while performers rely on

this skill directly in the moments of performance. In

addition to my review of literature on this topic, I

conducted interviews with arts students and faculty at

UCI. These interviews helped me gain insight into how

and why some performing artists choose to incorporate

improvisation into their work, either in addition to or

instead of using “pre-recorded devices” (for example, set

choreography). The results of my research reveal

common experiences between improvisers in drama,

dance and music: the importance of mutual trust among

“players,” gaining a heightened awareness of space and

time, physical flexibility, and strengthening personal

choice-making skills. In my presentation, I will discuss

the significance of improvisation as a necessary part of

dance making and suggest that this skill is valuable to all

people as a way of adapting to a changing world.

Produced by the Global Economy: Thai and

Filipina Migrant Sex Workers in Japan

Jennifer Brooks

Mentor: James Fujii

Recent patterns of migrant labor to Japan reveal that in

the case of Thai and Filipino workers, women

outnumber their male counterparts. Research has well

documented and described how these women are

trafficked into the entertainment industry in Japan.

However, not much work to date helps explain the

prominence of women from these countries in relation

to the general distribution of migrant labor in Japan. The

goal of this study was to reveal the underlying conditions

that support and maintain the trafficking of foreign

women for the sex industry in Japan, with particular

emphases on Thai and Filipina women. Quantitative

literary research alerts us to structural effects created by

differing national levels of economic development, the

effects of a global economy on local and national

employment, and the intervention of international

institutions such as the IMF, World Bank, and the

WTO. The present study will explore the intersection

between nation-specific cultural factors and these

structural determinants as a way to better understand the

phenomenon of transnational migrant labor that has

taken shape under the inchoate forces we call

“globalization.” As the renowned scholar Saskia Sassen

has put it, “migrations do not just happen; they are

produced” (Sassen, 1995).

A Comparison Study of Methyl Halide Emissions

from Genetically Modified and Wild-Type

���+���#��/�������

Lauren Brothers

Mentor: Ralph Cicerone

Soil salinity is not a new problem; it has plagued

agriculture since its inception. Approximately 20% of the

world’s crop land and almost 50% of irrigated land are

affected by the problems of high salinity. There has been

interest to manipulate the genes in plants that control

the trait(s) of salt tolerance. Some success has been

found by over expressing the vacuolar proton-pumping

pyrophosphatase, AVP1, which makes the plants more

resistant to salt- and drought-stress compared to wild-

type counterparts. Arabidopsis has been shown to emit

methyl halides (MeX, X = Cl-, Br-, I-), when there are

high enough concentrations of the salts in the soil

environment. MeX are very important because in the

stratosphere they are broken apart and the halide radical

can catalytically destroy ozone. This project aims to

determine if the overexpression of the AtNHγ1 gene, inplants that were modified previous by another lab, will

have any effect on the plant’s production of methyl

halides. The ability of the plant to survive in conditions

where more halides are available in the soil, gives a larger

source of halides for the plant to methylate. The results

from this study will give a preliminary estimate of the

difference in production rate of MeX in transgenic

plants. If the production of MeX in the modified plants

is large it could have appreciable effects on the total

MeX atmospheric budget, and could lead to a

� ��� � ������������� ���� �������� �! ����"��#������

�'$�

disproportionate sources of MeX that could further

destroy the ozone layer.

Synthesis and Secretion of Recombinant Lignin

Peroxidase in the Yeast 0���� ���� �����

Arwen Brown

Mentor: Nancy DaSilva

Lignin peroxidase (LiP) is an enzyme naturally produced

by the white-rot fungus Phanerochaete chrysosporium capable

of degrading many environmental pollutants. However,

there are difficulties in producing enough active LiP for

use in biodegradation: P. chrysosporium produces it only

under starvation conditions, and Escherichia coli does not

have the necessary secretory pathways to produce active

LiP. The yeast Kluyveromyces lactis is a good candidate as a

recombinant host for LiP because it is easy to grow, it

has a secretory pathway similar to that of P. chrysosporium,

and it can perform similar post-transcriptional and post-

translational modifications. I investigated the effects of

different induction strategies on the production of active

LiP in this recombinant system by growing cultures

under different conditions and measuring the activity

using an ABTS assay. Due to the instability of the

system, higher activities were obtained when induction

occurred late in the exponential phase of growth, since

inducing earlier led to excessive plasmid loss. Induction

level variation confirmed earlier research indicating that

a 5/0.5 ratio of glucose to galactose is best for this

system. Although the standard growth time for the

cultures was 40 hr, the activity at 20 hr was found to be

approximately twice as high even though this allows only

about 4 hr after induction for LiP production. The

steady decrease in activity after 20 hr suggests either loss

of enzyme activity or enzyme degradation, and further

research into the cause of this decrease should make it

possible to significantly increase the system’s ability to

produce active LiP.

Systematic Approach for Correction of Design

Deficiencies in Particle Detection Electronics

Jacqueline Bulaclac

Mentors: John LaRue & Richard Nelson

The Coulter Counter is used to count small biological

particles in solution. The original concept was based on

the increase in the electrical resistance of an orifice as

the presence of a biological particle altered the electrical

conduction path. We have worked to adapt this type of

device to MEMS devices. The detection of a particle is

proportional to resistance change and the amplitude of

the excitation. The Coulter Counter is currently used for

sizing DNA fragments and sorting biological cells or cell

fragments. While the Coulter Counter traditionally

utilizes DC excitation, our research group’s Summer

2003 research extended this by implementing an

amplitude modulation and demodulation approach for

detecting biological particles. The results of the Summer

2003 research identified a number of design problems

that become potentially significant as the channel

dimensions were reduced to the low micron or

submicron range. We propose to find solutions to these

problems to support the next generation of devices to be

fabricated by this research group. The identified

problems are as follows: (1) Parasitic capacitances in the

current source circuit construction and the effects of the

channel’s high resistances, (2) The current demodulation

approach utilizes a four-quadrant multiplier and an

active four pole low pass Butterworth filter whose input

DC level can exceed the allowable input voltage, and (3)

The parasitic capacitances or the frequency-dependent

input impedance of the instrumentation amplifier.

The Debate Over Reparations for Black Slavery

Anwar Burton

Mentor: Katherine Tate

In the U.S. there is increasing support among African

Americans for reparations to descendants of American

slavery. Reparation is formally defined as the act of

making amends, offering expiation, or giving satisfaction

for a wrong or injury. The debate over reparations did

not emerge onto the national scene until the late 1990s.

Moreover, it has since become one of the nation’s most

controversial and hotly debated topics. However, it is

highly unlikely that a settlement granting African-

Americans trillions of dollars will be awarded on the

basis of injury caused by slavery. Why? Throughout

history its opponents have effectively silenced the call

for reparations. This thesis attempts to examine the

reparations movement from both a historical context as

well as a political one. I establish a link between history

and the limited success of the movement and examine

current public opinion regarding reparations. In

addition, I examine the likelihood of the descendants of

Black American slaves receiving reparations.

The Ifugao Bale: Built Form and Belief System

Angie Buyayo

Mentor: Sanjoy Mazumdar

The concept of a house differs across cultures and

societies, from highly urbanized cities to small villages.

This study focuses on the vernacular architecture of the

Ifugaos, an indigenous group in Northern Philippines,

and their cosmological view of built form, specifically

their native house, the “bale.” Past data on the Ifugaos

shows an expansive belief system of animistic gods and

deities, revenge rituals (Barton, 1913), and sorcery and

witchcraft interventions between the human and

� ���������� �������� ����������� �������� ��������� ������ ��'%�

supernatural world (Goda, 2001). The goal of the study

is to examine the relationship between the “bale” and

the Ifugao belief system and worldview. Data was

obtained through interviews with native priests and

fieldwork conducted in the local region. This type of

research supports cultural research regarding Ifugao

traditions while it also provides awareness for

continued research in these aspects of indigenous

culture, including vernacular architecture, space, and

world order.

The Effects of Body Image on Student Performance

Nicole Byrd

Mentor: Janice Plastino

Body image is the perception one has about one’s body.

Issues may arise about body image throughout a lifetime.

Actors, dancers, and athletes use and display their bodies

in an art form or a sport and body image and/or self-

esteem problems can occur. Teachers, coaches,

directors, choreographers and psychologists can have a

better understanding of how to approach students with

body image issues by researching problems and solutions

to help those who use their bodies regularly as a tool or

in a profession. My sampling included 138 female actors,

dancers, athletes and normals (control group), ages 18–

38 at UCI. They took a validated survey called the

Multidimensional Body Self-Relations Questionnaire

(MBSRQ, Cash 1992). According to the current study,

body image issues seem to be on the decline since similar

studies were conducted in the 1980s. This new study

showed some issues currently exist among the normals

and the actors. Some responses in this new study found

different conclusions among ethnic groups than those in

studies conducted in the 1980s. The purpose of this

research was to prove that body image affects students’

performance in school. Some correlations were found in

this study. Follow up interviews with the participants

and supplemental surveys may have produced a better

picture of how body image really can affect student

performance.

Spelling Proficiency of Native Speakers of Spanish:

A Look at the Influence of Morpheme Structures in

Spelling Errors

Camille Campion

Mentor: Virginia Mann

This study examines how native Spanish speaking

children make orthographical decisions when spelling in

English. English spellings have a “deep” alphabetic

representation due to their use of both morphemes and

phonemes, while several other languages, such as

Spanish, are “shallow” alphabets that rely solely on

phonemes (Singson, Mahony, & Mann, 2000). Due to

issues of language difference and the written Spanish

language’s absence of morpheme representations, I

hypothesize that bilingual native speakers of Spanish will

have poorer spelling proficiency than native speakers of

English, especially in the case of derived and inflicted

words. This study looks at the spelling proficiency of

intermediate students (6th to 8th grade), both native

speakers of English and native speakers of Spanish. The

students are given a 75 word spelling test, consisting of

three types of words that are 3-13 letters long: 1) words

whose phonetic realization is close to its orthographic

representation (i.e., “shallow” like yam), 2) words

containing an ambiguous segment that require a greater

knowledge of orthographic conventions (i.e.,“deep” like

strapped), 3) and words containing one or more

segments which can only be partially derived through

morphophonemic knowledge (i.e., “irregular” like

tongue). The students also receive an oral cloze test to

determine how well they understand the suffixes of

English. The data analysis will examine the percentage of

errors in relation to word types. It is predicted that

native speakers of English will perform better on “deep”

and “irregular” words and have a better understanding

of derived suffixes.

