Monica (Xu Wen) Ye
Lecture #1
The head librarian at Rockefeller University, Carol Feltes, began the lecture by
explaining what is research and expanding the idea of selecting a topic of ones own choice. Ms.
Feltes discussed different terms such as methodical, controlled, comprehensive, and the different
resources that is available to the students. Ms. Feltes clarify what is research, research is “to
learn, answer question and verify what is known…” Before beginning to research a student must
choose a topic that interests him or her most, a pick a topic that his or her advisor believes that is
suitable for the student. When researching there are many resources available to students for
example: books, journals, databases, reports, and patents. Students should begin with books
because books have a wide range of information combined together, and because the facts are
true. Journals provide ones own opinion, and it can include an expert’s statement on a particular
topic. Databases is organized, accessible, selected information, including citation information,
and data images. When researching one should know special vocabulary words in order to search
up ones own topic. The usage of patents is worldly used nowadays, patents include citations of
different source and it is very helpful. Ms Feltes stated that it is important to keep your record
clean by citing information correctly, “give credit to where it is due” by verifying the facts, and
always be honest about your work.
Next, Ivan Schoop presented his work. Schoop researched about Mercury- Oxygen
(Secondary Bonding), which is a D/A interaction between oxygen and mercury electron pair also
known as Hg. His goal was to find interaction energies in different distances between Hg and
Secondary Bonds. Schoop’s been motivated to prove an experimental data; due to his motivation
he wanted to explain experimental trends and determine does O…Hg distance affect on the
structure. Schoop used the Density Functional Theory which is a quantum mechanical method
used in physics and chemistry to investigate the electronic structure of many electron. He also
used the computer to do calculations in which he used to construct a graph. Using his
calculations he constructed a graph in which he compared it to the experimental graph. His result
frequency was as distance is increased there is a drop in energy; which means that as distance
increases the energy of the send bond Hg and O will decrease. As a result Schoop’s graph
contains the same idea as the experimental graph; however, his graph formed a line and the
experimental graph contained a curve line. This is important to the community because this
experiment proved the Density Functional Theory, in proving this theory Schoop found a
relationship between the distance and the energy. When conducting this experiment every
component was kept constant and only the distance was moved; what would happen if another
component in this experiment is varied and the distance between two bonds are kept constant?
Lena Mei, Savita Ranlall and Rasheeda Abdullal worked in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden
(BBG). Mei, Ranlall, and Abdullal worked in the Herbarium, a cold room which preserves dried
plants. Scientist that works in the Herbarium preserve plants study different specimen collected
during different times. They used the interactive key which is a program that classifies the plants,
and also helps with the identification of the plants. The Herbarium allows researches to extract
DNA, and record data of that specific specimen. Mei, Ranlall, and Abdullal goals were to use the
old forms and move all the old forms into the current forms. In order to change the old to the
new they used the copy and paste method which allowed them to copy the information from the
old forms to the current forms. The new form works with percent and decimal points when the
old forms used whole numbers, and some parts of the form is different. To practice this method
the girls found a plant named Rubus also known as the blackberry plant; they collected
information about the plant and went through each species of the Rubus genes and used the copy
and paste method. The importance in using the copy and paste method is that the old forms only
allow whole numbers while the new form is updated and is able to work with percents, decimals,
and whole numbers. Can the interactive key be expanded?
Vicky Javier was a previous student and she studied obesity and the Hypothalamus.
Hypothalamus is a relation to obesity and diabetes; Hypothalamus contains a sleep/wake pattern,
temperature and regulations. She studied the nervous system which is divided into the central
nervous and the peripheral nervous system. Javier hypothesize that the lateral Hypothalamus
controls hunger and the Ventromedial Hypothalamus controls the fullness of the stomach. First,
Javier deleted gene: MASH1. Next, she drew blood from the mice this step is also called
perfusion. Following that she isolated the DNA and found the type of the gene of the mouse.
Continuing she amplify MASH1 and NEO with PCR. In this experiment the gender and the
species of the mouse have to be controlled, if there was a change in gender would there be a
different result? In the United States there is such a big issue with obesity and diabetes, and
having someone to research an issue so wide in the United States would be helpful for everyone.
Littin Kandoth and Kenneth D’Sliut presented “Improving the Aerodynamics of a side
Channel Blower”. An Aerodynamic Side Channel Blower is a pump that transfer gas contents
that is used in agriculture, barge, and unloading. The side channel blower is designed similar to a
turbine. When the impeller rotates, the air is sucked in; there is a difference in pressure when the
blower pushes air out and when air is being sucked in. The pressure at the exit point is stronger
so the velocity is greater in air. Their goal was to improve the amount of air flowing through the
blower, increasing the gas per minute. Their plan was also to increase the rate of air flowing
through the side channel blower without increasing the rotation speed of the shaft. When
designing the side channel blower Kandoth and D’Sliut used the Pro EN interface to design and
use ANSYS CFX interface to analyze design. They changed the design of the Siemens Elmo
pump and impel the outer body of the blower and the positioning of the inlet and outlet of the
airflow. When conducting this experiment they failed to improve the flow of air through the side
channel blower; however they found out that velocity and pressure are inversely proportional.
Since the side channel blower is used in agriculture, barge, and unloading in improving the side
channel blower it will help speed up the process of using the side channel blower. If more
pressure is used on the side channel blower will the flow of air increase?
The following presentation is presented by Pratyush Norayan who researched
Micronucleus Formation in Total Body Irradiation. Micronucleus Formation in Total Body
Irradiation (TBI) is a mega for bone marrow transplantation used in treatment of diseases such as
leukemia. Norayan’s objective is to find DNA damages in HPBLS by counting micronuclei; to
conduct this experiment Norayan used light and florescence microscopes, T-25, flasks, tubes,
and Gamma. First he collected blood, and induced the blood to cell division and waited for forty
four hours then Cytochalasin B was added. His conclusion is that micronucleus does separate
from main nucleus and it is abnormal for the micronucleus to form outside a nucleus. This
procedure is important towards the community because the procedure allows doctors to know
how much chemotherapy to give to their patients, so the doctor will not give too little
chemotherapy nor will the doctor give too much to their patients.
Finally, Brandon the mentor of the nutrition and healthy living project presented what
would the students of the project will be conducting. Students in the nutrition group will be
traveling to the five boroughs and evaluate the quality of specific goods and markets. Students
will test their hypothesis and compare their results with other records made by other scientist.
Students in this program will become more aware of geography, analysis and research.
Lecture #2
The lecture began with Professor Genie Ross explaining the petition, codes of ethics,
conduct, and etiquette. Professor Ross stated that one should always be on time for work and to
the lecture hall, and always dress appropriately, professionally, and conduct oneself in a
professional manner. Students should contact their mentor before being absent; students should
not contact their mentors, but should also contact Harlem Children Society staff. Students should
not text or use cell phone for any reason in class or during somebody’s presentation. Next,
Professor Ross stated that the petition is very important because it will represent Harlem
Children Society as a whole. Harlem Children Society is out there to help minorities and because
of the economic crisis in the United States Harlem Children Society needs help, with the petition
Harlem Children Society might get help.
Princess Parker Smith was the first to present her project. Smith worked with incoming
6th graders: sixteen girls and sixteen boys. Her experiment was designed to analyze does gender
affect 6th grader enthusiasm and their general attitude towards Robotics. Before building the
robots Smith did a survey on all girls and boys. As a result, 100% of the children were excited
about this program, 50% of the boys would like people to tell them what to do, 83% of the girls
enjoy building a robot, and 100% of the boys enjoy building a robot. One of the questions ask if
one doesn’t understand what to do will they ask a question 83% of the girls stated that they will
ask questions if they don’t understand. In this experiment the kids were separated into groups of
2-4 mixed, with gender and race. When building the robots the girls were really excited and took
charge, it was also observed that the girls were eager to help building the robots; however, the
boys were bored and often wandered around and not help the girls in completing the robot. When
the Robot was finished the girls became bored, but the boys were really excited. In conclusion,
Smith observed that there was a difference between the survey and reality. In reality the girls
were more enthusiastic about building the robots and building a robot is not based on gender.
The reason why the girls lost interest in the robot is because the boys were not helping in
completing the robot. Smith stated that if the girls and boys worked together, they will spark the
work and they will become more interested in building the robot. Smith is looking forward to
build another robot and survey students about web designs, and looking forward to working with
another class of incoming 6th graders. This kind of experiment is helpful towards the community
because it will help adults understand what the kids are thinking and how the kids work should
work together. How would the girls and boys feel if they didn’t work together, but work with the
same gender?
Next, Professor Fern gave helpful advice to the students entering college. Professor Fern
stated that students should always be networking with other students, teachers, mentors, and
professors. This will be helpful to the students that are applying to college because the mentors
and the professor will give them helpful advice and the mentors and professor will write them
good recommendation. Before taking the SAT or the ACT one should study because this is
extremely helpful taking practice test will let the students understand how the SATs and the
ACTs designed. When a student is applying for college students should talk to their guidance
counselors for scholarships and get as many scholarships as one can. Students should apply to a
college that will not leave the students with a big loan. When writing reports always have a
backup, students should not only save their work on their computer, but also save it on a flash
drive.
Abayom Mariam researched about Ataxia Telangiectasia which is an inherited disease
that affects many parts of the body and causes severe disabilities. Ataxia refers to poor
coordination and Telangiectasia refers to red blood vessels. A-T is an infant disease, and this
affects the cerebellum and weakens the immune system, and this can increase risk of cancer. The
symptoms of Ataxia Telangiectasia are respiratory infection, weird speech and drooling when
speaking, lack of stability, red spider veins, cancer, and premature death. Who gets Ataxia
Telangiectasia? One in every forty thousand people, and there is no treatment for this disease.
Mariam hope for future scientist to look into this disease and come up with a cure. Even though
not many people have this disease, this is an inherited disease and each person has a chance of
getting this disease. Scientist should look into researching this disease.
Nowadays, our air is filled with pollution so Sithi Momtaz decided to test air in different
places and decides what environment is best for children. Momtaz created new monitors to test
that is designed to take a little bit of air from different places. The new monitors that she
designed is small, easy to handle, quiet, and it can last up to forty- eight hours. The materials that
she used to build the new monitor are filters, blue-tooth tick, sample, and GPS units. There are
three methods in creating the new monitor. After designing the monitors, she had to approve the
monitor and make sure that the new monitors are quiet and easy to hold. Then, she had to walk
around to different places, to test the GPS and view the data to make sure the data is correct. The
purpose of the GPS is to see where the children go with the monitor and which environment
contained this kind of air. As a result, she sends the air samples to a lab to test the airs samples.
Certain places in New York have a greater percentage of containing damaging air; for example
in the city there is more damaging air, but in the suburb area there are less damaging air.
The next presenter was Wayne Chen, who’s a previous student of Harlem Children
Society, the purpose of this his experiment is to develop dynamic tactile interest that will enable
visually impaired and blind people to access visual information. In order to develop dynamic
tactile interest he created a mixture of basic curing agent, misted in the dish for five minutes.
