GS4 Student Scholars Symposium

The presentation will explore the lived experience of Black Americans as victims of settler colonialism under chattel slavery and its implications on Black identity.

The lone star tick, Amblyomma americanum, is the most common tick in Georgia. It is
mainly known as an Ehrlichia spp. vector, but its microbiome can be diverse, depending on
geography, developmental stage, and season. Little is known about bacterial diversity in ticks from the southeastern U.S. A Nanopore MinION sequencer was used to analyze the bacterial microbiome in A. americanum from the Statesboro region. DNA was extracted from 35 nymphs, 39 males, and 39 females. DNA samples were pooled by month of collection and life stage/sex, amplified with barcoded 16SrDNA primers, and sequenced. Approx. 77% of the identified genera corresponded to environmental microbiota. Bacterial genera, commonly associated with ticks, such as Anaplasma, Ehrlichia, Rickettsia, Borrelia, Coxiella, and Rickettsiella, were detected with variable prevalence rates. Borrelia spp. was found only in males from March, while Rickettsia, Coxiella, and Rickettsiella were found in all genders/ life stages and months.

Acridine compounds are being widely researched as potential cancer therapeutics. We have tested several different compounds, some have been previously reported as well as some that are newly synthesized, on A549 (lung) cancer cell line, PC3 (prostate) cancer cell line, and BT5 (breast) cancer cell line. An MTS assay, a colorimetric procedure, was used to measure cell viability at 48 hours after dosing with 50uM concentration of the compounds. Confocal microscopy was used to count nuclei, visualize morphological changes, and image the inherent fluorescence of the most cytotoxic compound at 24 hours via DAPI staining. All compounds contained a chloride and an oxygen-methyl group attached to the base acridine structure, but the most potent also contained an alcohol group attached to the central nitrogen. Future studies are to evaluate possible molecular targets of the compounds inside the cells as well as test on other cancerous and non-cancerous cell lines.

Artificial Intelligence(AI) is reshaping society, influencing industries, daily life, and human interactions. But at what cost? AI enhances efficiency with automation, decision-making, healthcare, business, and so much more; but also raises concerns about bias, privacy, and job displacement. Accessibility, productivity and problem-solving are improved through innovations driven by AI and are challenging existing norms, but require ethical governance. The societal impact of AI solely depends on responsible development, regulation, and integrate to ensure fairness, inclusivity, and privacy. It is crucial to understand AI's influence to balance the benefits and risks in it's place of shaping the future.

Undergraduate women are at risk of developing internalizing symptoms in response to relational stressors and social norm pressures associated with college life. Co-rumination, excessive and ongoing discussion between two or more people about emotionally distressing topics, both increases connection and intimacy between friends and increased risk of depressive symptoms. Relationships may then be mechanisms of risk when support is sought in ineffective ways. The goal of the current study is to extend research on co-rumination and depressive symptom risks in friend dyads to friend clusters within larger social networks. First, I hypothesize that a homophily effect of co-rumination will exist within friend clusters such that individual co-rumination will predict cluster average co-rumination. Second, I hypothesize that co-rumination will account for a depression homophily such that higher group average co-rumination levels will be associated with higher group average depressive symptoms. Hypotheses will be tested using social network analysis and multi-linear modeling.

We present a proof-of-concept design for an atomtronic rotation sensor consisting of an array of "double-target" Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs). A "target" BEC is a disk-shaped condensate surrounded by a concentric ring-shaped condensate. A "double-target" BEC is two adjacent target BECs whose ring condensates partially overlap. The sensor consists of an nxm array of these double-target BECs. The measurement of ΩR is carried out by creating the array of double-target BECs (setup step), inducing unit of quantized flow in the top ring of each member of the array (initialization step), applying potential barriers in the overlap region of each member (measurement step), and observing whether the induced flow is transferred from the top to the bottom ring in each member (readout step). We describe simulations showing that a single instance of a double-target BEC behaves in a way that enables correct operation of an nxm array for measuring ΩR.