Fingerprints and Identity: Exploring the Validity

and Certainty of Identification

Karrie Casada

Mentor: Simon Cole

For over 100 years, U.S. Courts have accepted

fingerprints as a reliable, infallible form of forensic

evidence. However, the frequency and accuracy of DNA

evidence is raising questions about the reliability of

fingerprint identification. Specifically, are fingerprints

scientific evidence or identification based on subjective

observation? Review of the literature produced no

published scientific studies of fingerprint evidence, its

reliability, or validity. One unpublished study, conducted

by the FBI, provides a statistic on fingerprint

uniqueness. However, this study was criticized because it

compared an exact copy of a fingerprint to itself. My

research compared a latent (invisible) fingerprint to a

database of known fingerprints using an Automated

Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS). I collected 166

ten-print cards from volunteer subjects to build the

AFIS database. I also lifted 371 numerically

corresponding latent prints from objects, mimicking real

crime scene prints. Using the search capability of the

AFIS system, each of the 371 latent prints was run

against the AFIS system. Preliminary results indicate that

the possibility that two or more candidates can be

located for an identification based on a single latent

fingerprint. Using the match score of the AFIS system,

appropriate statistical significance will be developed and

� ��� � ������������� ���� �������� �! ����"��#������

�-(�

perhaps provide reliable statistical backing to thescientific question of fingerprints as an accurate form offorensic evidence.

A 40 bps Speech Recognition Scheme with Pauses

Anshuman ChadhaMentor: Cristina Lopes

Traditional speech coding schemes handle acceptable

quality speech at bit rates over 2000 bits per second.

An extremely low bit-rate speech-coding scheme has

been developed to code speech on the order of 40 bits

per second. In order to get such a low compression

rate, all recognized speech is converted into the

morphological level (i.e. the actual words) with low-

level elements such as tone and frequency completely

disregarded. While this technique dramatically reduces

the coding rate, it also decreases understandability.

This project involves the modification of that scheme

to model pauses. Like the methodology of the word

recognizer, the pauses are detected not at the signal

level, but rather at the word level using grammar rules.

Furthermore, the pauses are not coded, but rather

detected while the speech is decoded, and accounted

for when the speech is synthesized. While the pauses

will not affect the coding rate, the addition should

increase understandability of the speech, which will be

determined through future human testing.

Quantitation of LAT RNA Transcript in an HSV-1

Mutant with Deleted Regulatory Element in LAT

Promoter

David Chan

Mentor: Guey-Chuen Perng

Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 (HSV-1) is a ubiquitous

virus with significant prevalence of health threat.

Following peripheral infection and replication, the virus

establishes latency in sensory neurons of its host lifelong.

Periodically, due to hormonal change, stress, and UV

exposure, the latent virus reactivates causing secondary

infection and clinical symptoms. LAT has been shown

to be essential for high spontaneous reactivation in

rabbit ocular models. Recently, an HSV-1 mutant with a

deleted portion of regulatory element in LAT promoter

(d400) has decreased reactivation frequency. A promoter

is the engine of a gene to be turned on. It is tightly

regulated and this regulation is cell type specific. My

research interest is to measure the levels of LAT

expression in the HSV-1 mutant with the deleted

regulatory element in its promoter in neuronal- and non-

neuronal-derived infected cells. Understanding the

differential gene expression in different cells types can

lead to new treatments of HSV infection. So far in the

course of research, total RNAs were isolated from CV-1

cells infected with wild-type, d400, LAT deletion

(LATdl) viruses, or mock infected (control) for 8-, 16-

and 24-hr after infection. Harvested RNAs were

separated in RNA agarose gel, transferred to membrane,

and probed with LAT specific radio-labeled probe. My

results showed a reduced density of LAT expression

from cells infected with the d400 virus. This implies that

the levels of LAT expression may play a critical role in

the reactivation of HSV. The next phase of my research

will be repeated with the same procedures in neuronal-

derived cell and the actual levels of LAT from d400

infected cells compared with wild type will be

quantitated by real time PCR.

The Effects of Mother-Child Interaction on Infant’s

Cognitive Development

Angela Chang

Mentors: Elysia Davis & Curt Sandman

A child’s experiences early in life may have lasting

implications for development. Maternal depression

during infancy has pervasive influences on development

including impaired cognitive development. This effect

appears to be mediated by disturbances in the quality of

mother-child interactions. Mothers diagnosed with

depression were less sensitive and responsive to their

child. These infants performed poorly on measures of

cognitive functioning, were less cooperative, and were

generally more problematic at later ages (NICHD, 1999).

While previous studies showed that maternal sensitivity

played an important role in child development, these

studies have focused mainly on infants with clinically

depressed mothers. I decided to examine the association

between maternal sensitivity and infant cognitive

development in a normal sample of women and their

infants. My sample consisted of 15 mother-child pairs,

with infants at 6 months of age. The women came into

the lab with their infants and were given instructions to

play with their infants as they would at home while being

videotaped. The quality of the mother-child interactions

were then coded from the videotapes. I used a 4-point

global rating scales that was developed by the NICHD

study on mother-infant interactions in 1999. These sets

of scales rated mother’s sensitivity to non-distress,

intrusiveness, detachment, stimulation of cognitive

development, positive regard for the child, negative

regard for the child, and flatness of affect. Infant

cognitive and motor development was measured using

the Bayley Scale of Infant Development. I expect to find

that mothers which score higher on the sensitivity

ratings will have infants with better performance on their

cognitive testing.

� ���������� �������� ����������� �������� ��������� ������ ��-)�

UCI Dance Exchange

Dorothy Chang

Mentor: Donald McKayle

As the project director for the UCI Dance Exchange, my

personal involvement included developing both the

physical implementation and the intellectual implications

of a collaborative educational dance environment. The

first challenge was to fully realize an event that was

completely new and independent of anything in the

department’s history. As an undergraduate with limited

experience in the field of Arts Administration, such an

undertaking required me to go beyond what leadership

and organizational skills I already had. Besides working

cooperatively with the UCI Etude Ensemble as a

performer, I developed the company’s instrumental role

in the planning stages and execution of a very complex

and comprehensive schedule. Realizing that this sort of

professional development is both possible and

supported within a university setting is a significant and

encouraging discovery. Furthermore, it was important

for me to lay the groundwork for future festivals either

hosted by UCI or other campuses. In addition, there are

several social and cultural issues raised by this project,

including the intersection of the arts and higher

education, intellectual and artistic exchange between

influential institutions, and the short and long term

effects of expanding creative dialogue. The UCI Dance

Exchange is just one attempt to increase awareness of

the arts in Southern California. In essence, this project

examines the social responsibility artists have to their

communities.

Visualization and Analysis of Large Sets of Discrete

Points

Edmund Chang

Mentor: Hong-Kai Zhao

Visualization and analysis of large data sets appear in

computer vision/graphics, image processing, data

mining, and many other applications. For example, the

set of data points can be surface points from a three-

dimensional scanning o fmeasured molecular positions

in chemical experiments. One main task is to visualize

the data and extract important geometric information

from the positions of these isolated points, such as

shape and other features. Current methods, such as

computational geometry and triangulated surfaces are

based on exact interpolation which can be difficult when

the data set is large, non-uniform and noisy. In this

proposed project we attempt to combine the idea of

tensor voting and distance function and apply it to large,

non-uniform and noisy data to see if the results are more

optimal. Currently, progress has been made in

understanding how each method works in detail so that

in the next phase we will combine these two together. In

particular we would like to use the constructed tensor

field to clarify ambiguities in the data set.

Phasing Segmented Telescope Mirrors with a

Mach-Zehnder Interferometer

Loren Chang

Mentor: Gary Chanan

With the introduction of large telescope mirrors

comprised of many individual segments, the problem of

insuring a smooth continuous mirror surface (i.e.

phasing), becomes critical. The vertical (piston) errors

between the individual segments must be reduced to a

small fraction of the wavelength of incoming light. In

one proposed technique, light from the telescope mirror

is split between the two arms of a Mach-Zehnder

interferometer and the two outputs subtracted from one

another; the vertical error (piston error) of each mirror

segment can then be determined from the resulting

fringes at the segment edges. I have implemented this

algorithm via computer simulation and demonstrated

that the dependence of the fringe intensities upon the

piston error goes as a sine function when the light is

monochromatic. In addition, I have also expanded the

original algorithm to work using several wavelengths of

light in a Gaussian spectral distribution. Unlike the

original monochromatic case, the intensities in the

broadband case behave as a sine function modulated

such that it decays to zero as the piston error increases.

This allows for a more robust algorithm that is much

more effective at detecting piston errors greater then one

wavelength.

Pluralism and the Great Depression: The Impact of

Bank Suspensions, Mergers, Liquidations, and

Reopenings from 1929-1939 on Mexican American

Political Power

Jacqueline Chattopadhyay

Mentor: Gary Richardson

This study uses basic econometric methods and data

from Federal Reserve Board and the U.S. Census to

examine the relationship between bank failures and

Mexican immigration into and out of Texas counties

from 1929 to 1939. It quantitatively evaluates the

adverse impact that economic scarcity during the Great

Depression exercised on Mexican Americans, which is

documented in repatriation accounts, qualitative

historical sources, and recent scholarly research. In so

doing, it attempts to assess the extent to which the Great

Depression affected the Mexican American middle class

that had emerged in the American Southwest by 1929

and speculates how this economic event contributed to

locating immigration in Mexican American political and

� ��� � ������������� ���� �������� �! ����"��#������

�-*�

social consciousness and setting foundations for current

economic and demographic barriers to Mexican

American socioeconomic mobility, political

incorporation, and representation in the United States.

The Relationship of Hardiness, Risk-Taking and

Femininity to Cardiovascular Reactions and Math-

Task Performance

Neil Chauhan

Mentors: Richard Harvey & Salvatore Maddi

Hardiness attitudes of commitment, control and

challenge serve to buffer individuals against

psychological strain such that people higher in hardiness

appraise stressful events as more manageable. Regardless

of sex, age or culture, hardiness theory suggests anyone

can be high or low in hardiness. However, Nealey, Smith

and Uchino (2002) and Wiebe (1991) reported sex

differences in cardiovascular responding (e.g. heart rate)

in reaction to laboratory tasks. This poster examines

links between hardy attitudes, risk-taking, sex,

physiological recovery and cognitive performance after a

difficult paced auditory serial addition task (PASAT). 38

normal, healthy male and female undergraduates, about

half Caucasian and half Asian or Latino (mean age 22.9

years) volunteered in order to receive course credit.

Participants higher in hardiness (as measured by the

Hardiness Personal Views Survey III-R) recovered faster

on measures of left ventricular ejection time (LVET)

compared to those lower in hardiness (p<.05). Main

effects of Hardy attitudes were not observed for

performance on the PASAT. Men and women high in

the trait of femininity (as measured by the Bem Sex

Roles Inventory) who reported a willingness to take a

risk (as measured by a risk-taking index), performed

better on the PASAT (p<.05). This research suggests: 1)

higher hardiness levels reduce the impact of stressful

circumstances on cardiovascular measures (e.g. LVET)

and, 2) among individuals high in trait femininity, risk-

taking attitudes predict better math performance. Future

research is required to more fully elucidate the

interactions between femininity, risk-taking and

hardiness on physical and cognitive outcomes.