Next, he pour exactly one gram into tefien mask. Following that he placed dissector container set
up under vacuum to remove air bubbles. He tested five different dishes, dish one and two were
under supervision, dish three were supervision, and dish five was tested by his mentor. As a
result, dish one and two were created with tefien blocks with no electrical plates. The paper
turned out to be clear, but it wasn’t transparent due to millinery fracts. Dish number three was
unsuccessful; however dish number four was successful it was transparent and clear. Dish
number five was not that well, because it had air bubbles in the sheet of paper. He hopes that in
the future to repeat dish number four to expand on what he found out. This experiment is
certainly helpful to the people who are blind. With this experiment blind people will be able to
cash their own money on an ATM machine without having some there to help them. Blind
people will feel independent. Because only dish number four succeeded maybe Chen can use
different methods to expand the idea.
Sherry Huang researched on which solar power is better for Autonomous vehicles. She
went online and looked at different solar panels and decided which one was the best solar panel
for a car. She stated that the autonomous vehicle runs on battery and that battery only last about
thirty minutes after that thirty minutes one would have to recharge the battery. With the solar
panel the car will not run out of battery. The problem with the solar panel is that it will only
work when the sun is out. She picked ten different solar panel and researched each one deciding
which panel will fit the vehicle and which panel is cheap and works well for the vehicle. She
calculated all the different prices and made a graph of which solar panel is better, and finally
decided on solar panel number ten, she hopes to a better solar panel in the future. This is a great
idea to lower down the high percentage of air pollution.
Darren Alphonse used a computer program that has three dimensional images. He used
the program Pov-Ray which has space like a grid, except it has a X, Y and Z axis. In order to
design a place, one would have to use a special code in order to complete the picture. To use
Pov-Ray one would have to choose a designate a point with a camera and demand it with
another point. He also used another program called, Proscript, which is a program with two
dimensional pictures, this is so because it only contains a X, and Y axis. In conclusion, he found
these two program to be very helpful for people who designs video games. Without these two
kinds of programs video games would not look like a reality, it would not look as real as it
would.
Next, Mabayojo Mojolaolowa studied forensic science is the application of science to a
criminal and civil laws. He studied the mass spectrometer which is a machine in which one takes
a sample from the crime scene and use the source to find a criminal. He then used a mass
analyzer which is a detector on a computer. The mass analyzer is important because it can help
solve and link suspects and other clues of a crime scene. There are many different kinds of
forensic science, these different kinds of forensic science include: forensic pathology, forensic
anthropology, forensic entomology, forensic psychiatry, and also forensic odontology.
Following Mabayojo Mojolaolowa, is Rodney Agnant, who studied molecular mechanics
vs. ab initio. Agnant started his presentation by explaining what is CADPR also known as
Cyclic Adenosine Diphosphate Ribose. CADPR is an organic molecule with rings and chains
that can move. This organic molecule is designed to help regulate many cellular process. In this
experiment, he analyzed the molecules and classified the model by suing a Quantum mechanic
also known as ab initio. He also used another program called Hyperchem 8.0.4. He conducted
this experiment because he wanted to find out how conformation determines function
investigate- effect of charges on conformation energies. He first took two molecules and edited
its database. Next, he calculated the energy using ab initio; after he calculated the energy he used
the Amber 99 molecular mechanic. He found out that twenty conformation built, extracted the
ribose ring and the H-H angles. He then made a graph, in which he plotted the engery as function
of the phase angle. He made several graphs: energy vs. Gama Torsion angle, and 2’dA energy vs.
Phase angle. He came to conclusion that ab initio changes, and improves the conformation by
keeping it more stable. He hope to test complicated molecules in the future.
Melina Roopram worked in the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Library. Her
objective was to find a technique needed to find information on database. She informed many
students that there are many different kinds of database: Scopus, Web of Science, Emabase,
Refworks… etc. In order to find the information on databases she fist consider the source, by
looking at who wrote it and when was it uploaded. She next, focused on the quality by
examining if the work is accurate. She informed the students not to be cyberskeptic when
looking for databases. It is important to know if the evidence is good or not good for the
research. Remember to check when it was uploaded and when it was updated, because of the
technology these days the information is most accurate when it is always updated. Beware of
biased information, some information might not agree with the other information on other sites.
In conclusion, Melina found out some of the website were frauds and found out that the websites
contained wrong information. She searched through many different kinds of resources such as
journals, articles, and databases. In her future studies she want to find more sites that contains
wrong information. Many people these days uses the internet to do research and with this
experiment it is helpful to know what to do in order to find if the website is a fraud or if it
contains wrong information. Nutrition students presented their essays, in their essays they wrote
about their neighborhoods, how many people live there, and what is the history behind their
neighborhood. It is observed that many students like their neighborhood and is very comfortable
with their neighborhood. They also needed to find interesting facts about their neighborhood, it is
learned that the Bronx is very well taken care of and 50% of the people that live in the Bronx are
not citizens of the United States. Staten Island has more Africans, but there are more Asian
business owners, and there is a less diversity population.
Lisa Ho studied how does sleep deprivation affect a students attentiveness. She did a
cross sectional study, found out the population of the two schools that she’s investigating. She
next, distributed a sleep deprivation survey which asked sophomore students about exercising,
different scenarios for the students to answer, and about the students family history. She found
out that male has a higher chance of dozing off, and females has a lesser chance of dozing off
when doing something important. She also found out that people that have more hours of sleep
tends to more sleepy and tried than the people that have less hours of sleep. She and her mentor
found this result to be very strange and odd so they decided to research about this result. She
found out that Circadian Rhythm has something to do with it. In conclusion, her hypothesis was
wrong and in her future work she wants to research about sleep fragmentation, and sleep
deprivation.
Farhan Rehman’s goal was to design and construct an autonomous device of the NanoScale that is effective. To create a camera pill on the mini scale, that can mobile through
Gastrointestinal tract, that is able to collect data . The focus of this project is to make propulsion,
exoskeleton, and energy. Propulsion is designing a system to control the path and speed of the
pill in the GI tract. The Pill demands a consistent power in which it will collect data collection
and processing. Exoskeleton is to research possible materials, and research the possibility of
Biodegrading enclosure. With the camera pill it will help doctors with their patients. Doctors are
able to diagnose their patient better with Celia disease, Benign, and Malignant Tumor in small
intestine and vascular disorder. With the small camera pill it is better than a colonoscopy, it is a
faster and a better process. Does the camera pill have any side effects to patients who take this
pill?
Judith Nnah was the next presenter, she researched a disease caused by parasites
transmitted through intercourse. She first looked at the Trichomonas gene and identified gene.
She then looked at databases of the Trichomonas Vaginalis, she made a clone of it and
intersected into an expression vector to create plasmid. After she finished with the plasmid she
placed the plasmid into an E. Coli. She found out that there were single colonies, and the protein
concentrated using a molar extinction. Some of the materials that she used was PET21A which is
the vector, Plasmid, DE3 the E. Coli strain, Luna- Bertani Medium, and Matrix. As an result,
she compared previously determined Thioredoxin and found out that it was similar to the human
homology. She also found out that the electron density was not shown. In her future studies she
wish to study STD.
Robin Joinvil and Kedarry Ransome, both students studied bed bugs and studied the bed
bug bites. Bed bugs are known as Cimex Lectularius, they are part of the insect family as
cimicidae. Bed bugs hate light tahts why they hunt at night, they are attracted to a humans blood
and to carbon dioxide. They have a pretty simple life cycle; bed bugs starts out as an egg, then
turns into a nymph, lastly they become adults. Bed bugs can live without feeding on blood for a
year straight. Bed bugs are oval shaped, they are flat, and are about five millimeters long and is
seen in as a chestnut color. Bed bugs like mosquitoes are able to transmit diseases such as yellow
fever, hepatitis, and many other human diseases. The only way to eradicate bed bugs is to call an
expert. Do not move away because bed bugs will always be following wherever the human goes.
Last but not least, Shantae Fyffe and Raykia Koroma studied the growth of yeast
bioflims. In this experiment Fyffe and Koroma wants to discover if ALS5 changes the way yeast
grows, in order to do this they used dishes, flask, incubator, YPA agar media, Ctrains(5), shaker,
glove, pipette, liquid , and fridge. The first of this experiment was unsuccessful, so they repeated
the same experiment again. They first take four different 250 millimeter flask of YPA, CSMURA and CSM, sterilize the liquid for 25 minutes in the auto clove, after that 25 minutes they
poured the sterilized media into dishes and let the dishes cool down. The last step is to seal the
dishes and place it into the fridge. In conclusion, they found out that if they repeat the project
they get the same results; however, they found out that ALS5 does affect the way yeast grows.
When yeast is placed under CSM conditions they will not grow as fast as when the yeast dishes
are placed under a certain environment.
Lecture # 3
During this lecture hall there were three special guest: Professor Robert B. Darnell, who
is a doctor at Rockefeller University, Professor Herald Cockfield, who works for Governor
Patterson, and Professor Martin, who studies Human Rights at Columbia University. The first
presenter was Rodney Agnant, who studied molecular mechanics vs. ab initio. After that
presentation Professor Ross talked about the boat and showed some pictures of the boat cruise
last year, and some activities conducted on the boat. Alberto Del Rosario used a procedure to
produce HIV derived retroviral vectors that allowed T-cells to express Lucifer’s and IL-15 or IL21, his project was mainly to produce T-cells. After Rosario was Morkous Hanna who studied
cell mobility. The next presenter was Praise Austin who researched about Cystic Fibrosis which
is a disorder one can be born with. Following Praise Austin, is Jose Murickan and Anne El- both
did a presentation on imprints in a crime scene. Shirley Mui was one of the lucky six that was
sent to Florida in order to do her research. She used a computer model which it replicates a
scenario or a unique situation. The last presenter was Chanel Ligon who studied cryptic
creatures, trying to prove that their real.
The first guest is Robert B. Darnell, a doctor at Rockefeller University; the most
important thing is to keep focus on the big picture in science, and many different topics that one
is interested in. As an example Professor Darnell explained that Big Clinical problems conquered
by “Obscure” science. In the early 1920s 1/5 of the children in the United States died before
reaching the age of 1; due to bacterial pneumonia. Many scientist studied bacterial pneumonia
and found substance called penicillin and saved many lives. This was a very helpful technique
because it went from an esoteric observation to a critical observation. Later on three men at
Rockefeller University found out that there were two different bacteria in science of dish. These
three scientist found that DNA can change the nature of the bacteria from one type to another.
Nowadays, its not bacterial pneumonia that is killing many people but cancer is a big clinical
problem. In a hidden angle there can be a hope that ones body can eradicate the cancer in ones
body naturally by ones own immune system. It is known to scientist that ones body can
recognize foreign cells and this allows the killer T-cells what protein is inside the cells, and
attack the cancer cells. White blood cells see what is going on inside the cell, and the T-cells is
sent to recognize and kill the cancer cells. The master control cell is in the lymph nodes. Some
patients T-cells are able to recognize the cancer cells and kills the cancer cells which will
eradicate the cancer and the tumor. Scientist nowadays are trying to figure out how does the Tcell works and maybe this can be a hope to eradicate cancer.
