Organizational Unit:
Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program

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Publication Search Results

Now showing 1 - 10 of 33
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    Editorial: Interdisciplinary people drive groundbreaking science
    (Georgia Institute of Technology, 2014) Najia, Mohamad Ali
    Over the past 5000 years of human scientific exploration, the concept of “large interdisciplinary research teams” has only recently emerged in an effort to solve complex scientific problems of the modern era. Mammoth scientific projects, where the technical goals have been clearly defined, necessitated the need for large, globally collaborating teams. The Human Genome Project, for example, employed engineers, biologists, chemists and computer scientists spanning four continents. Resting on the successes of the sequenced genome, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 2005 revealed the Roadmap Initiative to encourage, as they term, “new organizational models for team science.” However, have the ideas of interdisciplinary science and large teams become inappropriately intertwined for today’s research questions?
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    Welcome Letter: The National Stage Awaits
    (Georgia Institute of Technology, 2014) Najia, Mohamad Ali
    Editor's introduction to Volume VI of the Tower, Georgia Tech's Undergraduate Research Journal.
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    The REDD+ Programme: Affects on Governance Theory, Market Theory, and a Post-Kyo World
    (Georgia Institute of Technology, 2013) Kotak, Tejas
    The Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation Programme (REDD+) is an international agreement that aims to address the issue of climate change due to deforestation and forest degradation while also encouraging the enhancement of forest stocks in developing countries with tropical forests. This paper aims to address the ways in which REDD+ would fundamentally affect governance and market theories if it is applied, and it discusses REDD+’s potential as a successor of the Kyoto Protocol.
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    Georgia Tech Mathematician Enhances the Predictive Power of a Biodiversity Index
    (Georgia Institute of Technology, 2013) Sakhi, Hifza
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    The Entrance into the Stem Cell Era: An Opportunity for Theraputics, Diagnostics, and Drug Discovery
    (Georgia Institute of Technology, 2013) Najia, Mohamad Ali
    In recent years, stem cell research has emerged as one of the most exciting areas of scientific discovery and medical promise. Human embryonic stem cells capture the imagination because they are immortal and have an almost unlimited developmental potential. After many months of growth in culture dishes, these remarkable cells maintain the ability to form cells ranging from muscle to nerve to blood—potentially any cell type that makes up the human body. The proliferative and developmental potential of human embryonic stem cells promises an essentially basic research and transplantation therapies for diseases, ranging from heart disease to Parkinson’s disease to leukemia. Stem cells can also be used to study an individual’s disease progression in vitro, opening up opportunities for personalized therapeutics and pharmaceuticals.
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    BOLD Signal Changes in Resting State Networks are Related to Performance on a Vigilance Task
    (Georgia Institute of Technology, 2013) Merritt, Mac
    Purpose and Background: Recent research has shown that spatially separated brain regions often display functional synchrony that relates to brain state and human performance. Two important anti-correlated functional networks that are seen with resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) are the default mode network (DMN) and the task positive network (TPN). Analytically defining these two networks to better understand their behavior may have a critical impact on understanding higher level function and human performance. Methods: 17 participants were scanned using fMRI in two different states: while performing the psychomotor vigilance task (PVT) and while in resting state. Using seed based correlation defined networks, the behavior of the TPN and DMN were tested for dynamic behavior after the onset of the task and the shifts in the magnitude of the signal in each network was compared to reaction time on the PVT using a linear regression. Results and conclusion: The signal in each network changed significantly in response to the task (TPN increased with a peak at 6 seconds, DMN decreased with a peak at 12 seconds). The magnitude of the increase in the signal within the TPN was significantly related to response time on the PVT. This study validates a network generation technique that can be used in future studies to further investigate the behavior of functional networks, and it shows a relationship between shifts within the TPN and behavior on this vigilance task.
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    The Origin of the Ribosome
    (Georgia Institute of Technology, 2013) Banerjee, Amrita
    At the Georgia Institute of Technology, there is an organization known as The Center for Ribosomal Origins and Evolution (RiboEvo), headed by Dr. Loren Williams, in which graduate students, post-doctual fellows and research scientists work to understand the biochemistry of early Earth. One focus of the RiboEvo group is the origin of the ribosome: a proposed ancestral version of the ribosome capable of catalyzing peptide bond formation more than 3.5 billion years ago.
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    United Way of Lane County's Promise Neighborhoods and the Benefits of Reading Readiness
    (Georgia Institute of Technology, 2013) McGrew, Jacob ; Lohrke, Elizabeth
    In this paper, we measure statistical relationships between defining characteristics of incoming kindergartners and their initial literacy scores. Our analysis focuses on four elementary schools in Oregon’s Springfield School District: two Promise Neighborhood schools and two comparable non-Promise Neighborhood schools. Using scores from the literacy benchmark tests each incoming student takes upon entering kindergarten— controlling for variables such as family income, English language learners, gender, special education, and ethnicity—we find the defining characteristics with the most significant relationships that influence literacy scores. In the absence of a fully randomized experimental design, we give policy suggestions to United Way of Lane County to more effectively increase early literacy in the Lane County, as well as offer advice on the kinds of additional information that would permit a more definitive future study of the Promise Neighborhoods.
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    Environmental Fate and Transport of Veterinary Antibiotics
    (Georgia Institute of Technology, 2013) Callura, Jonathan Charles
    Veterinary antibiotics such as ionophores and tetracyclines are commonly used in farming operations to prevent disease and promote growth rates in poultry, cattle, and swine. Since waste products from treated animals are used as fertilizers, there is a growing concern that these compounds may leach into the soil and water supply causing chronic low-level exposure to humans and leading to the development of antibiotic- resistant bacteria. Due to close structural similarities and physical properties, nigericin was determined to be an effective surrogate standard for the detection of the monensin, salinomycin, and narasin. Aluminum sulfate addition was considered as a potential treatment method to reduce antibiotic mobility, which resulted in an approximately 80% reduction of recovery rates for tetracyclines in poultry litter samples. Strong anion exchange cartridges were used in tandem with standard hydrophilic-lipophilic balanced cartridges which resulted in more rapid extractions and faster sample processing. Demeclocycline exhibited the potential to be used as a surrogate standard for tetracyclines due to close similarities in detection levels. This study has developed a method for detecting antibiotics in several types of environmental media and reinforced potential treatment methods as a means to reduce the risk of exposure to microcontaminants in the water supply.
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    Risk Informed Design of Offshore Wind Turbine Structures in the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf
    (Georgia Institute of Technology, 2013) Cook, Timothy Wade
    The United States has enormous potential offshore wind energy resources in the Atlantic, Pacific, Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico. However, progress in developing these resources has lagged behind that in Western Europe and no offshore wind farms have been built to date in the U.S. Continental Shelf. Uncertainties in U.S. siting and design criteria, specific regulations and standards, along with a lack of experience have challenged development by increasing both cost and the time to deployment. The reliability of offshore wind turbine farms is critical to industry success and should be secured efficiently with respect to cost. The ability to employ probabilistic risk management and decision theory in the design process of support structures would afford more transparent system reliabilities and more flexibility in design compared with prescriptive design standards. A general framework for risk informed design of offshore wind turbine structures is demonstrated on a typical monopole support structure. The structural parameters are manipulated to adjust the risk and to achieve the desired wind turbine performance at acceptable cost. In order to implement such a design procedure in practice, regulations must stipulate clear performance requirements in terms of system reliability for project approval.