The Effects of Irradiation on p21 and p53

Expression in Skeletal Muscle

Aarti Chawla

Mentor: Vincent Caiozzo

Irradiation of skeletal muscle can cause DNA damage in

satellite cells, which then prevents their proliferation into

myonuclei. In this study, soleus muscles of Sprague-

Dawley rats were exposed to 25 gray of gamma

irradiation. The muscles were harvested at the following

time points: 4 hr, 12 hr, 1 day, 2 day, and 3 day. RT-

PCR was preformed using primers for the tumor

suppressor genes, p21 and p53. p53 gene expression

should be upregulated, therefore, causing an increase in

p21 gene expression as well. Our data revealed that,

surprisingly, although there was very little significant

change in p53 expression, there was a significant increase

in p21 expression at the 4 hr, 1 day and 2 day time

points as compared to normal control. We believe that

p53 gene expression did not change because skeletal

muscle cell cycle control may be regulated through the

multiple phosphorolation sites on p53 protein, and not

through transcriptional regulation of the p53 gene.

Stem Cells: Are They Mechanosensitive?

Michelle Chen

Mentor: William Tang

Stem cells are unspecialized cells that can further

differentiate into multiple specialized tissue types, and

thus have been thought to have potential in many areas

of health and medical research. Studying how stem cells

transform into more specialized tissue types can help us

understand the complicated processes of cell

proliferation and renewal, which in turn, can help us

manipulate stem cells to benefit our society. Hence,

many research groups have developed their experiments

to explore the genetic or chemical nature of stem cells.

However, the influence of mechanical forces on stem

cells has not been studied, presumably due to lack of

proper tools. In response to this, we have constructed a

tool to study the effects of mechanical forces on stem

cells. The stem cells that we used are from the hydra,

which is a simple water-based organism that is

composed of a head with tentacles and a sticky foot

region. We constructed a 6 ft water column to observe

hydra regeneration, and thus stem cell differentiation

under various amounts of static mechanical pressure.

Several dissected hydras were injected into a poly-

dimethyl-siloxane (PDMS) trap and then lowered into

the water column at specific depths. Depending on the

depth, hydra experienced different amount of pressure.

Preliminary results indicate that mechanical forces affect

hydra regeneration rates and quality. These results

provide helpful insight on the mechanical influences on

stem cell differentiation.

Effects of Isometric Training on Skeletal Muscle

IGF-I Expression Under Zero Gravity Simulated

Conditions

Daniel Cheng

Mentor: Kenneth Baldwin

A deleterious side affect that arises from space travel is

skeletal muscle atrophy. Prolonged space flight causes

the skeletal muscle system to lose its size and strength

� ���������� �������� ����������� �������� ��������� ������ ��-��

and hence its ability to function under normal-weight

bearing conditions. Due to the similar changes seen in

rodent muscles as compared to astronauts under zero

gravity conditions a ground based model using rodents,

known as “Hind Limb Suspension” (HS), can be used to

mimic the effect of space flight on muscles. It has also

been shown that through a mechanical loading process

involving resistance training, rodent skeletal muscles can

be stimulated to increase myofibril protein

concentrations by increasing Insulin-like growth factor-I

(IGF-I) mRNA levels. Using a 2 and 4 day suspension

plus training paradigm, it was hypothesized that by

applying daily mechanical loading of skeletal muscles via

several bouts of isometric contractions, IGF-I levels

would be increased compared to non-stimulated IGF-I

levels. Results show an overall preservation of IGF-I,

with a slight increase in IFG-I levels after 2 days of

suspension with training and a significant increase after 4

days. These results correlate to an increase in skeletal

muscle mass, and indicate that activation of IGF-I can

occur under zero gravity conditions and relatively

quickly following stimulation of muscles, effectively

blunting the muscle atrophy.

Development of Pre-Vaporizer

Joyce Cheng

Mentors: Derek Dunn-Rankin & William Sirignano

Energy usage is an evitable part of our everyday life, and

we are constantly seeking to improve the efficiency of

our energy sources. Miniature combustors using

hydrocarbon liquid fuels have a high potential of

replacing the current power sources for personal usage.

Miniature combustors generate heat from the

combustion of hydrocarbon fuel, and the heat can then

be transferred into electrical energy. For their weight,

hydrocarbon fuels are capable of generating a large

amount of energy compared with the energy sources we

have today. Miniature combustors are small, mobile and

light weight, which make them an ideal energy source.

The energy generated from a miniature combustor may

one day replace batteries, and operate small electrical and

mechanical appliances. If miniature combustors and

energy generators are fabricated, they would be able to

deliver more power than batteries while having a longer

life span and a lighter weight.

Inter-Domain Premium Resource Exchange:

Improving Internet Traffic Management

Marie Chi

Mentors: Tatsuya Suda & Ariffin Yahaya

The current business scheme for premium traffic

requires human negotiations between domains to put

together service level agreements (SLA) and

specifications. Premium traffic is defined to be any

traffic that requires special network treatment such as

audio, video and VPN. Structuring premium flows

depends on the agreement of all domains within the

selected path. The current problems in using SLAs are 1)

parties optimize based on monetary goals, 2) static paths,

3) low propagation of knowledge and responsibility that

translates into low fault tolerance. A solution to these

problems is the Inter-domain Resource Exchange

(iREX), which allows the domains to automatically trade

in network resources and confirm bilateral relations.

With iREX, automated SLAs eliminate time-costly

human interactions and domains that breach their

contracts will be blacklisted and are less likely to be used.

To show the performance between iREX and the

current scheme, the iREX simulator was created as a

simulation tool to get data for analysis and used as a

visual aid to demonstrate the iREX scheme. Based on a

sample of 3,897,396 traffic requests and domains with

the same pricing functions, the iREX scheme resulted

with a higher number of successful deployment requests

and maintained a stable number of link capacity. In

addition, the iREX scheme caters to more requests and

recovers from more faults than SLA. Based on the

statistical data compared between the iREX and SLA

schemes, iREX presents a dynamic and faster system

with domains that have total control and knowledge of

their paths.

Pricing on the Internet

Marie Chi

Mentors: Tatsuya Suda & Ariffin Yahaya

In recent years, the Internet service market has become

highly competitive. Different models and pricing plans

has been attempted, but there is still a struggle to find

the right pricing model that would benefit the users and

the service provider market. In determining an efficient

pricing plan, we must consider the flexibility of users

needs and how the network load is handled. There are

currently two types of pricing plans in the Internet

service provider (ISP) market, flat-rate and usage-based

pricing plans. Under the flat-rate plan, the user pays a

fixed amount over a certain period for unlimited usage.

Though users are able to predict their monthly charges,

some of the shortcomings from this plan are the decline

of service quality through over-usage and the lack of

fairness. With the usage-based plan, users pay for the

period of time they are connected to the Internet. The

usage-based plan restrains further market growth

because users are paying for the time they are connected

to the Internet. A more suitable business model that

would satisfy all types of users is a combination between

the flat-rate and usage based pricing plans. The flat-rate

plan will be used for basic service, and charges for higher

� ��� � ������������� ���� �������� �! ����"��#������

�-'�

bandwidth will be based on usage. This plan provides an

efficient network control that can maintain the quality of

service of Internet access. ISPs can meet the demand of

users at any time and receive additional revenues based

on usage of higher bandwidth.

Alternate Construction Methods of Shear Walls for

Seismic Loads

Jeff Ching

Mentor: Charles Hamilton

Timber shear walls are fundamental elements in the

seismic design of wood-framed structures. In order to

evaluate provisions of the 1997 Uniform Building Code

(UBC) governing the design of shear walls with

openings, an experimental program was developed to

determine the efficiency and in-plane lateral

performance of timber-framed shear walls with

openings. Three classes of wood-framed shear walls

were subjected to lateral deformations to simulate

earthquake conditions. These classes were a group of

fully sheathed wall specimens (COLA), a group of wall

specimens with openings using typical methods of

providing continuity around the openings (FW), and

four groups of wall specimens, which employed alternate

methods of providing continuity (SOACM). By

analyzing the experimental performance data including

initial stiffness, drift capacity, and the yield and strength

limit states of the specimens, a quantitative comparison

can be made of the different construction methods. The

results offer an improved understanding of the seismic

behavior of the tested wood frame walls, and provide a

basis for recommending alternate design methods which

reduce the cost of fabrication while maintaining the

seismic performance required by the UBC.

BDNF Protein in the Rat Hippocampus is

Upregulated by a Second Period of Exercise

Gregory Chinn

Mentor: Carl Cotman

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) promotes

plasticity and neuron survival in the hippocampus and is

upregulated by physical and learning activity; however,

decreased hippocampal BDNF is associated with

depression. With voluntary exercise by rodents, BDNF

mRNA and protein levels increase in several brain

regions within hours, particularly in the hippocampal

formation. Previously we reported that after 4 weeks of

wheel running, levels of BDNF protein remain elevated

for several days after exercise has ceased, and return to

baseline after 1 week of sedentary lifestyle. It is not

known how BDNF is regulated by subsequent exercise

after protein levels have returned to baseline (100%). In

this study we examine the effect of a brief second run

session on BDNF protein at 1 and 2 weeks after an

initial priming run of 2 weeks. Immediately after 2 weeks

of running, BDNF is significantly elevated to 140% over

sedentary levels, and decays to 122% and 108%

respectively after 1 and 2 weeks of quiescence of

sedentary lifestyle. A second run session of 2 days,

initiated after 1 or 2 weeks of quiescence significantly

increases hippocampal BDNF to 156% and 153%

respectively, of sedentary levels (p<.05). In contrast, 2

days of running alone in the absence of a prior priming

run, fails to significantly increase BDNF. Animals

undergoing a similar exercise paradigm, (exercising every

other day), followed a similar pattern as their daily

exercising counterparts. Thus, BDNF protein levels

increased by exercise can be maintained even with

infrequent short exercise bouts. These findings are

relevant to the design of exercise and rehabilitation

programs to promote a healthy neural environment, and

may provide information on the benefits of maintaining

an active lifestyle to promote successful aging.

Construction of a Magnetometer for the

Equivalence Principle Experiment

Henry Choi

Mentors: Eric Berg & Riley Newman

For many of the gravitational experiments such as the

Equivalence Principle (EP) experiment, it is necessary to

reduce as much noise as possible from sources that

include the external environment and in particular from

the isolated system where the experiments are being

conducted. Magnetic moments from the components of

the system are one source of noise, which we would like

to measure and minimize. In order to measure the

magnitude and direction of the magnetic moment of a

given material sample, the approach taken was to

construct an apparatus consisting of a hollow chamber

in which a given sample inside a small carrier would be

suspended by a fiber. By rotating a magnetic field about

the sample, it was possible to measure the magnetic

properties of the sample through the relationship

between the torque caused by (1) the external magnetic

field and the sample’s magnetic moment and (2) the

torsional constant κ and the rotation angle of the fiber.Many runs were conducted to obtain the magnetic

properties of several different samples. Magnesium

samples, which will be used for the EP experiment, were

measured on average to have a magnetic moment of

approximately (0.42 +/- 0.05) × 10-8 A • m2, whereas

that of a cubic Beryllium sample was measured to be

approximately (2.01 +/- 0.28) × 10-8 A • m2.