The next presenter was Rodney Agnant, who studied molecular mechanics vs. ab initio.
Agnant started his presentation by explaining what is CADPR also known as Cyclic Adenosine
Diphosphate Ribose. CADPR is an organic molecule with rings and chains that can move. This
organic molecule is designed to help regulate many cellular process. In this experiment, he
analyzed the molecules and classified the model by suing a Quantum mechanic also known as ab
initio. He also used another program called Hyperchem 8.0.4. He conducted this experiment
because he wanted to find out how conformation determines function investigate- effect of
charges on conformation energies. He first took two molecules and edited its database. Next, he
calculated the energy using ab initio; after he calculated the energy he used the Amber 99
molecular mechanic. He found out that twenty conformation built, extracted the ribose ring and
the H-H angles. He then made a graph, in which he plotted the engery as function of the phase
angle. He made several graphs: energy vs. Gama Torsion angle, and 2’dA energy vs. Phase
angle. He came to conclusion that ab initio changes, and improves the conformation by keeping
it more stable. He hope to test complicated molecules in the future.
Next, Professor Herald Cockfield said that it is good to see programs like Harlem
Children Society to continue in the science field. Ever since United States economy break down
the government stopped funding for the mathematics, and science department. He is honored be
at the Harlem Children Society.
Following Professor Cockfield, Professor Martin, who studied Human Rights at
Columbia University, talked about the life in Liberia. He showed the students a video of the iron
ladies in the Liberia. Just a few years ago Liberia put their country in the hands of their first
female president, Sirleaf. Sirleaf is in charge to put Liberia back into it’s place. In Liberia there
are dangerous streets, and after the civil war 90% of the people in Liberia are unemployed. There
is no water or electricity in Liberia, everything is destroyed after the civil war. People of Liberia
are afraid of another civil war, because there’s so many people who owns guns and different
weapons. When one is angry at another they pull out their weapons as a way to solve their
problems. Corruption is a huge problem in Liberia because when other countries support Liberia
the money goes to Liberia and then disappears to privet pockets. Education is another big
problem in Liberia because the classrooms is very small and the teacher do not get paid for
months. Education is the beginning of life, if students have the right education they will become
successful and will help the economy. When a student get the right education, there’s so many
different opportunities for the student to do, from simple things to great things. When one
receive the right education reach out to others and create a sense of awareness. If one want to go
somewhere with their life, one would need to open many different doors of opportunities and
have to look for mentors and network. One need to learn how to interact with others in order to
have opportunities.
Alberto Del Rosario objective is to produce HIV derived retroviral vectors that allows Tcells to express Lucifer’s and IL-15 or IL-21 and produce T-cells. Cytokine helps eradicate
tumors, the role of Lucifer’s allows doctors track down the T-cells in the living body of the
mouse; in which Rosario tested in. Rosario used cell purification to take out pieces of vector,
after the vector is taken out one is to combine all three different vector together to form a new
vector. He used PCR which is a machine called Polymerase Chain Reaction. The result from the
PCR is that the picture represents the DNA of the human IL-21. Next, Rosario repeated the same
procedure, except this time he took three different plasmid. Cancer is a world wide problem and
with scientist and experiments like this one might find a cure for cancer or one can find
something new about the tumor. Can one use another method besides PCR to find the vector?
The next presenter is Morkous Hanna, his objective was to find out if one takes our a
protein in the cell make a difference. Cell mobility describes single cells and organisms that
moves to find food and different cells to migrate to different locations. Cells binds together to
form tissues. Cell mob is the cells movement around the body, this is measured by using Zeiss
Meta 510 focal microscope. He started thirty hours after planting, he took images at fifteen
minutes intervals over 960 minutes. Mobility parameters were then measured, path rate were
tracked. He used three different methods (a) Migration rates, Migration distances, Directional
persistence. In conclusion he found out that taking out protein made a difference. Protein can
make a difference, which heavily influenced cell mobility.
The next presenter was Praise Austin who presented Cystic Fibrosis which is a hereditary
disorder. Cystic Fibrosis that causes early death and disabilities. Disorder is caused by mutation
of CFTR. Diagnosis are screening laboratory, test samples with saliva, dried blood spots, blood
and solid tissue of the body. This disease is the most common among countries in the Western
World. Cystic Fibrosis is caused by a mutation in the CFTR protein located in Chromosome 7. Is
there shots for the patients that are born with Cystic Fibrosis?
Shirley Mui was sent to Florida to do her research. She worked with computers and
designed different scenario and a unique situation for one to go through. There are different
reality spectrum: Virtual reality which realistic simulation of environment , Mixed reality is a
combination of a virtual world and reality. A example of a virtual reality is the matrix. A
example of a mixed reality is Guitar Hero. Her experiment is to design a situation for people to
use their bodies to interact, use their hands to interacting; due to the advance technology people
are allowed to do hands on stuff on a computer simulation. She also needed to design a
simulation in which people can use their brains that allow them to think. This kind of experiment
is important to the community because it will help people who design different video games
Lastly Chanel Ligon, presented her work while working with her scientist. She and her
scientist did various different experiments trying to prove if Big Foot and other myth busters are
real. Kentucky put out food in the forest for the cryptic to test if they eat it. Scientist in Kentucky
sent blood on a plate for the Scientist in New York. Chanel took the blood on the plate and
reproduced its DNA, and compared the DNA with chimpanzees. She used Python Script this
program on the computer that is used to compare DNA with other humans and animals. As a
result the DNA found on the plate belonged to a German and not Big Foot. Using the Python
Script can help scientist determine and match other DNA and find out if the DNA came from the
same animal or human.
Lecture # 4
Professor Todd R. Disotell is an anthropologist who works at New York University.
Even though he is an anthropologist he is involved in bioinformatics. He uses his knowledge as
an anthropologist and study how different kinds of diseases evolved. The first presenter is Mai
Abdel who worked with Professor Disotell. Abdelal analyzed Mitochondrial DNA in New World
monkeys. The following presenter is Katherine Chan and Jonathan Liu both students reproduced
plants by cloning the plants. The next presenter is Hafsa Yucei, she worked with linker cells
death in C. Elegans; her research was to find a new gene that will control the link cell death. The
next presenters, Givi Basishvil and Xavier Marrero, both worked with Micro- bubbles that hold
oxygen. They used sound waves to generate micro-bubbles, and used different methods
obtaining the micro- bubbles. Next a previous student at Harlem Children Society talked about
the Gates Millennium Scholarship. After lunch, one of the staff member named Caitlin presented
her work. She studied the quality of being happy. The next presenter is Basiru Lee Leigh and
Nicholas Gonzalez who studied Frontotemporal Dementia, which is a clinical syndrome caused
by the brain. Another guest speaker was Dr. Zussman who majored in wireless technology, he
explained to the students how is wireless networks designed. Pooja Vijay studied the affect of
protein 4.1R on the structure of Red Blood cell membrane. Following Pooja is Adarsha Subick
who presented on the distribution of prime numbers. The last presenters are Jah-Vin Vaughan
and Randy Garcia whose purpose is to raise awareness of the city, and tell others that the Harlem
and the Hudson River is not clean.
Professor Todd R. Disotell is an anthropologist who works at New York University, he
majored as an anthropologist; however, his studies brought him to focus on bioinformatics.
Professor Disotell began his studies by looking at factors of how life began and how life began.
He sequence chimpanzees genome and learned about humans. He studied chimpanzees and other
animals because monkeys are the peoples closest relatives. The studies of the environment
helped Professor Disotell look at how nature has changed the way humans live and the studies of
the environment help future scientist overcome obstacles. He started to grow into the field of
bioinformatics; getting into the field of bioinformatics help him grow stronger in his research. He
began to sequence Neanderthal, and began to look at the Neanderthals complete genome to find
out how things have changed. Through the sequence of Neanderthals scientists found out that
certain gene affect differently. Next, Professor Disotell began to take DNA from monkeys, and
began animal sequencing. Professor and his undergraduate and graduate students collected
animal, mainly monkeys, feces and found that the feces contains DNA. Scientist can look at the
mitochondrial DNA, which is an inherited DNA from mothers. Using the mitochondrial DNA
helps scientist to determine ones life 20 million years ago. Due to advance technology today,
Professor Disotell can use powerful computers and algorithms to analyze evolutionary data.
Also, by using the mitochondrial clock Dr. Disotell was able to determine where were monkeys
originated, and the different types of species of monkeys ten through twenty million years ago.
Using his knowledge in bioinformatics, determination of fossils, and as an anthropologist he is
able to study the origin of different diseases such as, HIV and Malaria. Even though Dr. Disotell
began his career as an anthropologist his studies as an anthropologist brought him to study
different kinds of science. He found a different field that interested him and used his previous
knowledge as an anthropologist and learned different things.
The next presenter is Mai Abdelal who worked with Dr. Disotell. Abdelal analyzed
mitochondrial DNA in new world monkeys. The purpose of studying mitochondrial DNA in new
world monkey is to find the region of mitochondrial DNA with the most variation. In conducting
this experiment she learned how to use a computer program called the Python Script, which is a
computer program that compare sets of genes in other monkeys, animals, and humans. This
computer program is very technical it can also be used as a calculator. Abdelal began this project
a few weeks ago there’s no result on the comparison of the new world monkeys. In conducting
this experiment it will help the community to understand how humans existed. It will also help
scientist to compare genes of different animal to monkeys and see if the specific animal and the
monkey is similar or different. Is there another technique to determine if two different creatures
are from the same origin?
Sexual and asexual reproduction and cloning of plants by Katherine Chan and Jonathan
Liu. Chan and Liu cloned different plants by cutting a plant into small pieces and placing the cut
up pieces into a jar with a chemical that will reproduce the plants. Sexual reproduction is natural
for plants, it is a combination of genetic material to offspring’s. This process is called meiosis.
Asexual reproduction is cloning; in which one takes a plant and cut it into little pieces and place
the pieces of plants into the medium (a chemical) and wait for the plant to reproduce. When the
plants touch the chemical in the jar, the plant will reproduce. Another way of cloning plants is to
remove a plant sample from the leaves place it onto a plate that has a specific chemical. The
chemical will cause the leaves to reproduce it self; in order to do this the medium must be kept
constant. Once the leaves are placed onto the chemical, Chan and Liu placed the plates of leaves
in the sunlight and wait for results. As a result, the plants that reproduced grew more leaves and
the plants grew faster and taller. In the future both Chan and Liu hope to work with flowers and
reproduce flowers and study the characteristics of flowers. This experiment is helpful because
people will understand the way a plant works and how a plant function and this will lead to the
understanding of plants. This experiment will teach people how to take care of flowers. Is there a
certain amount of plant tissue one must use to clone a plant?
