Wood Frog Abundance and Suitable Habitat in East-Central Missouri
Courtney Meyer
Amy McEuen (Mentor)
Department of Biology
Wood frogs (Lithobates sylvaticus) are unique for their extraordinary ability to freeze up to 70% of their body water during the coldest part of winter and, due to this adaptation, are the only frog found north of the Arctic Circle. This interesting frog is a species of conservation concern at the peripheral southern regions of its range, particularly in the state of Missouri. The purpose of my study is to determine wood frog presence/absence and associated abundance to aid in characterizing suitable habitat areas in Missouri, specifically in conservation areas, state parks, and privately owned and managed nature reserves. I am surveying over 100 ponds found in 17 locations across 3 Missouri counties to determine wood frog egg presence and abundance during the spring 2021 and 2022 breeding seasons (March/April). My study also seeks to identify the characteristics of preferred wood frog habitat; such as pond size, depth, and proximity to forest cover. Together, these data can help the Missouri Department of Conservation’s management of wood frog populations by providing information on what habitats should be retained or modified. Habitat in Missouri includes many areas of the state that are at risk of fragmentation and pollution due to agriculture or urbanization. Spring 2021 survey findings showed statistically significant correlations between habitat variables and wood frog abundance, and 2022 findings will be analyzed once the data are collected. This will include an examination of which ponds have persistent populations across two years and what variables correlate with persistence. breeding seasons (March/April). My study also seeks to identify the characteristics of preferred wood frog habitat; such as pond size, depth, and proximity to forest cover. Together, these data can help the Missouri Department of Conservation’s management of wood frog populations by providing information on what habitats should be retained or modified. Habitat in Missouri includes many areas of the state that are at risk of fragmentation and pollution due to agriculture or urbanization. Spring 2021 survey findings showed statistically significant correlations between habitat variables and wood frog abundance, and 2022 findings will be analyzed once the data are collected. This will include an examination of which ponds have persistent populations across two years and what variables correlate with persistence.
Spam Detection using Bidirectional Transformer and Machine Learning Classifier Aglorithm
Zelal Mustafaoglu
Yanhui Guo (Mentor)
Department of Computer Science
Spam emails accounted for high percent of e-mail traffic and created worldwide problems. Deep learning transformer model is an efficient tool in natural language processing. This study proposed an efficient spam detection model based on a pre-trained Bidirectional Encoder Representation from Transformer (BERT) and machine learning algorithms to classify ham and spam emails. Email texts were fed into the BERT and features obtained from the BERT outputs were used to represent the texts. Four classifier algorithms in machine learning: support vector machine, logistic regression, random forest, k-nearest neighbors, were employed to classify the features of the text into ham or spam category. In the experiments, two public datasets were used to train and test the proposed model. The evaluation results demonstrate the logistic regression algorithm achieved the best classification performance in both datasets. They also justified the efficient ability of the proposed model in detecting the spam emails.
Targeting NADPH oxidases to improve human (micro)vascular function: an update on recent experimental and clinical studies
Sylvester Anthony
Natalya Zinkevich (Mentor)
Department of Biology
Reactive oxygen species (ROS) act as signaling molecules in the vasculature health and disease. While low levels of ROS are required for growth and proliferation of endothelial cells, elevated levels of free radicals, contribute to numerous cardiovascular pathologies such as endothelial dysfunctions, heightened thrombosis, inflammation, apoptosis of smooth muscle cells, and degeneration of aortic wall. ROS and their cellular sources have been extensively studied for potential clinical interventions. The enzymatic sources of ROS include nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate oxidases (NADPH oxidases, NOX), mitochondria, endothelial nitric oxide (NO) synthases, and xanthine oxidase. While all these sources are important for different pathologies, four NADPH oxidases (NOX1, NOX2, NOX4, and NOX5) play the prominent role in maintaining vascular homeostasis. NOX1-generated ROS act as hypertensive mediators, suggesting inhibition of NOX1 as a promising therapeutic approach. NOX2- and NOX4 oxidases are of specific interest due to their role in producing extra- and intracellular hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) Thus, NOX4-released hydrogen peroxide activates NOX2, which in turn stimulates release of mitochondrial ROS resulting in ROS-induced ROS release signaling. Increased NOX5 ROS production contributes to atherosclerosis. This study aims to summarize recent findings pertaining to NOX enzymes and highlight clinical trials targeting NADPH oxidases to improve human vascular function.