� ���������� �������� ����������� �������� ��������� ������ ��--�

Social Support and Foster Care Children’s

Adjustment: A Comparison with a Matched

Community Sample

Rebecca Christensen

Mentor: Chuansheng Chen

As of March 2001, there were approximately 542,000

U.S. children that were residing in foster care (U.S.

Department of Health and Human Services, 2003). Due

to the high incidence of foster children in the general

population, it is crucial that research is conducted on this

unique group to determine the implications of living in

such an environment. At the present time, there is a lack

of information on social support systems and its effects

on foster-care youth. This study looks at the relationship

between support from peers, foster- and biological-

parents, as well as children’s psychological well-being

and educational aspirations. A foster-care sample was

compared with a matched community sample of Los

Angeles County adolescents. Results indicated that

foster-care children did not differ from their community

counterparts in self-esteem and depressive symptoms.

However, foster children’s levels of educational

aspirations and expectations were significantly lower

than those of the community sample. It was also found

that levels of peers’ and foster-parents’ warmth were

correlated with self-esteem and depressive symptoms in

the foster care sample. These results highlight the

importance of parental and peer support on foster

children’s levels of adjustment and educational

aspirations and emphasize how valuable a social support

network can be in the lives of foster children.

Response of Cell Cycle Genes p21, MyoD, and

Myogenin in Irradiated Skeletal Muscle

Antonio Christophy

Mentor: Vincent Caiozzo

Irradiation has been shown to cause DNA damage in

skeletal muscle, however the effects of irradiation on

skeletal muscles cell cycle genes is relatively unknown.

Irradiation has also been shown to cause DNA damage

in satellite cells, which in turn prevents satellite cells

from being incorportated into the muscle as myonuclei.

The nuclear domain theory requires that muscles

maintain a specific myonuclei to muscle volume ratio.

Hence, growth of muscle would seem to require the

activation and incorporation of satellite cells into

myonuclei. In this study, soleus muscles of 27 Sprague-

Dawley rats were exposed to 25 gray of gamma

irradiation. The muscles were harvested at the following

time points: 4 hr, 12 hr, 1 day, 2 day, and 3 day. RT-

PCR was performed using primers for the tumor

suppressor genes, p21, MyoD, and myogenin. Data

analysis revealed that p21 was upregulated in the 4hr, 1

day, and 2 day groups in comparison to control group.

Surprisingly MyoD and myogenin (myogenic regulatory

factors) gene expression increased, a result which was

not expected.

Performance Profiling System for a Dynamic

Distributed Java Virtual Machine

Matt Chu

Mentors: Roxana Diaconescu & Michael Franz

This paper details a performance profiling system for a

dynamic, distributed Java compiler and virtual machine

infrastructure. This infrastructure is currently research in

progress, and is built on the Joeq Java compiler and

virtual machine. While there have been numerous papers

published on the topic of performance profiling, this

paper focuses on the unique problems and challenges

faced when developing a profiler in the dynamic,

distributed context. Most compilers attempt to optimize

a program for an idealized execution environment (or do

not take in account the execution environment at all);

my profiler attempts to collect information that provides

the compiler with execution environment specific

information so that it is available for use in its heuristics.

In addition to the general challenges of minimizing

profiling overhead and maximizing accuracy of collected

data, my profiler also collects profile data especially

pertinent to the distribution algorithms such as network

reads and writes, memory usage, and power

consumption.

Development of Biological Tools to Investigate the

Functions of CD93

Dong Chung

Mentor: Andrea Tenner

CD93, a cell surface glycoprotein, modulates the C1q-

mediated enhancement of phagocytosis of antibody- and

complement-coated particles in vitro, and apoptotic cells

in vivo, but the mechanism responsible for this

modulation remains elusive. Therefore, we began to

generate biological tools in an attempt to investigate the

functions of CD93, particularly with regard to the

modulation of phagocytosis by CD93. First, an in vivo

murine model was generated with a uniform genetic

background expressing or lacking CD93 and CD93 -/-

and +/+ bone marrow-derived macrophages from these

mice were used in phagocytosis experiments. Secondly,

construction of in vitro models by retroviral transduction

and transfection of mouse cell lines using human CD93

and the mutant thereof was also initiated. While the

backcrossing produced offspring CD93 deficient

macrophages, these cells showed enhanced phagocytic

activity in the presence of C1q similar to CD93 +/+

macrophages, suggesting that CD93 influences, but is

� ��� � ������������� ���� �������� �! ����"��#������

�-.�

not necessary for, C1q enhancement of phagocytosis.

The transduction/transfection of human CD93 led to a

low level expression of CD93 on the cell surface but the

protein was detected in cell lysates. Modulation of

phagocytosis by CD93 and the involvement of its

cytoplasmic domain in signal transduction will be

explored by producing stable CD93 surface expression

in conjunction with the CD93 knockout animals

developed in this study.

Simulation of Electromagnetic Fields Created by

Curved Sheets with Alternating Surface Current

Matthew Compton

Mentors: Roger McWilliams & William Molzon

A model was created describing a particle deflector that

consists of two curved parallel plates with an alternating

surface current. To determine the electromagnetic fields

generated by this configuration, Jefimenko's Equations

were solved numerically. The two equations, one for the

electric and the other for the magnetic field, are integrals

that would be rather complicated for any “real world”

geometry. However, by writing functions using the

numerical integral technique called adaptive quadrature

and a surface integral function (the plates are considered

single sheets of surface current of a finite length) the

vector values for both the magnetic and electric field can

be obtained. These functions are written in C++, along

with a master function that takes a specific point in

space and time, and using the integral functions returns a

vector representing the field. This allows for easy

integration of the field calculator into other functions

that can determine useful quantities, such as the

inductance of the system

Confirmation of Variability in the SU UMA-Type

Dwarf Nova V1504 CYG

Ian Crossfield

Mentor: Tammy Ann Smecker-Hane

The cataclysmic variable V1504 Cyg is observed at the

UCI Observatory for periodic variability, showing that

the observatory is capable of performing time-resolved

photometry on a dwarf nova system. The software

package IRAF is used to calibrate the images and to

measure the flux from the target and several reference

stars with aperture photometry. These same stars are

then used to compute differential photometry of the

target. A statistical test is employed to empirically

determine the presence of variability in the target star.

Finally, a theoretical light curve is fit to the data in an

effort to confirm the known orbital period of the

system.

Women in the Media: The Portrayal of Female

Broadcasters on Television

Nellie Day

Mentor: Matt Huffman

Although female journalists are making great strides in

the broadcast industry, they are still portrayed very

differently than their male counterparts. Because the

world is an eventful, unpredictable place, there is an

extremely diverse range of events/topics aired on the

news daily. While almost anyone could complete the task

of simply informing a certain population of these events,

there are numerous strategies, motivations and

justifications, based on ratings, which influence who will

broadcast specific stories for what amount of time.

Gender can be an extremely influential variable when

making these kind of decisions because it can greatly

affect what the news program’s target audience will be

and whether or not the program will gain the maximal

number of viewers for its particular time slot. Therefore,

in questioning and examining how and why female

broadcasters are portrayed differently than male

broadcasters on television, one can gain significant

insight into the motivations behind gender relations and

gender inequality throughout the broadcasting industry

and perhaps even the workplace in general. One of the

most notable differences is that women must often

adhere to very different aesthetic standards than men.

Although broadcasters can drastically vary in age, it is

significant to note that a majority of male broadcasters

are considerably older than their female counterparts.

Explanations for this age gap tend to center around the

notion that men age better than women. Even among

women there seems to be a certain type of “look” that

producers and executives like a broadcaster to have.

Optimization of Radiofrequency Pulses in NMR

Spectroscopy

Alpay Dermenci

Mentor: A. J. Shaka

In NMR spectroscopy the point of interest is the net

magnetization of the hydrogen nucleus 1H, which can be

manipulated for many different reasons. One way to

manipulate the magnetization is called population

inversion in which the magnetization of unity is taken

from z=+1 to z=-1. Doing so can be useful for spin-

lattice relaxation measurements and decoupling

sequences. However, due to B1 inhomogeneity and

resonance offsets a simple 180ο pulse, which will not

bring the magnetization close enough to z=-1, can be

replaced with a composite pulse. A composite pulse is a

sequence of shorter pulses, which replace a simple 180ο

pulse while at the same time eliminating most of the

� ���������� �������� ����������� �������� ��������� ������ ��-��

errors due to resonance offsets. Past research shows that

a 180ο pulse sequence of 90

ο(X) 240

ο(Y) 90

ο(X) is one

possibility (A Handbook of NMR, 1988). The objective

of this research was to find a better optimization

program than the existing one and optimize an optimal

180ο pulse sequence. The previous optimization

program randomly generated sequences until the best

one was found, however, resulting in the loss of time

efficiency, usually having to run the program overnight.

On the other hand, using Marquardt’s Method, which is

a combination of Newton’s Method and Steepest

Decent, we can write a program that will optimize a 180ο

pulse sequence with poor starting guesses and within

seconds. Doing just that we got the following sequence:

90.04ο (X) 243.62

ο (Y) 90.98

ο (X). Satisfied with the

results we can now use the program to optimize even

more complex sequences.

Screening of HIV Long Term Non Progressor and

HIV Progressor Specific Peptides, and Their

Potential as Diagnostic Markers for Disease

Progression

Melissa Dionisio

Mentor: Jeremiah Tilles

The difference in the humoral immune response

between HIV progressors and HIV long term non

progressors (LTNP) has been investigated. Peptides

which were predominantly reactive either to sera of HIV

progressors or LTNP were selected by panning magnetic

beads coated with IgG isolated from the sera of LTNP

and HIV progressors with random peptide libraries

displayed on phages (RPLP) followed by differential

immunoscreening. Using this technique, 12 peptides

were isolated. One of these peptides was LTNP specific,

5 were HIV progressor specific and 6 were reactive to

both subject groups to a comparable degree. As

demonstrated from these results, the antibody

recognition patterns were distinct and variable in LTNP

and HIV progressors. Although both LTNP and HIV

progressors make antibodies against HIV, they can differ

in the magnitude of their reactivity to specific peptides.

The understanding of the distinct antibody response

especially in HIV progressors may lead us to a better

understanding why one small group of HIV infected

individuals can control virus infection and disease

progression while the other group progresses relentlessly

to AIDS.

Age Differences in Emotional Memory: A Study of

Context

Natalia Dmitrieva

Mentor: Susan Charles

Memories influence how people evaluate their lives and

regulate their emotions. Prior research has found age

differences in memory for emotional stimuli: younger

adults recall more negative than positive stimuli

compared to older adults. The present study investigates

age-related differences in memory for positive, negative

and neutral information, and examines how framing

information in a positive or negative light affects these

age differences. Younger and older participants read

both a positive and negative story, with the order of the

stories counterbalanced across participants. There were

two sets of each story, identical, except for key words

that made the gist of each story either happy or sad. In

addition, each story included equal amounts of positive

and negative information. After a 20 min distraction task

participants were asked to identify true and false

statements about the stories they had read. We

hypothesized that, consistent with prior research, age-

related differences in memory would be strongest for

negative information. Preliminary results suggest that the

hypothesis is supported when information is framed in a

positive context. For the positive stories young adults

remember equal amounts of positive and negative

information, whereas older adults focus more on the

positive information. This age difference was absent in

stories framed in a negative context, with age differences

displaying in an unexpected direction. For the negative

stories both younger and older adults remember less

negative information relative to positive information.