Hafsa Yucei studied non Apoptotic Linker cell death in C. Elegens. Cell death is
important because it will help doctors understand different diseases. Cell d in C. Elegens is
similar to cell death in other organisms. Cell death CPCD in C. Elegens have similar roles in
other organisms conserved in different body parts. A linker cell is a cell that leads and shapes the
gonad in C. Elegens ( a gonad is an organ that produces reproductive cell gametes). Linker cell
death is independent of all known cell death genes. Yucei’s purpose is to find new genes that will
control the linker cells death; also to test gene to see if the gene activate to SEK-1. Yucei
developed a cross strategy to test different genes collected. She is then to score the new strains to
see if the linker cell defect; she uses GFP to visualize the link cell. She then used DPY5 to track
MTK-1, she stated that both chromosomes are easy to track. After using the cross strategy, she
found that there are 5 hermaphrodites (dumpies); picked 6GFPT non-dumpy males. Then she
picked 18 GFP and non dumpy hem and set the dumpies alone. Following that, she scored the
plates for dumpies with the dumpies she picked 32 non-dumpies; GFP to individual plates left
them alone and examine each plate. There are no result so far because she just began her
research. In her future work she would liked to test MEP. What is the difference between the
dumpies and MEP?
The following presenters are Givi Basishvili and Xavier Marrero worked with small
micro-bubbles. Micro-bubbles are so small it can hold oxygen, genetic information (DNA) and
drugs. Micro-bubbles are used for medical purpose; for example, if a patients have trouble
breathing than doctors can inject Micro-bubbles into the patients and the Micro-bubbles will
breath for the patient. To generate these bubbles Basishvili and Marrero used sound waves to
move the Micro-bubbles, and to create the Micro-bubbles. To engineer these Micro-bubbles
engineers can use a tank in which it carries oxygen. Basishvili and Marrero are determined to
create a stable bubble, find the best storing condition for the Micro-bubbles, find the Microbubbles properties, and test the Micro-bubbles in living organisms. When conducting this
experiment both partners found out that the Micro-bubbles only last for about three to five days,
so they performed different test on the bubble increasing the stability of the Micro-bubble. The
partners placed the Micro-bubbles in the refrigerator, and found out that when the Micro-bubbles
are refrigerated the Micro-bubbles loose less gas compared to the Micro-bubbles that are not
refrigerated. Basishvili and Marrero also did another testing, they hypothesize that when rotating
the Micro-bubble, it will prevent the bubble coalescence. In conclusion they found out that when
rotating the Micro-bubble the Micro-bubble tends to disappear; compared to when the Microbubble are not rotating. When the Micro-bubbles are not rotating the Micro-bubbles does not
stay the same amount of bubbles, but it does not lose as much bubbles as when rotating. They
both found out that the rotation increased the Kinetic Energy which decreased the Micro-bubbles
stability. This experiment contributes a lot towards the medical science because this can help
many people in the United States who are having problems breathing. Instead of increasing the
Kinetic Energy for the Micro-bubble, decrease the Kinetic Energy and see if the Micro-bubbles
is stable or not?
A previous student from Harlem Children Society presented the Gates Millennium
Scholarship. In order for one to get the Gates Millennium Scholarship one must show academic
excellence, dedication, and commitment. The Gates Millennium Scholarship support the cost of
education up to ten years; however, it does not support a student who is going to law or medical
school. The Gates Millennium Scholarship accept race from Hispanic to Asians. Some of the
benefits of being a Gates Millennium Scholar is that a scholar will be selected to go to leadership
development conferences, accept scholarship awards, academic empowerment services,
mentoring, will be in the Gates Millennium Scholarship circle. Being in this program will the
benefits and opportunities to grow independently. To be accepted by the Gates Millennium
Scholarship a student must be Asian, Hispanic, American Indian, and African American; a
student must be a citizen of the United States or a resident of the United States. Students must
show commitment to their work and must be willing to work hard; students must be a full time
student, must be willing to join many extra curricular activities, show leadership, and must meet
the Pell Grant requirements, and must contain at least a 3.3 GPA. If a student is interested in the
Gates Millennium Scholarship, the student has to make sure that he or she pick someone they
know very well to write their recommendation.
The following presenter is one of the Harlem Children Society staff members, Caitlin.
Caitlin studied what is happiness, she also studied how does the human brain changes. Happiness
is a state of pleasure; there is a change in the brain when one see, taste, feel, or smell something
undesirable to the brain. There are also changes in the brain when one see, taste, feel or smell
something desirable. Caitlin studied a book called Snow by Orphan Pamuk; in this book Caitlin
analyzed each character and analyzed the meaning of happiness for each character. Each
character in the book had a different view on what and how can one get happiness. She also
looked at different philosophers who had their own definition of what is happiness and how one
can gain happiness with their action. Caitlin found out that the most wealthy countries are not
always the most happy countries. Caitlin also found out that when people interact with others it
makes people happy. In conclusion, Caitlin believes that one should be grateful and be caring to
others in order to be happy. In is a great research for the people psychologist because this will
help them determine why some people are the way they are, and it can also help psychologist
figure out their patients behavior. Are there specific ways to make someone happy?
The next presenter is by Basiru Lee-Leigh and Nicholas Gonzalez who studied a rare
disorder called the Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD). The Frontotemporal Dementia affects the
frontal and temporal lobes of the brain. The frontal and the temporal lobes of the brain controls
ones behavior, language, and personality. As a affect of FTD the patient will have a dramatic
change in personality and become socially inappropriate, impulsive or emotionally blunted and
some others lose their way of language and the ability to talk. When FTD occurs brain cells dies
and this will affect the patients behavior and memory. Some symptoms of FTD is impairment in
social skills, lowly activity, personal habit, mood, speech, and the patients cannot control their
body parts. In America seven million Americans can be afflicted with a form of Dementia, and
FTD has an equal chance in both women and men. Lee-Leigh and Gonzalez then compared FTD
to another disorder called Anno Domini (AD). Unfortunately, there are no cure or treatment of
this disorder; however, there are medication for patients to stop their abnormal behavior. Studies
of different disorders , such as FTD and AD, can help scientist and doctors understand the
disorder better and come up with a cure for these different diseases.
Another guest, Dr. Zussman, majored in technology and he explained how the wireless
network function and the design of wireless networks. There are three standard wireless network:
Wi-fi, Bluetooth, and Wi-media. In technology there is a medium access control, nodes are
scattered in a geographic area to coordinate the access of different channels. The distribution of
the access is random and guaranteed. Requirements are quality of service, fairness, and energy
efficiency. In the medium access control, it transmit a data packet which senses the medium, and
the ACK will be sent when receiving station, and data’s are transmitted randomly. There are
some hidden node in the medium; a hidden node is a station that does not hear but can interfere
with it’s transmission. These problems can be solved by Mechanism such as RTS and CTS.
Nodes are connected to each other and each node has their own special way of transmitting data,
and has their own way of transmission. Sometimes when data is sent to another place there will
somehow be an interference the broadcast of nature of wireless channel prove to errors
interference which is caused by a packet using some system. Some nodes may appear and
disappear frequently. Regular nodes will move according to their mission this is called a mobile
backbone. The mobile backbone is also used to maintain a network connectivity. Each node have
their own identification with access. In a wireless world an ID is used to identify the node and
the node will not get confused with its neighbor. It is a good idea to give each node their own ID
because it will keep the wireless network organize. This presentation educate people who does
not know a lot about technology and this presentation will increase a students knowledge on
technology.
Pooja Vijay studied the affect of protein 4.1R on the structure of Red Blood Cell
Membrane. Protein 4.1R is a multifunctional component of the red blood cell membrane. Her
experiment is to detect the 4.1R protein among many different kinds of proteins. She used the
Western blotting which is a device that can detect one protein in a mixture of different kinds of
protein. She also used various DNA kits to find the protein. In the future she hope to analyze the
flow of Cytometry.
Adarsha Subick studied the distribution of prime numbers. He worked with rational and
irrational numbers. Each number can be uniquely expressed in its own way. His purpose in
conducting this experiment is to find out if a number is a prime number or not. For example, if
one doesn’t know if the number is 299 is a prime number or not there are different ways to find
out if that number is a prime number or not. One way to find if the number 299 is a prime
number or not, one would have to set 299 less than or equal p², then square root both sides so it
would be like this: P = 299. After the square root of 299 it would equal to this: P = 17, so the
square root of 299 would have to be less then 17. Lastly, one would know that the 299 is not a
prime number because 13x13 equals 299. Another way one can find out if the number 299 is a
prime number or not, one can use the Sieve of Eratosthenes. The Sieve of Eratosthenes is chart
with the numbers from one through 20, as one goes along the chart one would have to cross out
the prime numbers. Subick also used a calculation program called Pari/GP, this system is
designed for fast computations in number theory’s, it also contains useful functions. This
program can be found in the library. He also discussed the Gaussian Prime number which is an
integer it only fall into its proper divisors 1 or ! and a multiply of itself. Sometimes a prime
number can be a Gaussian prime and sometimes a prime number does not fall into the category
of a Gaussian prime number. Studies of these number will increase ones knowledge of numbers,
there are so many numbers that one can not even count. Number is a very important factor in
ones every day life, without numbers the world would not be as organized as today.
The next presenters are Randy Garcia and Jah-Vin Vaughan. Both students studied the
Hudson river and the Harlem river. The Hudson river is located in the West side of Harlem, and
it separates New York and New Jersey. The Hudson river is a mixture of fresh water and salt
water from the ocean. Both students also studied the air in New York, and found out that there
are many harmful chemical in New York City. One chemical that they found was Benzeyne
which is 35% of the cause of pollution and this chemical is harmful towards people because if
one inhale this chemical too much one has a chance of getting Leukemia. There are so many
deadly chemical in the air that there is high chance of Americans getting cancer just by breathing
air. The purpose of this study is to raise awareness of the environment that Americans live in.
They used a software program called ArcGIS to make a map of where the chemicals are and the
places in which people are most likely to get cancer. Some of the materials they used are Excel,
Aysiom 5600, PH YSI 556, Buffer solution, distilled water, and a C02 sensor which sense
oxygen. Garcia and Vaughan came up with some solution to improve the environment: urban
farming, vegetation therapy, alternative transportation, and water management. The mixture of
fresh and salt water is unhealthy, is there a special instrument that is able to separate the fresh
and salt water? In the future the partners wants to take water sample from the Hudson and the
Harlem river and show the different levels of parameters on maps generated by ArcGIS.
The following presentation is presented by Carolina Nunex and Atalia Lyte. Both
students were part of the nutrition and healthy project, Nunex and Lyte studied obesity in New
York City. The students went to different farmers market and supermarket, and compared the
prices of both markets. Their goal was to determine if there is a price difference from the farmers
market and the supermarket. They visited five different locations, they hypothesized that the
vegetable and the food at farmers market would have a higher price than supermarkets; which
will decrease the amount of people who shop at farmers market. Both students went to five
different locations and compared vegetable and can food; they compared the price, weight,
volume, and they recorded the unit of price for each food. In the end the students found out that
there is a clear variation from the supermarket and the farmers market. The farmers market give
a greater amount of food for a lower price, compared to the supermarket it gives a lesser amount
for a higher price. In the future both students would like to conduct field surveys about the
shopping habits of people, study the location at which people shop at. In this study they didn’t
get in depth with obesity and the risk of being obese so for their next study they would like to
study the risk factor of obesity, and concentrate on the produce along with different kinds of
people that shop at certain places. They would hope to use a program called GIS, a computer
system used to research location using a map and understanding an area, and use statistics in
their research to keep track of their data.
