Clare Booth Luce Undergraduate Research Fund

The goals for this project were to train a convolutional neural network to be able to label game camera images taken in the North Country. Once trained the hope was to use it for Nature Up North projects that involve labeling thousands of images taken each year. Currently these images are labeled by volunteers and this network would be able to at least help sort them faster. At the conclusion of my project, I was able to train two networks – the first sorted images based on any animal presence, and the second sorted images based on animal species.

Ferritin is a kind of protein that exists in the human body with a mix of two different types of molecules called H and L. Diseases such as anemia, cancer, and Alzheimers have been linked to the malfunction of Ferritin in the body. Therefore, research is being conducted to further understand how Ferritin works. We have 2D images of Ferritin, which thanks to a software called Cryo-EM, can be combined to form 3D models of the protein. Unfortunately, the pictures that we have are blurry.

The research conducted for "You're a [Data] Wizard, Harry!" was done through the program of R. Through R, we started with text mining and cleaning of the first Harry Potter film script. From this script and data, we conducted many sentiment analyses for the course of the film and for each individual character. We then applied the sentiment analyses to networks, working to understand the sentiment of dialogue interactions and relationships. Through these analyses, we were able to see the overall connotations for each relationship's dialogue in the first film specifically.

Although they are challenging to see with the naked eye, zooplankton do serve a vital role in an ecosystem. More specifically, we focused on copepods and the nature of their appearance. The pigment that contributes to their coloration is astaxanthin, the purpose of which is possibly for UV protection. We wanted to see how the levels of this pigment related to the location, as well as the time of the year of sampling. It was also important to be able to create a reproducible method for the extraction of astaxanthin, in order to prevent the wasting of material.

Over the last 50 years, Caribbean lagoons have undergone a major transformation from coral- to macroalgal-dominated habitats, coupled with a shift from historically dominant reef-building taxa to more opportunistic, stress-tolerant, non- framework building coral species. Although shallow lagoons protected by barrier reefs are well developed along the northern Jamaican coastline, studies documenting their biota, including major carbonate sediment producers are rare.

In this research project, I analyzed and visualized the interaction between positionality and mental health portrayal in literature utilizing data science techniques coding with R. Specifically, I looked at about 40 YA fiction novels dealing with mental health issues and comparing those with black characters/authors to those with white characters/authors, as well as looking at differences in gender and the impacts of intersectionality.

The advent of remote-sensing technologies (e.g., LiDAR) has been vital to understanding the Earth’s landscape.  The Alaskan transportation sector, for example, relies on these technologies to develop models to better understand landscape stability in Alaska (i.e., Miandad et al., 2020). These desktop models, however, require ground truthing to confirm their accuracy.  Based on a model developed by Miandad et al.

Network analysis is the process of analyzing the structure of a network through graphical and statistical procedures. In other words, network analysis looks at how a set of units (nodes) are connected to one another through directional or non-directional links (edges). For my research project, I explored network analysis and investigated through statistical methods how the directional relationship of assists to goals influences winning percentages for Division III Liberty League soccer teams from 2013-2021.

My research this summer studied a portion of the morphine molecule using the Wagner-Jauregg reaction. The final goal of this research is to use the Wagner-Jauregg reaction to synthesize a morphine-like molecule, that could have reduced addictive properties and allow people to use morphine without the risk of addiction. The Wagner-Jauregg reaction involves a double Diels-Alder reaction between a diene and dienophile. This reaction allows us to use cheaper and readily available molecules to synthesize more complex molecules, such as morphine.

Alaska’s interior transportation corridors are susceptible to landslide events and are often burdened by excessive repair costs and prolonged repair time. The state requires a new model that can project long-term landscape stability given the constraints of a limited landslide inventory. Miandad et al. (2020) developed a remote sensing model using LiDAR and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) to identify slope stability.

To combat the environmental and health issue of plastic pollution, we are looking to find a degradation process for plastics. There is a known microorganism phanerochaete chrysosporium that has the ability to degrade PET plastic. We used the enzyme that gives the microorganism this property as a basis for our proposed catalysts. To create the catalyst three different metals; Zinc (Zn), Iron (Fe), and Manganese (Mn) were used to metallate meso Tetra (4-carboxyphenyl) porphyrin (TCPP).

