The Goddard Project

The goal of this project was to design and build a robotic dog modeled after Goddard from the 2001 television series, The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius. Sheet metal was used for the body of the robot in order to keep the frame lightweight. Goddard travels on two wheels powered by electric motors and two caster wheels. The robot utilizes a Raspberry Pi as its master device and an Arduino Uno in order to control the robot. Essentially, Goddard acts and behaves like an ordinary dog from barking, to moving around, to being a great companion and friend. In addition, Goddard also has access to the extensive knowledge of the Wolfram Alpha database and can be controlled over a wireless internet connection using a keyboard or voice controls. This project was successfully presented and demonstrated at the 2014 University of New Hampshire Undergraduate Research Conference and received an Award of Excellence

Investigations into Aldefluor as a Novel Method for Identifying Leukemia in Soft-Shell Clams

The clam species Mya arenaria is a common model organism in leukemia research. The current method for classifying the degree of cancer progression is by examining cell morphology with light microscopy. This approach is highly qualitative, which makes differentiation of pre-leukemic and semi-leukemic individuals difficult. One quantitative approach that may differentiate individuals is based on levels of aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) expression. The enzyme assay ALDEFLUOR® can actively measure ALDH expression in viable cells, but the effectiveness of certain protocol conditions is dependent upon the cell type

Analyzing Heavy Photon Search Simulations to Determine the Potential for True Muonium Discovery

The Heavy Photon Search (HPS) is a new experiment at Jefferson Laboratory to search for heavy photons, a particle predicted by dark matter and dark energy extensions to the Standard Model of particle physics, in the mass range of 20 MeV/c2 to 1000 MeV/c2 . The experiment also has the potential to discover true muonium, a bound state of a muon and an antimuon that is predicted to exist, but has never been observed. The true muonium atom should be produced by an electron beam incident on a target, such as the tungsten target used in the HPS experiment. Similar to the decay of the heavy photon, a triplet state of true muonium will decay to an electron-positron pair, allowing it to be detected in the same way. Since the mass of the atom will be about twice the mass of a muon, or approximately 211 MeV/c2 , and the decay length is expected to be on the order of centimeters, a precise search window can be specified. Simulations of this experiment were performed and an analysis was carried out to calculate how well we can expect to observe true muonium. Based on this analysis, the Heavy Photon Search will have a reconstruction efficiency of 16-20 %, and will be able to observe and fully reconstruct approximately 35 events after a month of running with a 6.6 MeV electron beam. As a result, the true muonium signal is expected to be statistically significant above the background signal

Review of solid polarized targets

In the following pages I review polarized solid-state target briefly. What I discovered through my reading and writing about this technology, that is amazing tool to study the nucleon structure. I started with what is polarized solid-state target, went through Dynamic Nuclear Polarization (DNP) to understanding how it works, then its setup, in what experiments they used polarized solid-state target and some results of these experiments and finally I wrote a brief definition to many of terms, they are important to know to understand what is polarized solid state target

Production of Scintillation Particle Detectors With Stereolithography-Based 3D Printing

My research is to design and directly 3D print scintillator detectors. One of my main tasks was to figure out how to make test pieces as transparent as possible by sanding, cerium oxide polishing, and coating in resin. I’ve also designed and 3D printed a completely opaque cylindrical case for the photomultiplier tube (PMT). The PMT is capable of detecting light coming from a scintillator attached to its lens on a single photon level. That makes it extremely sensitive to light, so it must operate in a completely lightproof environment. I also determined ideal conditions under which resins with different amounts of scintillating ingredients can be mixed and printed. The key is to find a good temperature at which scintillating materials stay fully dissolved and don’t recrystallize so that a scintillator can be printed, but that is not too high. This allows me to 3D print liquid resin, but also ensures the resin doesn’t decompose from overheating. The next step of my research is mixing different recipes and 3D printing them to optimize for maximum detection efficiency

Effect of Insulin-Like Growth Factor-1 (IGF-1) on the expression of NFκB and cFLIP in Bovine Granulosa Cells

Infertility, often attributed to follicular atresia, is a growing problem in the agricultural industry. Programmed cell death, also known as apoptosis, is a contributing factor of follicular atresia. It occurs in both the granulosa cells and the oocyte that comprise ovarian follicles. Here, mechanisms influencing the process of apoptosis, via the death receptor Fas, were explored using bovine granulosa cells (bGCs) because Fas-induced apoptosis is a plausible mechanism of follicular atresia. Cell culture techniques, optimized for bGCs, were developed and used throughout the current study. In brief, cultures of bGCs were exposed to Fas ligand (100ng/mL) for 24 hrs. This induced cell death, as measured by MTS assay (p=0.024, n=3 experiments). Subsequent experiments in which doses of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) were co-administered indicated that 100ng/ml IGF-1 provides the greatest protection against Fas-induced apoptosis (p= 0.001, n=3 experiments). Currently, we are testing the hypothesis that IGF-1 protects bGCs from Fas-induced apoptosis by stimulating the expression of cellular FLICE-like inhibitory protein (cFLIP) and the activation of nuclear factor-κB (NFκB), two molecules thought to protect granulosa cells from apoptosis. IGF-1-stimulated expression of cFLIP and NFκB will be assessed by immunoblots and in-cell western assays. This project was supported by the Hamel Center for Undergraduate Research (SD) and USDA grant no. 2013-67016-21071 (DHT)

Salt Marsh Values in a Changing World: Examining Sea Level Rise on Tidal Marshes with a Surface Elevation Table

Rising seas are threatening coastal communities and putting added pressures on the natural environment. Sea level rise rates are increasing on a global scale (from 1.7 to 3.2 mm/yr). Salt marshes are not only intertidal habitats acutely influenced by sea levels, but they also provide key ecosystem services such as: buffers against storm surges, habitat for wildlife, carbon dioxide storage, and pollutant filtration. In New England, salt marshes have built at a rate of 1 to 2 mm annually over the past 4,000 years, which has kept pace with sea level rise. However, we do not know if salt marshes can keep building if sea levels rise at a more rapid rate of 4 mm/yr or greater. To monitor how salt marshes are responding to faster sea level rise, we measured salt marsh accretion and elevation change along the coast of New Hampshire at three different marshes (a total of 11 stations) using marker horizons and a Surface Elevation Table (SET). The SET sites were established in two marshes over a decade ago and more recently at a third marsh in 2011. Data were collected in 2013 and the new rates are compared to previous elevation changes. The major findings included an unprecedented marsh elevation growth rate of 4.3 mm/yr, which shows that our marshes are building at rates fast enough to keep up with the current sea level rise. Furthermore, the rate of salt marsh building appears to be greater than the global sea level rate of 3.2 mm/yr, suggesting our local rate of sea level rise may be greater than 3.2mm/year. Salt marshes could provide a valuable indirect measure of local sea level rise

The Quest for High Power Lasers: Forcing Mutual Coherence in Broad Area Diode Lasers

This poster explains efforts to improve spatial beam quality of diode array stacks using an external optical feedback system to force coherence of individual diodes