Findings will be discussed in light of socioemotional

selectivity theory, which posits enhanced emotion

regulation with age.

Urotensin II Induces �1� mRNA Upregulation in

the Rat Brain as Assayed By ������ Hybridization

Dee Duangdao

Mentor: Olivier Civelli

Urotensin II (UII) is a peptide that has a role in the

cardiovascular system. To investigate its role in the

central nervous system, the present study determined

whether UII could induce changes in the levels of c-fos

mRNA expression. C-fos mRNA upregulation was

measured in the rat brain by utilizing in situ hybridization

following intracerebroventricular injections of UII or

saline. The brain area that displayed an increase in c-fos

expression after UII injection, over that of saline

injection, was the medial habenular nucleus. There was

no significant difference seen in the anteroventral

� ��� � ������������� ���� �������� �! ����"��#������

�-$�

thalamus and the periaqueductal gray. These results

suggest that UII has a role in the central nervous system

as a neuromodulator.

Pulsed Optoacoustic Interefometric Spectroscopy

(POISe) and Imaging

Samuel Duque Jr.

Mentor: Vasan Venugopalan

Optical properties of tissues such as scattering and

absorption can potentially provide accurate

representations of tissue morphology and composition,

respectively. This enables optical methods to perform

non-invasive imaging and physiological monitoring of

biological tissues. However, due to the strong scattering

properties of these tissues, existing non-invasive optical

methods such as optical coherence tomography (OCT)

are unable to provide high-resolution images at large

tissue depths (>3 mm). POISe is a novel optoacoustic

technique developed by my mentor's group, which has

the potential to determine the optical properties of

homogeneous tissue volumes and image heterogeneous

tissue structures. This method uses a time-resolved

interferometric system to measure the surface

displacement of a tissue sample in response to

irradiation with a short (nanosecond) laser pulse. To test

the capabilities of the system, I have constructed both

homogeneous as well as heterogeneous phantoms

(mimicking a pair of blood vessels within a turbid tissue).

These phantoms have optical properties representative

of tissues in vivo. Using the POISe instrument, I have

measured the surface displacement caused by laser

irradiation at several locations on the surface of each

phantom. Optical property determination has been

attempted from the data obtained from the

homogeneous phantoms. At the same time, image

reconstruction was performed using the data acquired

from the heterogeneous phantoms using the delay and

sum method. Some preliminary results derived from

both efforts are shown. This project shows the capability

of POISe to non-invasively determine tissue optical

properties and image tissue structure to depths

approaching 1 cm with a resolution better than 250

microns.

Temperature Measurement From Spectral Lines of

Radio Frequency Generated Argon Plasma

Justin EaganMentor: Roger McWilliams

Some laboratory plasma sources do not have thepossibility of being diagnosed with mechanical probes.For some such plasma sources, it may be possible to useemitted light spectra to obtain information about theplasma electron and ion temperatures. Line intensities

and their ratios are used to calculate the electrontemperature, Te, and ion temperature, Ti, for an RF-generated Argon plasma. The line intensities aremeasured using a Jarrell-Ash Czerny-Turnerspectrometer in the range of 400 nm to 750 nm. Theintensity depends on the frequency of the emittedspectral line as well as on the temperature. Thus, byobserving a wide spectral range the electron temperaturemay be estimated. This diagnostic technique may beuseful since it is non-intrusive, but preliminary resultsshow that this method may not provide desiredprecision in determining temperatures.

V-Day 2004

Janelle EagleMentor: Keith Fowler

Spinning off the success of last year’s show, I againproduced “The Vagina Monologues” at UCI as a benefitproduction in conjunction with the internationalorganization, V-Day. As a producer, I was responsiblefor all operational details business-related affairs. Thisincluded securing funds, performance space, marketing,publicity, public relations, and bookkeeping, as well aschoosing directors and actors. My main focus for thisyear’s show was increased awareness and publicity. I wassuccessful since attendance was drastically higher than in2003. Also, more attention was given to productionvalue and dramatic presentation to further encourageartistic involvement. The final product was solid, well-received, well-publicized, and raised over $12,000 for thebeneficiaries. This show was one of the most powerfulexperiences of my life and while I am no longer eligibleto organize for 2005, I am happy to pass it on to someof my peers who will continue the research.

Art to Educate

Janelle EagleMentor: Keith Fowler

How can we communicate an idea or a lesson withoutusing a blackboard or overhead projector? How can weaffect an audience that may be reluctant to learn? Theseare some of the questions that I asked as I traveled to aspecial summer seminar in Bryn Mawr college this pastsummer. As an aspiring director/producer, my artisticfocus is using theater and film as a means ofcommunication to affect public opinion and encouragesocial change. This is important because it strengthensthe power of theater and allows many to see theater asmore than entertainment and instead, a means ofeducation. At the seminar, I participated in screenings,discussions and workshops that discussed politicallymotivated art and evaluated its success. When I returned,I also did follow up reading. With my seminar

� ���������� �������� ����������� �������� ��������� ������ ��-%�

experience and reading together, I was able to write a

chapter in my thesis: “How to do an Independent

Production.” This document can be used as a guide for

students on college campuses to take advantage of the

resources around them and support their desire to

produce art outside of the available programs and

curriculum on campus.

Mechanism of Inhibition of IL-6 Signaling by the

Microbial Product Madindoline

Amirpasha Ehsan

Mentor: John Krolewski

The goal of our experiment is to determine exactly how

madindoline blocks the IL-6 (interleukin-6) signaling

pathway. IL-6 is a pleiotropic cytokine, which transduces

signals through a membrane glycoprotein, gp130, to

activate the intracellular JAK/STAT (Janus

kinase/Signal Transducer and Activator of

Transcription) signal transduction cascade. IL-6 signaling

regulates various physiological processes including

hematopoiesis, wound healing, immune response and

skeletal development. Excessive IL-6 signaling is

reported to be involved in cancer cachexia, Castleman’s

disease, rheumatoid arthritis, hypercalcemia, and

multiple myeloma (Hayashi et al., 2002). Therefore, an

inhibitor of IL-6 signaling can be a potential therapeutic

agent against these diseases. Studies by Hirose described

the isolation of madindoline as a metabolite of

Streptomyces nitrosporeus K93-0711 (Hirose et al., 2002).

Madindoline is known to specifically inhibit IL-6 and IL-

11 signaling but not IL-2, IL-4, IL-8 or LIF signaling.

IL-6 and IL-11 signal via gp130 homodimer while LIF

signals via a LIFR-gp130 heterodimer. It is also known

that the epitope required for homodimerization is

different from that required for heterodimerization

(Hayashi et al., 2002). We believe that madindoline

specifically binds to the extra cellular domain of gp130

that exerts its inhibitory effect on IL-6 signaling by

interfering with gp130 homodimer formation. We

present evidence that a purified extra cellular domain of

gp130 binds to madindoline directly, thus preventing

homodimerization and blocking the JAK/STAT

signaling cascade. This binding can be inhibited by

competition with free madindoline. We have also

mapped a portion of the molecule that is required for

binding.

Spiritual Expression and Corporeality in /� �2�1 ��1

��������� �1� 3��,��� and /� � 4��,� �1� 3��� ��

0 �#

Alisa Ekk

Mentor: Linda Georgianna

Along with a new emphasis on individuality during the

twelfth century, marriage took on a new, more stipulated

meaning as a monogamous, indissoluble sacrament of

the church, yet theories on legal marriage were not yet

clear. A new doctrine of marriage was set forth in the

thirteenth century, and marriage became the single most

important thing in a woman’s life. Spiritual expression

was consequently effected and became intertwined with

the woman’s status as wife and mother in the thirteenth

to fifteenth centuries, leading to a new affective piety for

women. While the late Middle Ages are often

understood as offering a greater amount of social

possibility for women, their spiritual expression was in

many ways bound by their social status and the resulting

emphasis on women’s corporeality. The lives of two

medieval women, Christina Markyate of the twelfth

century and Margery Kempe of the fifteenth century, are

ideal for study in tracing these important changes.

Christina of Markyate, a hermitess and later abbess,

focused primarily on maintaining the physical ideal of

virginity and was able to cleverly manipulate her material

circumstances to her own advantage, leading to an

affective piety that was personally beneficial to her

unique circumstances. For Margery Kempe, on the other

hand, the many social changes, which had taken place,

led to an idealized understanding of the roles of wife and

mother, and became a hindrance to her individual

spiritual expression.

From Tamil to English: Persistence and Change in

Cultural Attitudes Toward Design

Courtney Endo

Mentor: Sanjoy Mazumdar

Much can be learned about people’s relationships with

space, an area known as Cultural Ecology, by examining

families and their homes. How they classify space,

express religion, show values, create symbolism, and the

meaning of various actions and objects can be

ascertained based on these observations. This is a

preliminary exploratory study of a Southern California

family. The research question was to explore the cultural

conceptions of space by examining how an immigrant

family builds life in the United States and their

adjustments. This paper was developed through

observations of the family home and interviews with

family members. With guidance provided in “Cultural

Ecology and Environmental Design,” in Winter 2004, I

� ��� � ������������� ���� �������� �! ����"��#������

�.(�

spent several weeks conducting Naturalistic Field

Research. By collecting and analyzing data I completed

an in-depth study of one family, which revealed

fascinating results. Given more time, I would have

continued this study with other families of the same

origin. The Vijijanaki family consists of two immigrant

parents and their two American-born children. The

study reveals how the family selected a house, how they

“designed” and arranged their house, and how their

house was adjusted when it failed to meet their cultural

needs. One of the persistent themes throughout the

study is how the family compromised between their

native culture and American culture, as well as how they

compromised between the ideals of the traditional

parents and those of their more progressive children.

The study also reveals strong familial bonds and a

pervasive cultural identity reinforced by deeply held

religious tenets and convictions.

Monitoring the Localization of UOL in Herpes

Simplex Virus Infected Cells

Taraneh Esmailpour

Mentor: Guey-Chuen Perng

Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV) is a DNA virus that

generally infects humans. Following the primary

infections, the virus spreads from the infected epithelial

cells to nearby sensory nerve endings and is transported

along the nerve axon to the cell body located in the

trigeminal ganglion. The virus genome enters the nucleus

of the neuron, where it persists indefinitely in the latent

state. The only gene that is readily detectable during

neuronal latency is latency associated transcript (LAT).

The traveled path related to how the virus cycles in and

out of the latent-reactivation states is not well studied. In

order to address this problem, a recently developed

product, the red fluorescent protein (RFP), is used as a

tag to monitor the traveled path of HSV recombinants

virus. UOL gene located upstream of LAT gene

promoter region and is a newly cloned gene encoded by

HSV. It is a late gene and its protein is incorporated into

the virus particle. Because of this, it is a good candidate

gene to tag with an indicator gene, such as RFP, to

monitor the travel path of virus infected cells.