The last presenter, Thahmina Ali, studied an inherited disease called Rett syndrome. This
inherited disease can cause childhood disorder which can lead to little talking or no talking at all,
slow process of the brain, slow growth process of the head, and seizures. He worked in
Bioinformatics, he researched the human Genome project which is a system that organize,
analyze, and store millions of DNA gene in which it was sequence on the computer. This
disease is founded by a Dr. Andrea Rett who found children with the same disease and the same
behavior, this disease is caused by MECP2 gene. Girls have two X chromosomes only half of the
X chromosomes need to have mutation in order for it to cause the disorder. Boys only have one
X chromosomes which means that the boy will die soon after birth. An infant will have the
normal growth for sixteen months; however, after the sixteen months the infants will not grow
anymore and that’s when the disorder take place. Some infants are not able to see or speak, the
only movements that their hands allow them to make is washing hand movements. The infant
will have trouble walking; due to these disorders the infants will grow up to be this way.
Unfortunately there is no treatment or cure for this disorder, but there are physical occupational
therapy for speech and walking. There is no specific race this disease is targeted at anybody from
any race can get this disease because this disease is inherited. In the future Ali hope to prevent
this disease and find new therapies for children who does have this disease. What cause this
disease to form in the chromosomes? And what is the X chromosome in charge of?
Lecture #5
The first presenter was a special guest McGoo, who is trying to find a way to prevent a
deadly skin disease called Melanoma. The following presenter is Mena Hanna, Mena synthesized
Cyclophosphamide. The next presenter is Katherine Chan, Katherine was sent to Hoboken, New
Jersey. She built her own robot on the computer using a special program. The following
presenter is Bintou Fisiru. Bintou worked in Bronx Community College and studied the pattern
of fingerprints. Following Bintou is Jeweria Jia Afreen, who studied and analyzed a very rare eye
disease. Preceding Afreen is two students who studied the Tay-Sach disease, Binto Wague and
Naa Yeboah. The following student is Kwasi Boateng who studied human obesity and protein. A
special guest was invited, Sumanta Goswai, and he presented the invasion of breast cancer cells.
A dentist from New York University was invited to answer questions from the students about
whitening and bleaching a person’s teeth. After a discussion about bleaching and whitening a
person’s teeth, Ezequiel Hernandez and Kenneth D’Silva presented their work. Both students
worked with concrete and tried to reuse recycled concrete. The last presenter is Fatih Ayekin
whose purpose was to learn how heat transfer from object to objects.
Professor McGoo was the first to present. Professor McGoo studied a deadly skin disease
called Melanoma. The risk of this disease is increasing due to the way Americans live their life.
Some patients that catch this disease cannot recover and this disease is resistant to chemotherapy.
People with fare skin, freckles, moles, and a history of repeated sunburn have a high chance to
getting Melanoma. Melanoma is genetic and it is passed down from generations to generations.
In order for one to avoid Melanoma one should protect one’s own skin by wearing a hat,
sunscreen, shade and wear protective clothing. Melanoma is due to the uncontrolled growth of
pigments in the skin. The worst stage of Melanoma is when cells enter the brain and the liver.
When Melanoma enters a liver or an organ the color of the organ will begin to change its color
from its regular color to black. There are two pathways involved in Melanoma: P14 and P16.
Professor McGoo researched this skin disease on rats. The usage of rats is really useful because
mice physiologically close to human and due to the advancement in technology one can
sequence mouse genome. Professor McGoo added genes into the mice, knockout the mice and
replaced the knockout with a knockin. He cut, copy, and pastes the chromosome and explores the
functions of Mutagenesis. Professor McGoo is hoping that the immune system is strong enough
to fight off the cancer cells. However, when one is born and if he/she has Melanoma the body is
immune to the cancer cell and will not recognize the cell as a foreign cell and this will cause the
immune system not to attack the cancer cell. So scientist such as Professor McGoo took human
Melanoma cancer cells and injected the cancer cells into the mice and there was a clearance of
tumor in the mice. Even though there is a clearance of tumor in the mice some mice did not react
to the human cancer cells. Professor is hoping by using this trick it will help people fight off
Melanoma. Is there a difference between the human Melanoma cell and the mice Melanoma cell,
if there is a difference the human will fight off the mice Melanoma but it will not fight off the
humans own Melanoma cell? Research like this will increase ones knowledge on how not to
catch a deadly disease like Melanoma, and it will protect many Americans from getting this
disease.
The next presenter is Mena Hanna who worked with Cyclophosphamide, which is a
nitrogen mustard alkylating agent. A nitrogen mustard is the oldest and most widely used
alkylator. Nitrogen mustard is useful to find out blood cell levels and how rapidly the blood cells
divides cells. Nitrogen mustard is also useful to fight one of the most deadly cancer: Leukemia.
Cyclophosphamide is work as a prodrug, the cell membrane is made of lipids , the membrane is
also a permeability cells for a hydrophobic segment can force the drug into the cell. Hanna’s
hypothesize that oxidation will continue to work on all three carbons with addition on deuterium,
the C4 will be stay forever. Some of the materials used to conduct this lab are: LIACD, Diethyl
Iminodiacetic, Soxblet, Roter vap, pump, TLC NMR, and Thionyl Chloride. In conclusion he
found out that modifying the Cyclophosphamide in changing the mustard nitrogen to its
deuterium. In the future he hopes to work with oxicude.
The following presenter is Katherine Chan who worked with Robots and students. She
learned about wireless connection. She used a program called Webot, a 3D computer program to
simulate a robot, and designed her own robot. She also used another program called Epuck this
program is similar to Webot; however, Epuck already designed their own robot. In each program
she used her own designed robot and the pre made robot and apply senses to the robot to make
sure the robot doesn’t run into objects. Because she just started this project she didn’t really
finish her robots, so in the future she hope to finish her robot by applying different physics to her
robot. She also hope to finish her robot on Epuck. Learning about robots will help people to
understand how to build a robot, and hopefully in the future people can invent robots and do
chores for people. How does physics have a great impact on building a robot?
The next presenter is Bintou Fisiru; Bintou studied different patterns of fingerprints and
the different kinds of fingerprints found at a crime scene. Fingerprints are impression made on
many different kinds of surface which can identify a person. Fingerprints are known to stay with
a person forever without changing its pattern. There are three most common types of fingerprints
the arch, loop, and the whorl. An arch is a fingerprint pattern where a ridge enters from one side
of the pattern, rises then declines and exit the pattern from the opposite side of where it entered.
Another ach fingerprint is when the ridge enters from one side of the pattern, rises form a tent
looking shape, declines and exit the pattern from the opposite side of where it entered. The loop
fingerprint pattern has one delta, and it shows a ridge that enters from one side of the pattern, recurves (form a bobby pin shape) and exits from the same side of the pattern from which it
entered. The last basic fingerprint pattern is the whorl; the whorl contains two deltas and it shows
an overall circular appearance. In a crime scene there are three different types of fingerprints
found: visible, plastic, and latent. A visible fingerprint is a print that can be seen at the crime
scene. A plastic fingerprint is a fingerprint that is made by the pressing of the fingerprint friction
ridges into a softer surface. A latent fingerprint is a imprint that is made of finger surface
residues; usually not seen except by oblique lighting or alternate light sources. All these
fingerprints found at the crime scene can be photograph. Bintou and her classmates developed
fingerprints on a special fingerprint paper and Bintou and her classmates had to match each
others fingerprint to the three suspects. They used different techniques to see the hidden
fingerprints. They used chemicals to bring out the invisible fingerprint; one of the chemicals
used was Ninhydrin and chemical used was O-toluidine. When using Ninhydrin on the
fingerprint the invisible fingerprint will turn a purple color, and when O-toluidine the fingerprint
will turn a brown color. Another technique used to bring out the invisible fingerprint is using a
superglue fume to bring out the fingerprint; this technique is also called Cyanoacrylate. When
doing this experiment each student had to look at different fingerprints. Each student had to
identify the fingerprint then find different characteristics of the fingerprint such as Typica and
Minutiae. As a result the students were successful in finding the suspect using the fingerprint
sheet. In using different techniques and slow examination forensic scientist is able to find out a
suspect at the crime scene and is able to gather further information about the crime scene. At a
crime scene how does one know that there is a latent fingerprint there if one cannot see the latent
fingerprint?
The next student, Jeweria Jia Afreen, used RNA to analyze and study the dry eye disease.
The dry eye disease decrease the production of tears and prevent the eye from being moisturized.
This disease is found mostly in women and old people. The symptom of this disease is dry eyes.
The purpose of her experiment is to analyze the expression of inflammation related to the eye.
Some of the materials she used are different kits such as the DNAse kit, pipettes, and RNA mine
lute kit. She first took a sample of the eye, and perform PCR on the eye sample to make it easier
to work with. She then reverse the transcription, then convert the DNA to CDNA by using micro
array. The benefit of studying a disease like the dry eye disease to help doctors to understand the
dry eye disease, studying the dry eye disease can help doctors understand the eye better and
maybe it can lead to how blindness is developed.
Binto Wague and Naa Yeboah studied a disorder called Tay-Sach which is a really rare
disorder which destruct the nervous system. Both students used bioinformatics to studied the
disorder and worked with gene banks which conserves the human genes. Tay-Sach usually occur
during infancy and adulthood; however, for adults there is a different kind of Tay-Sach disorder.
The symptoms of Tay-Sach is a weak muscles and slow development of the body and the brain.
Tay-Sach is a genetic disease it is passed down from the parents to their children. There is no
cure for this disorder, this disorder will leave the patients dehydrated. In the future both students
would like to work with Tay-Sach patients.
Kwasi Boateng also worked in Bioinformatics workshop. Bioinformatics is the use of
computers to analyze biological data. Leptin is a protein hormone that takes in food and helps the
body to become active and tells the brain that the body ate enough food. He also worked with
Pymol which is a 3D computer software which can view small molecules and biological. He
studied that a small group of people possesses a mutant form of leptin which leads to people to
eat more than usual. His experiment is use B.L.A.S.T a program which will sequence proteins.
As a result he found out that leptin has 6.7% sequence identity.
