2007

Independent Research 2007

Emily Gornell

Mentor: Prof. Howard Weishaus

Title: United States Environmental Policy (2000-2007)

Abstract: It has become increasingly apparent that a defining issue of this century will be environmental sustainability and development.  With the volume of evidence and concern for global climate change over the past few decades, citizens must begin to understand that environmental policy and politics are central to any efforts that will decrease the impact and risk of this catastrophic scenario.  Throughout the past seven years, the United States environmental policy has been guided by the Bush Administrations ideology.  This research intends to cite the actions the bush administration has and has not taken regarding t the environment and what actions need to be taken in order

ShirleyIdumonyi

Mentor: Dr. John Horne

Title: Stem Cells in the Treatment of Parkinson's Disease

Abstract: It is thought that Parkinson's Disease may be the first disease to be amenable to treatment using stem cell transplantation. Factors that support this notion include the knowledge of the specific cell types, called DA neurons, needed to relieve the symptoms of the disease and the success in developing methods to induce embryonic stem cells to differentiate into cells with many of the functions of DA neurons. To be clinically competitive a stem-cell based therapy must lead to long-lasting, significant improvement in mobility, ameliorate currently intractable symptoms, or counteract disease progression. In addition, to make stem-cell therapy work for Parkinson’s Disease, dopaminergic neurons with the characteristics of substantia nigra neurons must be produced in large numbers. If stem cells are used for Parkinson’s Disease, the hope is that they could provide clinical benefits by neuronal replacement, remyelination, and neuroprotection.

Raj Shrestha

Mentor: Dr. Robert Isaak

Title: Microfinance: Learning from the Failures

Abstract: Microfinance has been proven to be one of the effective means of alleviating poverty. However, great successes are frequently accompanied by great risks. These risks have also caused mistakes that have ended up as failures. My research question revolves around how by studying unsuccessful cases we can learn from these failures to better develop the microfinance system as well as understand how to improve group-based microfinance programs in order to make an even larger and more significant contribution. In other words, why do microfinance projects fail and what can we learn from these failures to make microfinance projects stronger agents of poverty alleviation?  This study examines various failed microfinance programs across the globe, focusing primarily on South Asia. Operations of the entire microfinance process is examined.

Jessica Sproul

Mentor: Dr. Sergey Kazakov

Title: Hydrogels as Syntetic Ionic Reservoirs

Abstract: This study is a part of the project entitled “Physico-chemical approach to synthetic and natural ionic reservoirs.”  Synthetic ion-sensitive hydrogels are considered as dynamic ionic reservoirs.  By time-variation of pH in the exterior environment of the hydrogel particles [poly (N-isopropylacrylamide-co-1-vinylimidazole), PNIPA-VI] of nanometer size (<160 um) suspended in aqueous medium, it was shown that the PNIPA-VI hydrogel can release and consume protons in response to the changes in temperature from 25 to 47 degrees Celsius.  Strikingly, the proton exchange in hydrogel suspensions correlates with variations in the pH of the Bacillus subtilis spore suspensions.  There are at least two of the spore integuments, cortex and core, which can be considered as interacting ion-sensitive polymer networks with different mobility of small ions.  The quantitative characteristics of ionic reservoirs (numbers of proton binding sites per spore and apparent binding constants) are discussed.  The results are of great potential for understanding the spores’ alert mechanism to monitor the environment for favorable conditions, future conditions, and future designs of nature-inspired bionanomaterials and sensors.

Jamie Mastrangelo and Michael DeRario

Mentor: Dr. Peter M. Edelstein

Title: E-nnovation in Law

Abstract: Students in Dr. Edelstein's Honors course, "Introduction to Law and the Legal System" will debut a legal web site they created as part of a semester-long project involving civic engagement. To create the website, students went into the community to gather legal questions of interest to the general public. Thereafter, the class researched and answered these questions, posted the information on the web site, and informed the individuals of the availability of the answers to their legal questions.