Homologous recombination is done by cotransfection of

pPvul600-UOL-RFP plasmid, a DNA fragment

containing the UOL-RFP fusion gene flanked with HSV

viral genome sequence, with infectious HSV McKrae

genomic DNA into RS cells. The cotransfection mix is

then plated on RS cells to isolate an individual viral

plaque. This allows me to pick and analyze individual

plaques by restriction enzyme digestion and Southern

blot analysis. I have been able to obtain two plaques

harboring the UOL-RFP fusion in the viral genome

during the first round of purification process. The

positive plaques were further purified and analyzed. I am

currently on the second round of the plaque purification

process. I will continue with this process for a couple

more rounds of plaque purification procedures in order

to get a homogenous chimeric plaque. Once I obtain a

homogenous chimeric plaque, various cell lines will be

cultured and these cells will then be infected with the

homogenous chimeric plaque. Red Fluorescence

signals/images will be captured every 12 hr after

infection to monitor the path of HSV-1 infection.

Latino High School Students: A Psycho-

sociocultural Perspective on Coping Mechanisms

and Their Influences on Academic Performance

Veronica Farber

Mentor: Jeanett Castellanos

Above-average grades and high levels of academic

persistence (Gonzalez & Padilla, 1997) characterize

academic performance. In California, where Latinos

comprise 44% of enrolled students and 50% of school

dropouts (U.S. Census Bureau, 2003; NCLR, 2003),

increasing Latinos’ academic performance is of utmost

importance. Previous research has indicated that

academic performance is affected by several interrelated

psychological (self-beliefs), social (social networks) and

cultural (cultural/environmental fit) variables. In

response to each of the variables, students can produce

unique coping mechanisms or techniques used to

manage academic stressors. However, the many coping

mechanisms of Latino high school students are still

unknown in educational research. The purpose of this

study is twofold: one, determine academic stressors by

examining Latino high school students using

psychological, social and cultural constructs; and two,

discover the various coping mechanisms used to

maintain academic performance. It is hypothesized that

as the interrelatedness of the PSC stressors decreases,

the more likely students will have established effective

coping mechanisms. It is predicted that as students

utilize more coping mechanisms, their academic

performance will increase.

Role of Tumor Suppressor Protein KLK10 in Breast

Cancer Progression

Saira Farook

Mentors: Sanjay Dhar & Gregory Evans

The role of various tumor suppressor proteins in breast

cancer has been very well studied. KLK10 (Kallikrein

10), which is also known as NES1 (Normal Epithelial

Cell Specific–1), has also been shown to be a class II

tumor suppressor gene. This gene has been shown to be

highly expressed in normal breast epithelial cells and loss

of expression has been shown in breast cancer cell lines.

� ���������� �������� ����������� �������� ��������� ������ ��.)�

Here, we wished to analyze the expression of KLK10

gene in normal breast tissue, typical ductal hyperplasia,

atypical ductal hyperplasia, ductal carcinoma in situ and

infiltrating ductal carcinoma based on its RNA

expression. We found that KLK10 was found expressed

in normal breast tissue as well as in typical ductal

hyperplasia and atypical ductal hyperplasia specimens.

Ductal carcinoma in situ specimens exhibited weak to

moderate expression of this gene whereas there was

complete absence of this gene in infiltrating ductal

carcinoma specimens. We conclude that loss of KLK10

expressions in normal epithelial could contribute to

breast cancer progression.

An Application of the ‘Swiss-Roll Burner’ Heat

Recirculation Combustor

Andrea Favalessa

Mentor: Derek Dunn-Rankin

Heat recirculation is a field of research of major interest

in combustion technology, since it is possible to achieve

a series of advantages from high preheat of the

unburned flammable mixture before it reaches the

combustion chamber. Among these, it is possible to

obtain a cleaner combustion, with a dramatic reduction

of pollutants produced. One application of this principle

is using such a device to produce breathable air. Our

research was addressed in dimensioning and building a

device able to practically verify the possibility to obtain

this result. Many problems have to be solved in this

process: the mass of air required per person per minute

from normative is too big to be conveniently processed

in this way, and there are some issues related to the

materials to use to reach temperatures so high in the

exchanging channels, since cheap materials such as

stainless steel melt at lower temperatures. The goal to

obtain clean air requires a careful study of the chamber

design and of the operating conditions. So attention has

been paid to the appropriate mass flow rate to process

and to the dimensions of the channels, with the purpose

of enhancing the heat exchange and of obtaining the

‘flameless’ combustion conditions.

Point-Based Multiresolution Splatting for

Interactive Volume Visualization

Matthew Fawcett

Mentor: Renato Pajarola

Interactive visualization of large volume data sets is an

increasingly important research problem with

applications in a variety of domains such as scientific

visualization, medical imaging, physical simulations

and sciences such as oceanography, meteorology, or

chemistry. Of particular interest are scientific

visualization applications in the areas of material

simulations, computational fluid dynamics, blast

simulations, or atmospheric and oceanographic

visualizations. This research project proposes to

develop a hardware-accelerated volume rendering

method using a multiresolution point splatting

approach. The volume data will be organized in a

hierarchical multiresolution data structure that

provides adaptive access and rendering at multiple

levels-of-detail. A user-defined transfer function

assigns color and opacity values to the scalar field.

Volume rendering is performed by projecting the

sample kernels onto the image plane and blending the

color and opacity values, including depth and visibility

attenuation. Hardware acceleration will be achieved by

planar integration of the volumetric blending kernel

and polygonal rendering of samples using alpha

texturing.

The Effects of Diffusion Limits on Capillary Tube

Formation

Adrian Fernandez

Mentor: Steven George

A major limiting factor in the development of three-

dimensional synthetic tissues is the development of a

vascular network within the new tissue. Without blood

supply to nourish the tissue, the size and scope of tissues

able to be created is limited. Understanding capillary

growth is necessary in developing vascular networks for

three-dimensional synthetic tissues. This study

investigates the hypothesis that growth of capillary tubes

is affected by the resistance of diffusion caused by an

increase in the overall depth of the tissue matrix and an

increase in the distance between the fibroblast and the

beads. Human umbilical vein endothelial cells

(HUVECSs) removed from freshly isolated umbilical

cords were subcultured once then seeded onto 150 µmdiameter cytodex beads. The beads were embedded at

the bottom of a tissue matrix and a layer of fibroblasts

was placed in the fibrinogen, separating the beads and

Endothelial Growth Media-2. The overall depth of the

tissue and distance between the fibroblast and the beads

were varied. The data so far indicates that when the

fibroblasts are in close proximity to the beads the

HUVECs primarily form capillary tubes. Moreover, as

the depth of the acellular tissue increases, tube

formation/branching/maintenance does not readily

occur. Capillary tube formation is great affected by the

overall depth of the tissue and the distance between the

fibroblast and the beads.

� ��� � ������������� ���� �������� �! ����"��#������

�.*�

Dress Reform as a Failed Social Movement

Kari Ferver

Mentor: Paul Jesilow

The dress reform movement lasted from about 1850 to

1900 and involved groups of women, who wanted to

reform their clothes to be healthier and more

comfortable. The women formed clubs, held

conventions to show off reform clothes, and listened to

many speeches on the issue. The dress reform

movement, however, had a number of problems that led

it to fail. The dress reformers were almost uniformly

from the same social class and circles, they disagreed on

how, why, and to what extent dress should be reformed,

and many of them, even though they supported the

movement, did not wear reformed clothes due to factors

like cost and fear of ridicule. This paper utilizes

newspaper articles from the 1800s to illustrate the

reasons why the movement failed. Most research has

reported on successful social movements, so examining

dress reform adds to our understanding of social

movements by focusing attention on why movements

might fail.

Effects of ZnCON3 Supplementation in a

Transgenic Model of Alzheimer’s Disease

Jun FloresMentors: Paul Adlard, Carl Cotman & J. Patrick Kesslak

Previous studies have suggested that low levels of zinc inthe brain may contribute to impairments in nervous,endocrine and immune systems, and this may be relatedto deficiencies in antioxidant defense mechanisms.Furthermore, aged mice show impairments in cognition,one of the characteristics of Alzheimer's disease (AD)that correlate with decreased levels of zinc. Thereasoning is that high levels of oxidative stress (due tolow antioxidants) may make aged brains susceptible tofree radical mechanisms. While many studies haveexamined the effects of low zinc levels on the brain, weare exploring the effect of high concentrations of zinc inthe brain. Since the mechanism of zinc mimics that ofendogenous calcium, we predict high levels of zinc willalso a have neurotoxic effect. We gave ZnCO3 indrinking water supplementation to double mutatedtransgenic mice (TgCRND8), an animal model for AD,four months following weaning. Then, mice underwentMorris Water Maze testing in conjunction with theAtlantis Platform to test reference memory, followed bythe moving platform task to test for short-term memory.The final day tested for blindness. After sacrificing mice,immunohistochemisty fluorescence was performed todetermine amyloid plaque densities. Preliminary resultsshow high frequency in platform finds for controlgroups compared to the experimental group, which

suggests that the elevated zinc levels have had a negativeeffect on the brain. However, immunohistochemistryrevealed no difference in plaque density among zn+/tgand zinc-/tg groups.

Splice Variants of ALDH3A1 in Human Corneal

Tissue

Joel FreedmanMentor: Donald Brown

Aldehyde Dehydrogenase 3A1 (ALDH3A1) is veryabundant in corneal tissues, making up as much as 40%of the water-soluble protein. We found splice variantsfor ALDH3A1 that are highly expressed in humancorneal tissue. We wish to determine if these variants arefunctional in human corneal cells. RNA was isolatedfrom corneal epithelium and stroma and from primarycultures of epithelial and stromal fibroblasts. cDNA wasproduced by reverse transcription of RNA isolated fromthese cells. Sequencing allowed for the determination ofprobable exon/intron structure by comparison togenomic sequence. Full-length cDNA was then cloned,reamplified and inserted into a suitable plasmid. Theplasmid was sequenced to insure that the inserted cDNAwas oriented correctly and contained no mutations. Wefound that three splice variants are produced in humancorneal tissue. The splice variants were a wild type thatwas not missing any exons, a variant lacking exon twoand another variant lacking exons two and nine. It wasshown that exon boundaries were different for the splicevariants. The sequence of the plasmid showed that theinserted DNA lacked mutations and was orientedcorrectly. Based on transfections of a plasmid fromearlier experiments, transfection should be an effectivemeans of introducing these variants into cells. Once thesplice variants have been introduced to cells, we willassess whether the variants produce protein and whetherit is enzymatically active.