The next presenter is a PhD Professor named Sumanta Goswami who works in the
department of biology. He studied breast cancer cells that’s caught in the act of invasion. Cancer
is not a disease to treat, but rather a lot of diseases packaged together. Breast cancer is mostly for
women; however, according to last years record 18,000 men died from breast cancer. Tumors are
removed by surgery in majority of cases. Metastasis and drug resistance are the two main causes
of mortality and morbidity; there is a multi-step process: first cancer cells enters the blood vessel,
second if the cancer cells survives in the blood vessels they will then move out of the blood
vessel and form a colony. The cell replicates and spread through the body. Each step takes a long
time for it to process. Professor Goswami injects a sample of the cancer cell into an animal
model wait for three weeks for the tumor to grow. Once the tumor grown inside the animal
Professor Goswami observed the cancer cells interacting with cells in the body, in order to see
the cancer cells interacting with the cells in the body one have to make the cells in the body to
glow. He used a Multi-photon Microscopy which is a special microscope which can look at
fluoresce lighting. In using this method he found out that different cells talk to each other, and
when cell talk to each other it means that the cell is invading. Using bioinformatics he found out
that the invasive cell is drug and radio resistance. In conclusion he found out that the lack of
proliferation suggest that treatments that target growth pathways might not be very effective at
killing invasive tumor cells. If doctors continue to make these investigation there is a hope to
detect cancer earlier to prevent it from spreading or treat the cancer earlier the better. A hope that
drugs can kill these chemo and radio resistant cells; a hope to experiment new drugs to revert the
cells back to radio and chemo sensitive.
After that presentation a special guest was invited to answer students questions on
whitening the teeth. A dentist from New York University answered the students questions on
bleaching the teeth. He talked to the students about different techniques and the different
toothpaste there are to whiten teeth.
The next presenter is by Ezequiel Hernandez and Kenneth D’silva who designed green
concrete. Concrete is a mixture of cement paste and aggregate in the right proportion. Their goal
is to create a concrete light weight and efficient as an insulating material. Another one of their
goals is to use recycled material; such as EPS beads of concrete. First they had to mix the cement
together by calculating the work cement ratio, a/c and percentage of EPS beads. They gathered
the materials together and weighed the contents. Next, they had to place the aggregates and
cement into an industrial mixing bowel, started mixture and slowly add water to the mixture.
After the mixture they placed the mixture into three spaces of 2 cubes. Fill the cement up to the
brim of the cubes, then turn on the vibration table for consolidation. After the mixture process
comes the curing process which means that one have to wrap the 2 cubes in saran wrap. Then
place the cube into the curvy chamber for 24 hours. After 24 hours remove the cubes from the
forms and place it into the chamber for six days. After the curing process comes the density test;
in order to measure the density of each concrete cube. To measure the cubes one must place the
cubes of concrete in water filled beakers and weigh the cubes. Then place the cube into the oven
and heat them for 24 hours and weigh them again. As a result they found out that as the
percentage of aggregate increases the strength of the cubes decreases. In the future they hope to
work with recycled concrete as aggregate, and measure the physical characteristics of recycle
concrete. In testing different concretes one can find out how long does regular concrete last and
which concrete is better and more efficient. Which concrete is better recycled concrete or a brand
new mixture of concrete?
The last presentation is by Fatih Aytekin who worked with thermal radioactive transfer
between spherical object. The object of his investigation is to investigate near-field thermal
radioactive heat transfer between closely spaced spherical object. Thermal radiation s light
emitted by hot objects. It is observed that as the temperature increases the wave length decreases.
The cantilever is a very sensitive force measurement device. There are two ways to conduct this
experiment: one way is to use parallel plates for configuration, but when using parallel plates it is
easier to analyze and hard to conduct the experiment. Another way is sphere configuration which
is hard to analyze, but easy to conduct. In his experiment he used the second method because it
was easier to conduct the experiment. Because, he just began his experiment he didn’t get a
positive result. What would be the result if instead of using spherical objects he used other
shaped objects, will the results be the same as the spherical objects?
Lecture # 6
The lecture began with a special guest named Steve Greenbaum who works in the
department of physics and astronomy. His goal is to determine Mars habitat, analyze the soil
rock samples for building blocks, and usage of batteries. Batteries consist of Li-ION scientist use
Li-ION because it moves back and forth due to the compound inside the battery. Lithium
batteries are better than conventional battery because it last longer and lithium works really well.
Scientist can use batteries to operate micro-robots to help with patients. There is a pill that
operates on battery; for people who has intestine problems one can take this special pill and this
pill will slowly go down the patients stomach and take pictures inside the intestine and this will
help doctors to understand what is really happening to the patient. New technology plays a really
big part in space and it will help astronomers understand space a little bit better. Right now
scientists are looking for efficient ways to reduce the global warming; there are different devices
that scientists are trying to improve so it will not be harmful to the earth. One of the devices is
called Thermoelectric Device which turns heat into electricity and it will save energy. This
device can be used for refrigeration or power generation. However, one of the major challenge
that scientist come face to face with is the lack of materials that will help the environment.
Instead of using energy one can use batteries, and also using cheap and non-toxic materials to
substitute for COINLico02. Another way that can help the environment is to use solid electrolyte
to enable metallic lithium electrode. The most problematic situation in the United States is the
increase of temperature and air pollution. Dr. Greenbaum believes that one way to help the
environment is to increase windmill which will produce electricity while producing carbon.
Another way to help the environment is to increase solar panels which use the sun for energy.
The message of this presentation is that “Yeah it is due able but we will have to start now…”
quoted by Dr. Greenbaum. In conclusion scientist should find new way to power things,
continuing new technologies, enable exploration of the universe, extending life saving devices,
and reducing CO2 production.
The next presenter named Ashleigh Rasid studied how the mind works and how one can
determine if one is deserving fairness. Ashleigh researched different theories about fairness made
by different physiologist. Ashleigh mostly focused on the Lind and Tyler theory which states that
high ranking group members care less about themselves compared to the low ranking group who
will learn to love and care for themselves. Ashleigh came up with her own theory about fairness
she stated that high ranking group members care more about themselves than low ranking groups
because high ranking groups believe that they deserve fairness. She conducted an experiment by
asking high ranking groups and people and low ranking groups of people questions about
themselves. As a result she found out that the Lind and Tyler theory fits the human society the
most, low ranking people respect themselves more than high ranking people. In the future she
hopes to ask more questions.
The next presentation is about one of the most deadly cancer in the United States, breast
cancer. Jordan Liz and Donte Bland studied breast cancer and found out that breast cancer is
caused by body’s natural regulators that do not work properly. The cells do not function properly
and is abnormal. Some of the symptoms of breast cancer is lump around tissue, lumpy skin,
redness around the breast, change in size of the breast (either it increased or decreased), and
swelling of the arms. The most common people who is in risk of getting breast cancer are
females, if one is 50 years of age and breast cancer is genetic so if someone in one’s family has
breast cancer the next generation has a chance of getting breast cancer. With studies of breast
cancer white woman is most likely to get breast cancer but would not die from it. However,
African women who get breast cancer will have a higher chance of dying from breast cancer. In
class both students looked at breast cancer with bioinformatics and found two different cells that
are responsible for breast cancer: BRCA1 and BRCA2. They also used a method called BLAST
to compare sequenced genes. Other scientist found that breast cancer can be cured in rats but
cannot be cured in humans. There is no cure nor is there a treatment for breast cancer, all doctors
can do is give chemotherapy to their patients, hormone therapy, radiation therapy, medication,
and removing the tumor. In conclusion breast cancer is an incurable cancer, but maybe using
new technology and new bioinformatics doctors and scientist can find a cure for breast cancer.
The next presenters were Alejandro Galvan and Omari Bookal who both studied forensic
science, ballistic. In science the study of ballistic is the science of a projectile in flight. However,
in forensic ballistic is the science of analyzing firearm usage in crimes. Forensic Scientist also
analyzes how bullets travels down the barrel, path through the air, and path through a target. It is
studied by forensic scientist that no two firearms will produce the same marks on fired bullets
and cartridge cases. The tool marks are unique to each firearm; no matter if they are of the same
make and model. Also, firearms do not change over time. Forensic scientists look at different
certain characteristics from the caliber of the firearm to the rifling pattern in the barrel of the
firearm. When a forensic scientist found out what kind of gun was used the weapon is first fired
in a tank filled with water and use the same gun and fire the bullet into the tank filled with water.
Next, scientists examine the bullet fired into the water for similar striation pattern, and marks.
This process helps forensic ballistics to compare to the evidence bullet to see if the same pattern
marks exist, to do this process forensic scientist use a special microscope called comparison
macroscope. Another device used to determine the bullet is called Scanning electron microscopy
(SEM-EDS). This method allows forensic ballistics to determine the shape and size will the
energy dispersive x-ray documents the composition of the particles. If the firearm is not found or
is not determine, the crime lab has the marks on a cartridge case they are still able to determine
the firearm. Scientist can input the information into one of the many databases. There is also
another device that can study the bullet fired. This method is new and is called the ICP-MS this
method allows forensic ballistic to study gunshot residue, study the patterns of the gunshot
residue around the bullet entrance hole through careful analysis. These are the different methods
that allow scientist to determine the bullet.
The next presenter is by Edna Lipke, Faranza Ahmed, and Corena Nicole whose goal is
to understand the influence of families, schools, peers, work, and the media on the development
of young children. Also, to understand the influence of parents’ views and practices from the
first days of infants’ lives. Another goal of theirs is to understand the influence of culture on
infants’ early learning, development, and school readiness. This research starts off with
collecting data by calling parents and discussing the parent beliefs, practices, child
characteristics, and finances of the parents. The next step is to interview the mothers for detail
account of a typical day with their child. Mothers are asked about the events of the day, who was
present, and where was the baby. When the mothers are asked these questions the three students
enter this information into the daily routines diary which contains what the mother has been
doing with the baby. The last step is to code the information into different episode such as breast
feed, diaper change, holding, hand games, bath and many more activities. There is a specific
sheet that codes the activities. After all the data is collected the data is entered into the Statistical
Package for the Social Sciences which is a software used to analyze data collected from the
diaries. In the future these three partners hope to complete the SPSS data entry.
The following presenter is Megan Torres who studied a bipolar disorder. The bipolar
disorder is a mental illness that changes mood shift and sometimes could be a disease. The
purpose of her research is to know her friend better who has this disorder. The risk factor of
getting the bipolar disorder is if a child has no family, or someone in the family has the disorder.
The symptoms of this disorder is aches and pains caused by depression, weight gain or weight
loss, and pacing back and forth. There is a treatment for this disorder; one who has this disorder
should take medication to control depression and mania. In the future she hopes to work with
mice that have bipolar disorder and hope to study the mice and observe their behavior.
The following presentation is made by Kendra Kokofu, Andrew Madouty, and Shanice
Grant. The three partners studied arson cases, and studied how forensic scientist analyzes arson
cases. Arson is committed when a person intentionally burns almost any kind of structure or
building. Many states recognize different degrees of arson based of how the building is burned.
One of the most common ways that an investigator can tell if the fire was purposely set is to find
the accelerants. Accelerant is a chemical fuel that causes a fire to burn hotter, and spread more
quickly than usual. There are many different kinds of accelerants: gasoline, kerosene, turpentine,
and diesel fuel. Forensic scientist use different methods to detect the accelerants such as the
Photo Ionization Detectors which helps detect areas of higher hydrocarbons. Another method is
called the Flame Ionization Detector which is a detector that interacts with solutes that are
extracted from gas Chromatography columns to produce a current. Another method is called Gas
Chromatography which is used to separate the components of a mixture. Chromatography in
general sense is used to separate mixtures of chemicals into individual components once the
mixtures are separated, the components can be evaluated individually.