Gender is often described as a social construct. This description usually contrasts social construction with other unchanging, unambiguous concepts. Through Chiara Bottici's analysis, I argue the concept of myth breaks us from this dichotomy. By understanding myth as the persistent creation of significance through narratives in response to a need, we no longer leave myth to untruth and unreality. Instead, we see myths as a way to direct people’s actions by giving them a way to see the world. By integrating Bottici with Merleau Ponty's phenomenology, I argue the significance of myth occurs through embodiment by organizing gestures. These gestures take on a system of significances that give us a coherent world. This system of gestures produces gender scripts. The question is not how we reject such scripts and their received meanings. The question becomes: how can we act our gender to produce a more open mythology?

In recent years, the deployment of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), particularly drone swarms, has gained attention due to their applications in military operations, agriculture, public safety, and disaster management. While its benefits are evident, controlling multiple UAVs by a single operator remains a complex challenge. Those existing control methods for swarms can fall short in uncontrolled environments. This proposal addresses the problem by introducing a novel approach that tracks hand movements in space by a 3D-LiDAR, allowing the operator to intuitively steer the drone. This approach leverages the depth-information from the laser to determine the relative change of the hand movement at an update frequency of 20Hz. The derived flight controls are then sent to the testing drone (DJI Tello). The proposed system promises to enhance the resilience and intuitiveness of UAV control, allowing for broader usage of unmanned aerial vehicles in those and other applications.

Blow flies (Diptera: Calliphoridae) are a key insect family utilized by forensics entomologists to generate a minimum postmortem interval (mPMI) or “time of death” estimate for human decedents. While it is assumed that blow flies are inactive at night, this experiment aims to determine if blow flies are searching for oviposition sites at night. If active, mPMI estimates could be altered by as much as 12 hours; a critical amount of time in a homicide investigation. Blow flies were collected over a total period of 10 days in different months and analyzed with JMP Pro 17. After analysis, there was a significant difference in the amount of blow flies collected at night as opposed to daytime which further confirms the previously held idea that Calliphoridae are inactive at night. This research and further research could potentially improve the accuracy and reliability of mPMI calculations used in criminal cases.

Microfluidics studies of live cell migration require creating a controlled chemical gradient that depends on flow rate. While we develop this technology with that goal in mind, we currently use cell substitutes. In this work, we use Fiji-ImageJ to track particles flowing through a microfluidic device and determine their velocities. As particles are buoyant, we use them to measure flow rates.
Our goal is to develop a methodology for tracking microscopic particles as they navigate through the complex channel structure of these devices and measuring their flow velocities. This process involves manipulating images to fit into the TrackMate plugin for efficient analysis of particle paths, troubleshooting and exploring the software, learning how to code, and processing and understanding the collected data.
This project is a significant milestone for our research group. It will help analyze particle parameters that will later be used to track live cells.

Amphibians are crucial ecosystem indicators, sensitive to environmental shifts like salinity and pollution. Amphiuma means is a large aquatic salamander native to the southeastern United States. They have four limbs that append two toes and reach lengths over a meter. This salamander has limited mobility due to their diminutive limbs, hindering gene flow between isolated wetlands. Gene flow is the transfer of genetic material from one population to another. This study expanded on genetic differences between mainland and coastal populations of A. means in Georgia's barrier islands, which have been spatially isolated for thousands of years. Nuclear and mitochondrial primers were used to amplify a portion of the Rag1 gene and Cytochrome b gene to analyze. I predicted that coastal populations would exhibit less genetic variation due to the isolation of the barrier islands. The results indicated low mitochondrial DNA variation in coastal populations, but, high nuclear DNA variation.

Biofilters are underground structures located in remote areas. Their purpose is to remove Nitrogen(N) and Phosphate(P) nutrients from runoff, therefore reducing the number of pollutants being discharged to the environment. The most common forms of biofiltration include biological or natural systems such as riverbank filtration or soil aquifer treatment, and engineered filtration such as rapid sand filters, or chemical filtration. These designs are successful in N and P removal, however, they have several disadvantages, such as the down time required for cleaning them. Consequently, the utilization of engineered 3D printed biofilters is being developed and tested for its many benefits. These benefits include a high surface area which promotes the growth of microalgae which enhances N and P removal from runoff as well as more space for bacteria that form biofilm to grow. Lastly, it is a cheaper medium to manufacture and easier to clean.