Bridging the Gap Between Two Techniques Used

to Assess Brain Activity

Stephanie GadiomaMentor: Ron Frostig

Trying to determine the entire region of the brain thatresponds to a particular stimulus requires the ability torecord from large brain regions. Two commontechniques for such a determination include IntrinsicSignal Imaging (ISI) and single unit recording. ISI offersminimal damage to brain tissue as well as simultaneousrecording of a large brain region with high spatialresolution, while single unit recordings can only assessone point location in the brain at a time and damagescortical tissue. However, ISI is an indirect measure ofbrain activity while single unit recordings can directly

� ���������� �������� ����������� �������� ��������� ������ ��.��

record from brain cells. In order to allow for a more

direct comparison of results obtained by these two

techniques, it is necessary to find a stimulus that ISI can

use that is common to that of single unit recordings. In

studying the activity evoked in the subregion of the brain

that processes touch information from large whiskers on

an animal’s snout, the stimulus typically used for imaging

is striking a whisker 5 times within a period of 1 sec,

while for single unit recordings, it is a single strike to the

whisker lasting less than 10 millisecond. For this project,

imaging data were collected where two different types of

trials were randomly interlaced, with one trial containing

the typical imaging stimulus and the other trial

containing a single unit recording stimulus of 5

millisecond. Based on the results obtained from this

pilot study, it seems that a stimulus of 5 millisecond does

not evoke a signal that can be reliably detected by ISI.

The Role of Pro-Indigenous Movements Within

Bolivian Resistance to Multi-National Corporations

Rosalba Gama

Mentor: Raul Fernandez

In the 1970s and 80s Bolivian pro-indigenous

movements, like the Katarista movement of 1973,

advocated for bilingual education, traditional medical

practice, recognition of indigenous territory, and cultural

identity while challenging western modernization and

privatization of natural resources. These movements

came after a long history of U.S. reinforcement of anti-

indigenous sentiments and were able to open up the

communication between tribes, encourage active

participation in problem solving and provide the

resources necessary to dialogue with government

officials and hold them accountable. Previous studies

demonstrate that opposition to modernization and

western culture was instrumental in protecting the land

from multinational corporations ready to extract the

natural resources on which the economy depended.

Resistance movements to multinational corporations

were then successful because of pro-indigenous

movements and the preservation of indigenous culture.

Some examples include the 1990 March for Territory

and Dignity protecting the Chimanes forest, the 2000

movement against water privatization under the Aguas

de Tunari concession, and the 2003 uprising to stop the

selling of natural gas to Chile and California.

Democracy in Iraq: The Possibility of a

Functioning Democracy in Post-War Iraq

Matthew Garfinkle

Mentor: Russell Dalton

In the spring of 2003, the United States and British

military coalition removed Saddam Hussein’s regime

from power in Iraq. Roughly a year later, the war seems

to have just begun. Although a date for transferring the

governing power over to the people of Iraq was

scheduled for June, uncertainty about whether a truly

functioning democracy can exist in post-war Iraq has

largely grown. Considering the history of Iraq, and its

present social and political conditions, what is the

possibility of a truly successful democracy existing in

post-war Iraq? This research project was designed to

analyze the current conditions of Iraq and compare them

with the work and theories of political scientists on the

subject of democratic development. From this, I offer

predictions for the future of Iraq and what I believe is

necessary for a functioning democracy in the country.

Reconstructing Manzanar Relocation Center’s

Physical Landscape and its Historical Implications

Marion Gee

Mentors: Sarah Farmer & David Igler

In 1942, the U.S. government forcibly evacuated and

interned 110,000 Japanese Americans in concentration

camps, like the Manzanar Relocation Center. Generally,

historians have considered the environment of these

camps as a backdrop to the drama of internment. Using

the methodology of landscape studies and

environmental history, this paper reconsiders the natural

and built landscape of Manzanar as an historical force,

reconstructing the changes to Manzanar’s natural

environment and how those changes were interpreted.

The government, the internees, and outsiders literally,

aesthetically, and rhetorically manipulated Manzanar’s

landscape for their own respective ends. Government

administrators designed and built the barracks, net

factory, and farms, largely to exploit the land and labor

for war production. To justify and diminish the dismal

conditions this entailed for the internees, the

administrators used pioneering rhetoric, claiming that

reclamation of the desert was a baptism by wilderness

that would prove the internees’ loyalty and patriotism.

The internees made their own improvements to the

barracks, built gardens, and created artwork, which most

importantly reflected a literal and aesthetic landscape of

protest, employing Manzanar’s natural resources to

benefit the internees while resisting economic

exploitation and the erosion of Japanese culture.

Outsiders, who crafted and framed their own vision of

Manzanar in their words, photographs, and memories to

fit their personal understandings of internment, further

manipulated the physical landscape of Manzanar.

Manzanar was a physical as well as a figurative landscape

that held larger meaning and uses for the administration,

the internees, and those outside the barbed wire.

� ��� � ������������� ���� �������� �! ����"��#������

�.'�

A New Approach to Evaluating a Hypothesized

Difference in the Size of the Ebbinghaus Illusion as

Measured by Direct Judgments Versus the Grip

Aperture of Reaching Movements

Holly Gerhard

Mentor: Charles Wright

In the Ebbinghaus illusion, two (central) circles of the

same physical size appear to differ in size because they

are surrounded by sets of smaller or larger (inducing)

circles. Previous research claims to show that this

illusion--i.e. the size of the inducing circles--does not

affect the distance between the thumb and forefinger

(grip aperture) when reaching to pick up a central disc,

although this claim has been highly controversial. This

poster presents results based on a new procedure that

eliminates the scaling problems inherent in comparisons

of perceived illusion size and differences in grip

aperture. Implications for the "what/how" theory of

ventral/dorsal dissociation of visual processing are

discussed.

Expression of Aromatase in Cerebral Vessels:

Modulation by Sex Hormones

Amir Ghaffari

Mentors: Sue Duckles, Rayna Gonzales & Diana Krause

Circulating estrogen increases the production of

vasodilator substances in the endothelium of cerebral

blood vessels. Many tissues have the capacity to produce

estrogen locally via the enzyme aromatase. Aromatase

has been detected in some vascular tissues including

aortic smooth muscle; however, it is not known if

aromatase is present in cerebral blood vessels.

Therefore, we tested the hypothesis that aromatase is

present in rat cerebral blood vessels. Given the recent

interest in vascular effects of hormone replacement

therapy (HRT), we also investigated whether aromatase

levels were regulated by treatment with either estrogen

or medroxyprogesterone (MPA), which are combined in

a common form of HRT. We also investigated the effect

of chronic testosterone treatment in males. Blood vessels

and aorta were isolated from whole brain of four groups

of female rats: ovariectomized (OVX), OVX implanted

with pellets of estrogen or MPA alone, and with both

hormones combined. Orchiectomized male rats (ORX)

and ORX rats treated with testosterone were also

studied. Western analysis revealed the presence of

aromatase in cerebral vessels from both males and

females. Chronic hormone treatment did not alter

aromatase expression in cerebral vasculature.

Interestingly, aromatase protein levels were increased by

estrogen treatment in aorta in females, and this was

prevented by the addition of MPA. Our results indicate

that estrogen may be produced locally in the cerebral

vasculature. Furthermore, modulation of aromatase

levels in the aorta suggests the existence of a positive

feedback mechanism in estrogen production.

Release Kinetics of BMP-2 Covalently Bound to

Polymer Substrates

Nareg Gharibjanian

Mentor: Jay Calvert

Bone tissue engineering seeks to develop a viable bone

substitute by combining transplanted cells, a bio-

absorbable polymer scaffold, and growth factors. To

date, growth factors have only been added to polymer

scaffolds by passive absorption; in contrast, we are able

to attach bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2) to

polymer by covalent binding. This study examined the

amount of BMP-2 remaining covalently bound over an

extended period of time, and its release kinetics. To

demonstrate covalent binding of BMP-2 to polymer,

poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) and polycaprolactone

(PCL) coated microscope slides were prepared by spin-

casting. BMP-2 was bound to the slides by peptide

linkage catalyzed by N-ethyl-N’-(3-

dimethylaminopropyl) carbodiimide (EDAC). The

binding of growth factor was then visualized by

immunohistochemistry. To determine release kinetics, a

24-well plate was coated with polymer. BMP-2 was

bound to the polymers again using EDAC. The amount

of bound BMP-2 was determined by measuring the

amount of un-reacted BMP-2 by ELISA. The wells were

then filled with osteocyte culture medium, which was

changed daily for 2 weeks. The amount of BMP-2

released into the media each day was likewise measured

by ELISA. BMP-2 was slowly released from PCL over 2

weeks, with 36% remaining bound on day 14; in

contrast, PLGA retained more BMP-2, with 68%

remaining after 2 weeks. In conclusion, BMP-2 can be

covalently bound over an extended period of time to

polymer. While PLGA and PCL both retained BMP-2

for 2 weeks, more BMP-2 remained bound to PLGA.

Commercialization of Miniature Paintings in

Udaipur, Rajasthan

Ayesha Ghosh

Mentor: Bill Maurer

Udaipur, a princely state located in Western India, was

the epicenter of culture and the arts prior to 1945.

However, the dawn of its independence brought with it

an end to the independent kingdom of Udaipur and as a

result the art forms that originated in Udaipur went

through major transformations. These transformations

were further exacerbated by the advent of tourism in the

1960s, which created a commercial market for these

paintings. My purpose is to explore the changes that

� ���������� �������� ����������� �������� ��������� ������ ��.-�

have taken place in the art form of miniature paintings,

especially Mewar miniatures, since Indian independence.

I will be looking at the thematic, visual and technological

changes that have taken place in miniature paintings as a

result of its commodification. I will further explore the

plight of the painters and how their social conditions

have changed due to the commercialization process.

Today, the art industry in Udaipur is comprised of

several middlemen who are responsible for placing a

particular value on the Mewar miniatures. I will explore

how this value-system is determined according to

capitalistic principles and how this has led to the

transformation of art to craft. My research is based on

extensive interviews that were conducted with the

painters at Udaipur, which shed light into their present

conditions.

The Bard’s Trail

Dylan Gibson

Mentor: Keith Fowler

Our objective is the creation, preparation, and

performance of a traveling variety show combining

the spirit of the campfire with classical and

contemporary theatre, which will tour the High Sierra

Territories of Yosemite National Park. Our intention

is to present to an audience that is isolated from

conventional forms of entertainment with an

unexpected and enlightening experience meant to

increase their understanding and appreciation of

established works of theatre, while simultaneously

rekindling the spirit of the campfire.

Characterizing Radiation Patterns and Return Loss

of RF Antennas

Leland Gilreath

Mentors: Franco De Flaviis & Alfred Grau

The antenna is the first part of any wireless device to be

affected by an incoming signal (electromagnetic

radiation), and thus the design of the antenna directly

affects the capability of a device to hold a strong and

stable signal. Antennas are not just randomly made from

a piece of metal; they are actually very precise

instruments that take a lot of time to develop. The basic

goal of the designer is to make the antenna capable of

receiving and maintaining a strong and clear signal, while

at the same time making the antenna as small and energy

efficient as possible. To do this, it is necessary to

understand the radiation patterns and return loss that an

antenna will create at different frequencies. These two

parameters are used in the characterization of all

antennas. Research data of the radiation patterns and

return loss profiles of an antenna is what designers need

to better understand how a given antenna is behaving,

and how they can further optimize its design. Over the

past several months I have written software that we used

with the anechoic chamber (a special radiation absorbing

room which is used to test antennas) at the UCI

microwave laboratory. The software I wrote takes data

generated in the chamber, and creates full reports, which

characterize antenna performance.