The next presentation is the Huntington’s disease by Zaira Bello, and Geeta Mohaoir.
This disease is an inherited disease found on the short arm of the chromosome. A person at a
young age and old age and with family history of the Huntington’s disease is most likely to get
this disease. If the parents of a child are affected there is a 50% chance of passing this disorder to
their children. Some of the symptom of this disease is slurred speech, hard time swallowing and
eating, poor judgment, hard time driving, bipolar, delusion, aggressive, impulsiveness,
demanding, and temper. The most affected area is the brain which causes all these symptoms.
There is no cure for this disease, but one can get a physical tested, review family history, DNA
testing, and blood test.
The final presentation is made by Monica Ye and Lilliana Mendoza who worked in
Bronx community college. Both students studied blood analysis and blood spatter at a crime
scene. Blood is a mixture of cells, enzymes, proteins, and inorganic substances. The fluid portion
of blood is called plasma, which is mostly contains nutrients and dissolved proteins. The other
portion of blood is the cellular phase. This contains red blood cells, white blood cells, and
platelets. Blood at the crime scene is important because it contains DNA which contains genetic
material of living organisms. Blood found at the crime scene can be used to determine the
sequence of how a crime occurred, weapon used; blood can also identify the origin of the blood.
When blood is found at a crime scene, it is possible that the substance may not be blood at all. A
preliminary or screening test procedure is used to determine if the substance found is blood. This
test is called presumptive testing; this test is based on the reactivity of hemoglobin, a protein
found in red blood cells used to carry oxygen throughout the body. Two different chemicals are
used in this test: Phenolphthalein, and O-toluidine. A sample of the blood is taken on a Q-tip and
a small amount of the chemical is dropped onto the sample. When Phenolphthalein is used the
sample will turn pink. If O-toluidine is used a green-blue color will appear on the Q-tip. When
these colors appear it doesn’t mean that the substance is absolutely blood. The blood needs to
undergo another test called the Takayama test which confirms the presence of blood. To confirm
if the substance is blood or not a sample of the blood is placed on a slide and examine under a
microscope: if the substance is blood crystal-like shapes will form and if the substance is not
blood no crystal-like shapes will form. Blood spatter is a group of blood stains resulting from
one of more injuries. Spatters are produce in different ways such as stabbing, gunshots, beatings,
cast-off blood, and splashing. Careful studies of the blood spatter can help forensic scientist to
figure out the origin of the blood, type of weapons used, the direction which the object struck the
victim, movements of the victim and the suspect, the numbers of blows and gunshots the victim
received, and the sequence of events. There are three basic types of blood stains found at a crime
scene: passive, transfer, and projected. Passive blood stains are blood drops created or formed by
the force of gravity alone. Transfer is created when a wet, blood surface comes into contact with
another surface. The last blood stain is the projected and this blood stain is created by more force
or action greater than gravity. According to the presentation blood is always dropped from an
angle, and when blood is dropped at different angles different blood stains are produce. When
blood is dropped at a 90 degree angle the drop is round and the length as well as the width is
equal. When blood falls at an angle less than 90 degrees, its shape would resemble a teardrop.
Lecture # 7
Lecture number seven began with a presentation on Asthma which is a “chronic
inflammation of the lungs of the lungs in which the airways are reversibly narrowed….” This
presentation was presented by Belinda and Jonathan who both studied Asthma and researched
the statics of Asthma. Both students found out that twenty million people in the United States
have Asthma; everybody has an equal chance of getting Asthma. Some of the components of
Asthma are reversible airway obstruction, airway hyper reactivity, and airway inflammation. If
one has Asthma one will cough a lot, one will wheeze when walking, and feel a shortness of
breath. Because anybody can get Asthma, Americans should be tested to see if they have
Asthma. An exam Americans can take is checking prolonged aspiratory phase, diffuse wheezing,
and rapid breathing. A machine used to test if one is short on breath is called the Spirometry.
Both Belinda and Jonathan worked with an Asthma doctor, and focused on one special patient.
One of the patients recently developed Asthma and was allergic to his dog and cat; he gave his
cat and dog up and brought himself a snake. This patient brought his pet snake every time he
visits his doctor. Belinda and Jonathan found out that pet can be useful to help patients; pets will
comfort and relieve stress from the patient.
After that presentation Professor Ross gave a speech on keeping a résumé. She
introduced to the students that there are four different kinds of resume that students should keep
in handy for college, and for applying for a job. The four different kinds of resume:
Chronological resume, Functional resume, Combination resume, and electronic resume. Students
should always update their resume, every time students accomplish anything they should added
into their resume and keep it updated. It is useful to keep different kinds of resume because each
college or job application can ask for different kinds of resume and if students have four resume
it would be useful to just use one of the following resume. A resume should show that a student
is well rounded, hardworking, skillful, and show a student’s talent. Another tip is that students
should always write in a simple font and be careful of what they write on their resumes.
After the resume speech by Professor Ross, two students: Dominique Smart and Prince
Opoku studied toxicity of Hydrogen peroxide and Ophthalmic solutions containing
Benzallconium Chloride on ocular cells. Ocular cells are cells on the eye. The purpose of their
experiment is to determine the toxicity of the hydrogen peroxide on ophthalmic solution
containing the preservative BAK. This study is very important to one’s health, and this study can
help doctors understand the eye better. Ophthalmic solution that is a mixture of one or more
substance used for the eye. MTT toxicity Assay is used to determine the toxicity of
pharmaceutical agents and other potentially toxic matter. Hydrogen peroxide is a pale liquid
composed of water. Some of the materials used to conduct this experiment are biosafty cabinet,
incubator, flask, pipette-aid, BAK solution and formation solution. In this experiment there were
many different kinds of steps conducted. First both students took cells from the eye and split the
cells, placed into the incubation for 4 hours then acid is added to dissolve blue crystal. This
experiment was conducted for only a few weeks so both students are still waiting for the result;
however, Smart and Opoku will use a specific equation to calculate the toxicity.
The next presenter was part of the nutrition group, Jonathan Beaver, who went to Canada
Niagara falls. When he went to Canada he located Great Lake and Lake Erie, and he found out
how people in Canada make money compared to New York. He observed that the people that
live in Canada own their farm, stores, and there are so many land and room there. Some of the
demographic is that the population grew since 1990’s; the main language there is English and
Italian. There are mostly white people there and there are mainly Catholics in Canada. He also
found a farmers market in Canada and observed that the fruits and vegetables in Canada is
fresher than the fruits and vegetables in New York. The food in Canada is well taken care of and
the food price is cheaper than New York. The farmers market in Canada is very big because of
the excess of room in Canada. The food in Canada is from the people who farm, so all the food
there is fresh and the people there eat very healthy.
Briani George study bioinformatics; bioinformatics is the field of science in which
biology, computer science, and information technology merge to form a discipline. George
studied a protein called Phenylalanine hydroxylase also known as PAH; she was able to gather
information on this protein using a special database known as PDB and the NCBI database.
Protein Data Bank also known as PDB is the single worldwide repository of information about
the 3D structure of large biological molecules, such as proteins. The other database is called
NCBI which is known as the National Center for Biotechnology Information, this database is a
national resource for molecular biology information. In conclusion, Briani found out that other
researchers found that “the molecular mechanism for BH4 responsiveness potentially increase
the amount of active enzyme in vivo as well as mutant PAH activity.” Briani learned that using
bioinformatics helped her to understand how using databases and knowledge of biology could
help in the investigations to determine how certain proteins work and the comparison with other
proteins.
The next presenter also focused on a protein called the cyclinD1. Maya Chuck used
bioinformatics to study this protein, bioinformatics is the use of technology to create a new data
bases. The use of databases can help scientist find similar protein, evolutionary biology, genome
mapping, and protein modeling. The tools that Maya Chuck used was NCBI, protein data bank,
PubMed, Clustal W., Nucleotide data bases, genome, maps, and research statics. The purpose of
her study is to study the essential elements of the structural biology of our protein put in certain
scientific circumstances cyclinD1. Maya found out that there are two different types of cyclinD1:
the first one is G1Ls which is a cyclin control beginning of cell cycle; another cyclinD1 is G2m
which controls mitosis. The three main regulatory points are Late G1, G2 and Meta to Anaphase.
The cyclinD1 structure has a cyclin fold which has two core compact domains each with Alfa
helixes. CyclinD1 is located on Chromosome 11. In the end Chuck found out that cyclinD1
needs an assistance of cip/Kip protein to improve their binding.
David Tse used Near-infrared diffuse optical tomography to do studies on small animals
such as mice. Near diffuse optical tomography is an emerging imagining system that noninvasively analyzes the way light propagates with respect to the absorption and scattering prop
medium it’s in. In doing this research doctors will have access to knowledge will enable early
detection of cancer, but will not limit cancer. David’s goal is to create a reliable diffuse optical
tomography system to image finger arthritis and kidney tumor in mice. His hypothesis is that the
detectors will locate the absorbing substance. Some of the materials used are DOT instrument,
1% intralipid, India ink, Caliper, Microscope, Thermometer, Mat Lap program, and lap view
program. In conclusion, the correctly located the strong absorber in the cylinder filled with 1%
intralipid using reconstruction algorithms. Temperature must remain constant for this experiment
to succeed. He found out that temperature has an effect on the signal of the optical properties of
the intralipid.
The next presenter was Sammuel Chan and Zhuo Ying Wu who studied the transmission
of light through Dielectric- filled Nanapetures. Their motivation is to break the diffraction limit,
in the end they needed to figure out an equation. One of the materials used is the COMSOl
multiphyics RF module. After conducting this experiment both students decided to compare their
results from the previous experiments. They found out that resonant transmission as diameter
increases intensity as ratio decreases. This experiment takes time so they are still working on this
experiment, right now they are in the process of illumination through fused silica, and changing
the wall length. They found out that as transmission through 2no- filled-nonoapetures in silver
decreases the diameter increases. In conclusion transmission resonance peaks were found at
aperture diameter around 40mm.
Nixon R. Aravz worked in South Africa; he worked with a group of different people. His
mentor who is a doctor, she also opened a little clinic in Africa and sent Nixon over to Africa.
Nixon mostly worked in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) and his mission is to spread the word of HIV
and Aids including Tuberculosis. He is to educate people KZN about HIV/Aids/TB because 60%
of the place has HIV or TB. He also worked with a group called iteach which is a group that is
trying to provide a clinic service to patients. Also, he is to teach the people around there how to
take care of their own body and how to prevent themselves from spreading HIV. There is a
training module that will help patients so they can have an education about the disease and know
what is going on in their body. There are three modules that come with the iteach. The first
module is to teach the people there that it is okay to seek medical help, this module is needed
because people is afraid to seek help due to the fact that they are afraid of being judged. This
module will help them come out of their shell and seek for medical help. The second module is
to help people understand what is HIV and what does this disease do to people. The third module
tells who needs to take ARV which is a medication people can take. This module also makes
sure that each of their patients is eating their medication on time. If medication is not taken then
the HIV will fight off the medication and when the medication is fight off then the medication
will no longer be a help to the patient.