Online Collaborative Learning: How Students View Communication, Conventions, and Value When Describing The Language of Chemistry
Katelyn Klos & Matthew Lapsley
Layne Morsch (Mentor)
Department of Chemistry
Organic chemistry students from three US and Canadian Universities participated in Online Collaborative Assignments (OCAs) in 2020 during the COVID-19 global pandemic. Students were given an international partner and asked to complete assignments by communicating via video chat. Students completed a different reflection following each OCA. For one reflection, students were asked to complete a Focused Freewrite where they continuously wrote their thoughts without stopping for a certain period of time, replying to the prompt “What is the language of chemistry.” These responses were then analyzed using Thematic Analysis. Recurring, emergent themes were discerned with sub-themes to further categorize responses. The themes presented in this analysis are Rules and Conventions, Importance/Value, and Communication each with their sub-themes. The collected and sorted responses were then analyzed using phenomenology to show the essence of the student experience from OCAs relating to the language of chemistry.
Understanding the Language of Chemistry Through Online Collaborative Learning: An Intersect Between Emotional Responses and Learning
Becky Rose, Ikenna Oduocha, & Hunter Miller
Layne Morsch (Mentor)
Department of Chemistry
Online Collaborative Assignments (OCAs) were assigned between organic chemistry students of three Universities in the U.S. and Canada during the 2020 Fall semester. The OCAs were designed to allow students the opportunity to practice their chemistry knowledge and expand their communication skills by explaining course concepts to an international partner over video-chat. Students were then asked to explain their personal experience with OCAs through a focused free-write on the topic of “The Language of Chemistry.” This study uses thematic analysis to identify the emergent themes of those reflections. Among the themes identified, this study examined “Emotion” and “Learning and Understanding.” These themes were analyzed through the lens of Phenomenography to describe the breadth of student experiences with the chosen themes.
Online Collaborative Assignments (OCA): Breadth of emotional and metacognitive responses about the language of chemistry
Neha Mokhasi & Nicolas McDaniel
Layne Morsch (Mentor)
Department of Chemistry
Online Collaborative assignments (OCAs) at three universities in the United States and Canada were introduced to improve student learning outcomes in introductory organic chemistry courses. Students were asked to communicate organic chemistry content by guiding their partner(s) from an international university via video chat through an assignment that required a multimodal approach. Reflection assignments regarding the OCA were completed by the students, one of which was a focused free write on the topic of “language of chemistry.” Thematic analysis was used to develop the emergent themes which included reflection and metacognition as well as the emotional aspects of the student experience with the language of chemistry. The breadth of student experiences was examined using phenomenography.
Online Collaborative Assignments: Describing the Common Themes of the Fundamental, Universal, and Professional Nature of the Language of Chemistry
Eleni Monroe*, Rory Carlson*, & Jianjun Xia*
Layne Morsch (Mentor)
Department of Chemistry
Online Collaborative Assignments (OCAs) are a series of group style comprehension activities designed to encourage students to think about learning from a novel perspective. In Fall 2019 Organic Chemistry students paired with an international partner between the United States and Canada were assigned OCAs throughout their semester. Students were individually asked to complete a reflection after each assignment. One reflection, a focused 15 minute free write, asks students “What is the Language of Chemistry.” The goal of this study is to use thematic analysis to identify the emerging themes of how student perceive the “Language of Chemistry.” Themes pertaining to Fundamentals of Chemistry, Professionalism, and the Universal nature of the language of chemistry will be presented. Phenomenology was used to analyze what the essence of the overall student experience is relating to these themes.
Large Population Protocol Computable Numbers
Rachel Huls
Xiang Huang (Mentor)
Department of Computer Science
A population protocol (PP) is a distributed computing model for a population of finite-state agents interacting with one another. Random pairwise interactions allow agents to update their states per a set of transition rules. This project focuses on Large Population Protocols (LPPs) which concern the long-term behavior of PPs while their population approaches infinity. A number is said to be computable by an LPP if the sum of population proportions for some subset of states converges to said number as the LPP converges. Therefore, the model is restricted to computing numbers between zero and one. Previously known results showed that protocols with finite equilibria compute exactly the set of algebraic numbers. We aim to show that some transcendental numbers are computable by LPPs while lifting the finitary restriction. Our current result shows that a fraction of (reciprocal of) Euler’s is computable under the new setting. Ongoing investigations include showing Pi/4, Euler’s gamma, and other mathematical constants of interest are computable by LLPs. More generally, we aim to develop an algorithm that transforms polynomial ordinary differential equations systems to population protocols and connect our results with the general-purpose analog computer (GPAC) generable numbers. The investigation is powered by PPSim, a population protocol simulation tool in Python.