Transnational Youth Identity: A Comparative

Analysis of Chicano Punks in Santa Ana, California

and Mexican Punks in Guadalajara, Mexico

Crystal Gonzalez

Mentor: Leo Chavez

Identity has been described as an imaginary type of

ongoing self-portrait. It is imperative then, that we ask

ourselves how and why individuals across borders are

imagining themselves similarly. My research explores the

role of culture, power, and place in the appropriation

and articulation of transnational punk imaginaries.

Through field research conducted in Guadalajara,

Mexico and Santa Ana, CA, I will discuss how global,

transnational and local processes converge and diverge,

producing unique and hybridized punk expressions. I

argue that though Chicano and Mexican punk music and

culture tie back to punk rock, essentially born in Great

Britain in the early 70s as a response to the over-

commercialization and inadequacy of rock and roll,

Mexican and Chicano youth have produced distinct

styles, leisure activities, scenes, and social networks.

These manifestations of punk identity have served to

frame the social and political demands of these youth,

and as sites of resistance, serve to highlight the

relationships of power at play in the negotiation of punk

identity.

The Role of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor in

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Michael Gray

Mentor: Ranjan Gupta

Clinicians have remained perplexed as to the molecular

nature of the altered vascularity associated with carpal

tunnel syndrome. Vascular endothelial growth factor

(VEGF) is a potent mitogen for endothelial cells and

previous studies have shown that Schwann cells are the

principle source of VEGF in the peripheral nervous

system. To explore the possibility that Schwann cells and

VEGF play a role in the altered vascularity that occurs

with chronic nerve compression (CNC), we used a

previously described rat model of CNC. Non-

constrictive silastic tubing was atraumatically placed

around the right sciatic nerve of each animal and nerves

were harvested after 2 weeks, 1 month, 2 months, and 6

� ��� � ������������� ���� �������� �! ����"��#������

�..�

months. Non-isotopic in-situ hybridization (ISH) was

used to evaluate VEGF mRNA expression and

fluorescent immunohistochemistry (IHC) was used to

localize protein expression of VEGF and its receptors

flk-1 and flt-1. The number of blood vessels in each

nerve was also counted to determine the functional

effect of VEGF expression. Results from ISH and IHC

demonstrated a marked increase in both mRNA and

protein expression of VEGF. The receptors for VEGF

were also up-regulated in the CNC nerve specimens.

There was a marked increase in the number of blood

vessels present at the 6-month time point, compared to

earlier time points. The data supports that Schwann cells

respond to CNC injury with the up-regulation of VEGF

and its receptors. Future studies will determine if this

response is a direct result of ischemia or serves to

provide neuroprotection for injured neurons.

Where Science and Law Intersect

Christina Green

Mentor: Roger McWilliams

Protecting rights is a fundamental ideal of the United

States. This includes the protection of ideas of a person.

The United States Patent Office is crucial in this process,

allowing anyone with an original, non-obvious idea to

file a patent application, and if approved, prosecute

anyone who has infringed on such a patent. Just as the

Supreme Court makes critical decisions in constitutional

rights, such as with segregation or abortion rights, a

decision on one large patent case may affect the

judgment of other patent cases to come. One such case

was Litton Systems, Inc. v. Honeywell, Inc. in 1990,

which helped define the difference between literal

infringement and infringement by equivalence. After

introducing the patent system, the scientific processes

for making Ring Laser Gyros using an Ion Beam Source

is discussed, with physical specifications and empirical

results. The terms of accused infringement by Honeywell

are also discussed, as well as the outcome of the case.

VizION: The Interface Operating Network

Dirk Groeneveld

Mentors: Tara Hutchinson & Falko Kuester

The rise of ubiquitous computing environments in

which the computing systems merge into the

surroundings has created the need for a software

framework that takes away the intricacies of these

systems from the software developer and lets him focus

on creating new applications instead. The requirements

of such a middleware are numerous and challenging.

Since active spaces usually consist of a large number of

devices, the likelihood of one of these failing is quite

high. The system has to be reliable enough to tolerate

these failures gracefully and ensure the correct operation

of all unaffected systems. Another major requirement is

flexibility, as the number and kind of computing devices

that are part of an active space are almost never

predetermined. The software has to be easy to work with

to encourage developers to use it for their applications,

and it has to scale up as the environment that is being

managed by the framework becomes larger and filled

with more appliances. VizION is such a framework. It

meets the requirements by splitting the system into a

large number of independent entities, called nodes,

which communicate via an Ethernet network. VizION

defines a protocol that all nodes share in order to

facilitate communication between them. An

implementation of VizION has been written in the

programming language Python. This implementation has

been tried and tested in UCI’s own ubiquitous

computing environment, VizClass, a digitally enabled

classroom, where it has been supporting numerous

lectures and meetings since Fall 2003.

Interaction of AMPA Receptor Phosphorylation and

AMPA Receptor Modulators on Glutamatergic

Transmission in Hippocampus ���5����

Stacy Gunawan

Mentor: Gary Lynch

The main objective of the present study was to

determine whether alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-

methylisoxazole-4-propionic acid (AMPA) receptor

phosphorylation levels are altered by AMPA receptor

modulators called ampakines. Ampakines are the first

group of allosteric modulators produced to bind to the

extracellular surface of AMPA receptors and augment its

function by desensitizing the glutamate receptor.

Ampakine-induced glutamate desensitization has been

shown to enhance synaptic current, and thus, being

investigated as a therapeutic tool to improve cognitive

function. Phosphorylation at distinct amino acid residues

on AMPA receptor subunit GluR1, specifically at ser845

and ser831, is thought to be critical in the desensitization

and activation of the AMPA receptor. Therefore, we

hypothesized that ampakine mediated increases in

baseline synaptic responses is caused by a concomitant

increase in GluR1 phosphorylation. To test this, field

excitatory postsynaptic potentials were recorded from rat

hippocampal slices treated with ampakine CX717,

followed by quantitative protein analysis for the GluR1

subunit. Electrophysiological recordings revealed that

baseline synaptic responses increased to approximately

20% above baseline in slices treated with CX717. Slices

treated with okadaic acid, a phosphatase inhibitor, had

minimal effects on baseline synaptic transmission. A

combined treated of CX717 with okadaic acid produced

a 40% increase in synaptic potentials 1 hr after infusion.

� ���������� �������� ����������� �������� ��������� ������ ��.��

Surprisingly, preliminary data from protein analysis

measured from these same slices show an opposite

effect on phosphorylation than what was predicted.

Western blot analysis revealed a decrease in the level of

GluR1 phosphorylation in slices treated with CX717 and

okadaic acid alone, while a combined treatment of the

two compounds retained phosphorylation levels similar

to control slices. This suggests that AMPA receptor

phosphorylation may be sufficient, but not necessary to

induce increases in AMPA receptor mediated currents.

Labor Supply and the Economic Growth and Tax

Reconciliation Act of 2001

Jeanette Gurrola

Mentor: Sarah Senesky

The Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation

Act of 2001 was enacted by President Bush to help the

economy from falling into a deeper recession. At the end

of a ten-year period, this act will provide a tax cut of

$1.35 trillion to taxpayers. The Act was passed to spur

additional consumption. However, the increase in

effective wages caused by the tax change may affect

individuals’ choices of working hours. The purpose of

this study was to examine the influence of the income

tax cut on the labor supplied by individuals in terms of

weekly hours worked. Data from the 2003 and 2002

Current Population Survey March Supplement were

analyzed with a multiple regression analysis in

conjunction with a differences-n-differences approach.

The results suggested that the tax cut actually stimulated

a substitution effect, where taxpayers chose to work

additional hours to accumulate more income.

Defective DNA Damage Response in Mlh3 and

Mlh3/Pms2 Deficient Mouse Embryonic

Fibroblasts

Wayne Hagen

Mentor: Steven Lipkin

Multiple homologues of E. coli MutL participate in

eukaryotic DNA mismatch repair (MMR) processes. In

Hereditary Non-Polyposis Colon Cancer (HNPCC)

families, MLH1 mutations are common while PMS2,

MLH3 and PMS1 mutations are rare. Furthermore,

DNA-damage response phenotypes in mice doubly

deficient in Mlh3 and Pms2 are indistinguishable from

Mlh1 deficient mice. Our data demonstrate that MLH3

plays a greater role in mammalian cancer prevention

than previously believed. Partial functional redundancy

between MLH3 and PMS2 for mutation avoidance and

DNA damage induced apoptosis may explain why,

among MutL homologues, only MLH1 mutations are

common in HNPCC. Homozygous MLH1, MSH2,

PMS2 and MSH6 (but not MSH3 or PMS1) mutant

human and mouse cell lines demonstrate increased

resistance to cell death and decreased levels of apoptosis

in response to alkylating agents, such as 6-thioguanine

(6-TG) treatment, a DNA alkylation mimetic. Following

6-TG exposure, Mlh3-/- mouse embryonic fibroblasts

(MEFs) displayed increased resistance compared to wt

cells, similar to Pms2-/- MEFs. Of further interest, the

double null Mlh3-/-/Pms2-/- MEFs showed a degree of

resistance greater than either the Mlh3-/- or Pms2-/-

MEFs. To examine whether increased survival was

attributable to lower apoptosis rates, TUNEL assays

were performed. Consistent with previous studies, Mlh3-

/-Pms2-/-, Mlh3-/-, and Pms2-/- MEFs showed reduced

DNA damage induced apoptosis compared to wt MEFs.

These results suggest resistance to apoptosis is an

important mechanism of carcinogenesis in Mlh3 mutant

cells.

Location-Aware Web Services

Amir Haghighat

Mentor: Cristina Lopes

Location-aware systems are systems that display

information according to the user’s location in the

physical space. We have developed a location-aware

system to be used within a building and as an extension

of a Web service. The system can be separated into two

distinct components: the positioning system and the

protocol for exchanging location information between

the clients and the web server. In this presentation we

focus on the latter by introducing Location-Aware Web

Services (LAWS), built on top of the Hypertext Transfer

Protocol (HTTP). LAWS frees the system from having

to maintain a dedicated connection for the exchange of

location information. That information is embedded in

the HTTP requests sent from the roaming device to the

web server.

Childhood ADHD Symptomatology in Parents: A

Risk Factor for Children with ADHD?

David Hallowell

Mentor: Carol Whalen

Perceived sense of parenting efficacy and levels of

parental psychopathology were compared between

parents of children with ADHD who themselves had

childhood symptoms of ADHD, and parents of children

with ADHD who reported few such childhood

symptoms. Children of each parent group were

compared on mood profiles attained using electronic

diaries. 24 parent-child dyads that included children

diagnosed with ADHD who were being treated via a

long-acting stimulant taken once daily were placed into

one of two groups, based on whether or not the parent

reported ADHD symptoms meeting diagnostic criteria