 Exposed to the elements, plastic degrades into smaller pieces known as microplastics and nanoplastics.1 These pieces have been found in our terrestrial, aquatic, and atmospheric environment, contaminating our food, water, and air.2 To mitigate this problem, we attempted to synthesize a copper cage that will theoretically break down the plastic to benign monomers of water and carbon. 3

Common tests that are used for biosensing are ones that involve a color change. The existing methods that are used to detect the color change can be inconvenient in terms of size, cost, and requirements for specialized training. The method that we suggest, which was tested in this research project, is taking colorimetric readings with a multispectral sensor. These sensors are inexpensive, portable, customizable, and do not require extra steps, such as wavelength calibration or image processing.

Corals are brightly colored marine invertebrates composed of sac-like polyps that produce calcium carbonate which bind individual organisms together creating colonies called coral reefs. They are commonly named the “rainforest of the ocean” because of the unique biodiversity of species that the reef’s ecosystem supports. However, coral reefs would not be able to survive without the symbiotic relationship between the coral’s skeletons and marine plankton called dinoflagellates which create energy for the coral (Roth et al.).

ArcGIS online (AGOL) has a variety of basemaps to use for remote visualization and analysis. With
numerous basemap options, choosing the best for data collection is fundamental. Different types of
basemaps may affect how we perceive three-dimensional objects (Phillips et al., 1975); thereby, affecting the precision of data collected. This project focused on the length and azimuth data of 60 drumlins in Western, NY from four different, AGOL-provided basemaps: a) USA Topographic, b) default hillshade, c)

TNT is both toxic and explosive, the detection of TNT represents an environmental and security concern. Dogs are often used for detection, but other methods are needed. This research project originally intended to understand how Ruthenium based TNT sensors function by discovering the mechanism by which Ruthenium’s fluorescence is quenched by TNT. Due to the nature of the summer, majority of my time was spent doing a literature review of previous TNT sensors.

Due to the current challenges of the world, learning through videos is a crucial part of class preparation. Educational videos offer students an opportunity to learn in a safe environment. They are unique in their ability to allow students to see something first hand but are accessible from anywhere. The goal of this project is to create a series of organic chemistry lab tutorials. This will allow students to view the videos from home and come into the lab with a better understanding of what they are meant to be doing.

The end result of this project is a Shiny web app which generates four different visualizations of musical data. The data source is the Spotify API, which is easily accessible and provides data for many different artists. The Shiny app allows the user to type in whichever artist they want. First, they will see a simple interactive dotplot of the valence of an artist’s body of work. Valence, a variable used in all of the plots, is a measure of musical turbulence, which allows the user to interpret if a song sounds stable or unstable.

The Office was a culturally influential American comedy show that followed the lives and office interaction of a group of paper company workers, both male and female. The original research questions for the project were: “What is the balance of gender dialogue for each season and the episodes within each season?” and “What is the balance of character complexity for men and women throughout the series?” By exploring these topics through the lens of this show, the goal was to identify possible similar trends of gender representation across the entertainment industry as a whole.

Changes in river discharge have been measured throughout the last century by the U.S. Geological Survey, with data recorded as far back as 1889. The USGS Streamgaging Network provides data related to river flow and chemical and physical parameters, in almost real time. Through the USGS database it is possible to observe long-term trends in discharge rates over a period of time when global population, the use of resources, and a myriad of environmental changes have accelerated. During this project I chose to focus on the Arkansas River and its tributaries.

Though each discipline tends to be regarded as the antithesis of the other, mathematics and art intersect often and with fascinating results. This junction appears notably in the works of M.C Escher, a Dutch artist who, despite his incredulity in having any mathematical prowess, developed his own ideas of plane division which would appear in his tessellations. These tessellations would inspire his interest in what mathematicians call plane crystallographic or wallpaper groups, which are classifications of wallpaper patterns, or two dimensional repetitive patterns.