Lecture # 8
The first presentation is presented by Ngozy Manduakolan, Omyra Mesia, and Nishat
Tabassum in nutrition group 3. This year the nutrition and healthy group’s goal is to visit
different farmer market sites around New York City, and observe the food, the environment
where the farmers markets are located. The nutrition group also visited local supermarkets and
corner store. By visiting these different sites it would help the community to determine what are
some key factors to health related diseases such as obesity, diabetics, and cardiovascular disease.
Nutrition group three believes that low income areas have poorer quality and limited availability
of fresh food from local food suppliers. Low income neighborhoods have fewer health facilities
such as fitness centers, and healthy food stores. Group three began visiting farmers market
around the city; the students observed different things such as the texture of the food, price,
ripeness, freshness, color, and the smell of the food. Next, the students found the nearest
supermarkets and observe the availability of different types of food, checked the expiration date,
how well are the food persevered, and the price of the food. After visiting the supermarket, the
students looked for the nearest corner store. After observing all the different kinds of markets
around the neighborhood, nutrition group three walked around a block radius of the farmers
market to observe the environment the community was in. The last step conducted was putting
all the observation into a format and the observation were then sent to their mentor. As a result
their findings supported their hypothesis. Residents in Manhattan eat healthier because they have
a wide variety of store to purchase their food. Group three also found out that Manhattan has one
of the largest concentrations of extreme wealth in the entire United States they have enough
resources to build medical and fitness facilities to improve their health conditions. After
reviewing their notes and their results, in conclusion group three found out that the environment
plays a huge a role in which a person lives. Where the people live will affect a person’s lifestyle.
They also found out that people with better socioeconomic conditions have a better chance of
avoiding certain health related disease, because of their income level.
The next presenters were Ada, Ashley, and Decland who were all in the nutrition group
six. They believed that nutrition is important because it will affect a person’s life and family.
Group six studied nutrition in the Bronx. They researched and found out that Bronx as a whole
income is very low compared to the four other boroughs. They hypothesized that a family’s
income will affect the people around them. Resident diet in the Bronx is most likely influenced
by family, advertisement, and culture. People these days do not exercise as often as they use to
so it is recommended that one should exercise in order to stay energize and healthy. Group six
visited many different kinds of sites and observed the people, area and the prices of different
places and then compared them to each of the places visited. In conclusion, group six found out
that the Bronx has their own component and high medium.
The following presenters are Givi Basishvili and Xavier Marrero worked with
small micro-bubbles. Micro-bubbles are so small it can hold oxygen, genetic information (DNA)
and drugs. Micro-bubbles are used for medical purpose; for example, if patients have trouble
breathing than doctors can inject Micro-bubbles into the patients and the Micro-bubbles will
breathe for the patient. To generate these bubbles Basishvili and Marrero used sound waves to
move the Micro-bubbles, and to create the Micro-bubbles. To engineer these Micro-bubbles
engineers can use a tank in which it carries oxygen. Basishvili and Marrero are determined to
create a stable bubble, find the best storing condition for the Micro-bubbles, find the Micro-
bubbles properties, and test the Micro-bubbles in living organisms. When conducting this
experiment both partners found out that the Micro-bubbles only last for about three to five days,
so they performed different test on the bubble increasing the stability of the Micro-bubble. The
partners placed the Micro-bubbles in the refrigerator, and found out that when the Micro-bubbles
are refrigerated the Micro-bubbles loose less gas compared to the Micro-bubbles that are not
refrigerated. Basishvili and Marrero also did another testing; they hypothesize that when rotating
the Micro-bubble, it will prevent the bubble coalescence. In conclusion they found out that when
rotating the Micro-bubble the Micro-bubble tends to disappear; compared to when the Microbubble are not rotating. When the Micro-bubbles are not rotating the Micro-bubbles does not
stay the same amount of bubbles, but it does not lose as much bubbles as when rotating. They
both found out that the rotation increased the Kinetic Energy which decreased the Micro-bubbles
stability. Dry ice may be the best way to store the bubble because according to the graph, the
bubbles did not change its size nor did the days affected the bubbles size. They believe that if the
bubble is exposed to the air the bubble will increase its size; the increase of the bubbles size will
be useless because it will not enter the blood stream of the patient without being harmful to the
patient. This experiment contributes a lot towards the medical science because this can help
many people in the United States who are having problems breathing. Instead of increasing the
Kinetic Energy for the Micro-bubble, decrease the Kinetic Energy and see if the Micro-bubbles
is stable or not?
The next presenter also focused on a protein called the cyclinD1. Maya Chuck
used bioinformatics to study this protein, bioinformatics is the use of technology to create a new
data bases. The use of databases can help scientist find similar protein, evolutionary biology,
genome mapping, and protein modeling. The tools that Maya Chuck used was NCBI, protein
data bank, PubMed, Clustal W., Nucleotide data bases, genome, maps, and research statics. The
purpose of her study is to study the essential elements of the structural biology of our protein put
in certain scientific circumstances cyclinD1. Maya found out that there are two different types of
cyclinD1: the first one is G1Ls which is a cyclin control beginning of cell cycle; another
cyclinD1 is G2m which controls mitosis. The three main regulatory points are Late G1, G2 and
Meta to Anaphase. The cyclinD1 structure has a cyclin fold which has two core compact
domains each with Alfa helixes. CyclinD1 is located on Chromosome 11. In the end Chuck
found out that cyclinD1 needs an assistance of cip/Kip protein to improve their binding.
The next presenter was a special guest from United Nations International Children’s
Emergency Fund (UNICEF). This program started after World War II to help young people who
were alone by themselves. UNICEF will support children in community by sending medicine for
the children, help the youth by sending them to school, give them vaccines to help them stay
healthy, donated clothes for them, recreated schools and the community, and lastly by giving
them support. Sending the young ones to school helped the children develop their skills and
education. UNICEF not only helps children with their education, but they also focus on other
important materials that the students should know. They also help young people survive and
develop a life, basic education, making sure that both boys and girls have an equal chance at
education, educate the students about HIV/AIDs, protecting the child by preventing and
responding to violence, exploit, abuse, and finally UNICEF help the children by protecting their
rights.
Monique Honeyghan experimented with Phospholipids for HPLC analysis. Phospholipids
have a hydrophilic head and tail; both the heads and tails make up a SUV. Honeyghan prepared
the protocol for a lab assignment designed for Columbia Undergrad majoring chemical
engineering. She created a solution of Phospholipids. When doing this step it further her
understanding of Phospholipids. After preparing the lipid solution they stored the lipid solution
in Chloroform, after storing the lipid solution she evaporated the lipid solution using nitrogen
gas. She put it in the vacuum over night. When everything was finished she compared her 10mg
concentration to her 15mg concentration. After this procedure she needed to undergo another
procedure in order to complete her experiment; she then used a sonic energy also known as
Sonication: breaks up large vesicles into SUV, so she can compare bath vs. probe. She found out
that her SUVs were clear, but it was also translucent. There is also another procedure to be
completed. This last step is extrusion which is the use of energy to form a force to push larger
vesicles through small pores in order to help form uniformed vesicles; this procedure was
repeated eleven times. In conclusion, she found out that her DSPC machine created two peaks,
one very high peak and small peak. In another graph she found out that there was only one peak
that formed. As a result, probe sonication is faster, but it is more risky because the sample can
get contaminated due to the metal probe. Hot bath is more efficient than quenching without cold
water, but if samples need to be cooled it is better to do it rapidly. There was no difference
between syringe filtering. When using high performance light chromatography there was no final
result because she was not finished with her experiment.
The next presentation is about working with computers. In a computer knowledge is
stored; all different data’s are stored in the computer to create new data. CONED stands for
ConEdison a major energy company. A remote desktop refers to a software or an OS feature
allowing graphical application to be run remotely on a server, while being displayed locally.
Asset visualization is a drop down option from the tool bar of the Edison project; such images
that are produced are based on the certain. Google Earth is a major graphical, world wide
application in which anybody can go through different places. Asset visualization is very
important because it produces data through the program Microsoft Excel. HiPot is an electronic
device used to verify the electrical insulation in a cable, printed circuit board, and electric motor.
As a result, both students found out that minimum leakage out breaks of electricity in Flatbush,
Queens. In the future both students would like ConEd to fund Columbia into a research.
Mashkura Choudhury and Sithi Momtez both studied the pancreatic Neuroendocrine
tumor in MEN1. They mainly focused on MEN1 which is a disorder that makes cells and
protein, this is caused by mutations in MEN1 tumor suppresser gene. This unordinary disorder
will cause kidney stones, thinning of the bones, over activity, and enlargement of endocrine
glands: parathyroid glands, pituitary glands, and pancreatic islet. Vasco Endothelial Growth
Factor contributes to the growth of the tumor, predominant regulator of angiogenesis,
preservation and induction of abnormal vasculature, genetically stable protein unsusceptible to
mutation. When a tumor has nutrients it needs it will grow. Research was done on mice in the
past and scientist found out that mouse completely deficient of MEN1 in both endocrines.
Objective is to use knockout mice to define the components of the tumor microenvironment.
Some the materials she used were the pancreases tumor preserved in wax, and DAPI. She first
sliced the pancreases from the mouse, then using immochemistry and immune a fluorescence
staining of islet cells. She stains the pancreases from the mouse using different kinds of
antibodies. After, everything is finished she would check for proliferation. She did not gather any
result because research is still in progress, she is also creating more effective lab protocol. In the
future she wants to understand the role of MEN1 deletion in tumor microenvironment and to
work with mice.
The final presentation was made by two of the students from Harlem Children Society
who received the New York Times Scholarship. Both the students presented what it was like to
work for New York Times, and how it would benefit them in the future when they enter college.
The New York Times is the largest metropolitan paper in the United States; it was founded in the
1851 and it is known as one of the most reputable sources in word. The New York Times
Scholarship provides summer employment and a laptop for the students selected. The New York
Times also provide guidance through the years for selected students entering college; they will
also help finically and academically. They also have to attend seminars for the summer about
different stuff that students will have to encounter when entering college such as race, and
financial diversity. One of the selected students worked in creating something new like
Wikipedia except it would be more reliable, she worked mostly in the library by reading and
updating books and periodicals. When working at the library she learned new techniques and
learned new information. Reporters came and she learned about other culture. The other student
worked on the computer by tracking down patients and has the patients voice heard. A patient
voice is an online based multimedia feature that tells stories of different patients and their
experiences with a disease/illness. The student searched patients from different states, with
different ethnic backgrounds and at different stages of a disease. The students have not yet
completed her work because this is a very long process and it is very hard to find patients who
did not pass away. On the other hand, the other student also created weekly quizzes and she
proof read the articles, and by reading the articles it helped improved her reading, and she
learned a lot about different science. She also wrote an article of her own in which she found out
that immigrant Hispanic people tends to be more exposed to cancer when they emigrate to the
United States.