Our Building is Run by Women’: Success in the Public Sector for Women in Illinois
Taryn Christy
Amanda Hughett (Mentor)
Department of Legal Studies
This article analyzes the experiences of women in Illinois public sector jobs. Today, Americans think of public sector jobs as a clear path to the middle class. They assume public sector jobs offer generous pensions, secure benefits, and good pay. This study aims to put those assumptions to the test, asking how women access and experience these allegedly stable state jobs. Why do women in Illinois pursue state jobs, and what does this tell us about the conditions that enable women to thrive in the workplace? My analysis of this question is based on eleven in-depth interviews that I conducted with women working for state agencies in Illinois. Interviewees were recruited through the snow-ball method, with each interviewee inviting others to participate in the study through word-of-mouth. Each interview was transcribed and cataloged in a spreadsheet to track similarities in experiences. Ultimately, I found that strong female mentorship played a critical role women’s overall job satisfaction. I also found that internship programs and entry level employment opportunities are essential access-points for women entering the workforce. Additional support from unions further impacted women’s job satisfaction, encouraging them to continue working comfortably in their public-sector jobs for decades. Many even returned to the public sector after temporarily moving to the private sector. My analysis suggests that these elements are critical in ensuring a positive experience for women in the workplace beyond public sector jobs.
Adverse Childhood Experiences: What Should Helping Professionals know?
Jocelyn Nelson
Youngjin Kang (Mentor)
Department of Human Services
The 1994 ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) study all began with a partnership between the Kaiser Permanente and Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to research whether there was a relationship between health risks later in life and childhood abuse and/or household dysfunction. Due to the negative health impacts on mental health and development in adolescence that ACEs can come in the future, it is crucial for helping professionals to be knowledgeable of ACEs, resilience training, training experience with diverse populations, and youth development. It is important to understand the individual pieces of the critical issue before assessing how they are interconnected and affect each other. In this presentation, each component will be discussed, as well as what helping professionals should know about ACEs. Resources that help prevent ACEs will be also discussed.
What is Critical Race Theory and Why It's Under Attack
Jesse Perez
Jennifer Martin (Mentor)
Department of Teacher Education
When it comes to talking about critical race theory (CRT) we need to understand what its true purpose is. That being said, CRT tries to acknowledge how things like the political scope, society ,and the culture as it pertains to white supremacy. Once that is taken into account, CRT scholars primarily look at the effects that either race/racism have on society but try to find a restorative factor to counteract these effects. In this presentation, I will examine the key components of CRT's history, then discuss why it is under attack. I will also share my research on what UIS students think regarding to this topic.
Pedagogies of Listening and Engaging in Memoir Studies
Cindy Daugherty
Lan Dong (Mentor)
Department of English and Modern Languages
My presentation details the creation of a course that studies the memoir genre - specifically trauma and grief memoirs - written by 21st century women and the pedagogical approach of trauma-informed practices that underpin its design. The course focuses on understanding the affordances and challenges of the memoir genre, empathy and listening as approaches to reading difficult texts, and the different ways in which writers approach trauma or grief. The primary texts were deliberately chosen to include varied formats--such as graphic narratives and verses--written by women of diverse backgrounds and experiences. Through blogging assignments, multimodal activities, and research-based writing, students will have the opportunity to practice the elements that we will discuss in our course on memoir: the development of voice in writing, the challenges of recalling painful life events in the present perspective, and choosing what to share and what to exclude in autobiographical writing. My goals are that students leave with a deeper understanding of the memoir genre, a more authentic voice in their own writing, and broadening empathy for the universal human experiences of pain and trauma. To accomplish these course goals, I designed the course around trauma-informed classroom practices, Krista Ratcliffe’s concept of rhetorical listening, and Mark William Roche’s guiding principles of knowledge, action and love in teaching the liberal arts. These conceptual frameworks assisted me in designing a course that invites the students and myself into a community of academic pursuit that fosters openness and respect in the midst of bearing witness to difficult stories.
