URSP Student Meghann Smith Researches The Effect of Varying Levels of Copper on Extinction of Learned Fear and Motor Coordination in Rats

My project deals with the effect of varying levels of copper on extinction of learned fear and motor coordination in rats. Behavioral measures will include fear conditioning and extinction in extinction chambers, as well as the accelerating rotarod task which assesses locomotor coordination. The metal content in the brains will be measured with an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry instrument (ICP-MS). This instrument measures trace metal content in the brain. The goal of this project is to examine the effect of long-term exposure to varying copper levels on behavioral outcomes in rats.

I became interested in this project after I started a Research Assistant position in Dr. Flinn’s psychology lab. My main interest of study is physiological psychology, and I knew that I wanted to conduct research in this field at some capacity. I never thought I would be able to do so with a project of my own so early in my college career, so I am appreciative of this opportunity! My future goals include a continuation in the research field of behavioral neuroscience in graduate school.

On a weekly basis, I take part in a strict handling schedule so the rats are exposed to human touch regularly before behavioral testing. Food is measured and weighed based on their distributed experimental diets to monitor intake. This week, I became more familiar with the Cryostat machine which cuts brain tissue to be mounted on histological slides. The product slides will be used in the ICP-MS to identify trace amounts of metals found in the brains.

URSP Student Amanda Hanelli Uses tDCS to Affect Beliefs about Intentionality in Human-robot Interactions

Working as a research assistant in the human factors lab of George Mason University since September 2013, I have studied visual attention and cognition together with my mentor Eric Blumberg. I have been fascinated by the technology available and the endless projects on human cognition that this lab has to offer. I have enjoyed measuring how transcranial direct current stimulation, tDCS, influences visual attention. As our first study was near completion, Eric invited me to work together with him on a new project involving the study of gaze-cueing in human-robot interactions. I really liked the project and I decided to apply for the Oscar Scholarship. I was very excited to know that my project was selected to be funded.

This project is related to my long-term goals because I plan to pursue a PhD in either human factors or clinical psychology, and being given the opportunity to further explore my research question will prepare me for the requirements, difficulty and rigor of graduate school. Despite the knowledge that I will gain in the field by critically reading research articles and operating several devices, this experience will also improve my technical writing skills. Being a co-author in a published study will be a great asset to my resume and will allow me to build a scientific foundation that will bring me closer to achieving my future career goals in the field of psychology.

On a weekly basis I write and revise sections of the research paper and I run participants in the lab. This week I collected data from 4 participants. The study involves a gaze-cueing task in which participants maintain their gaze fixated on a cross in the middle of the screen in front of a robot or human face. Target letters “F” and “T” appear either on the right or the left sides of the screen. The robot or human eyes are either directed at the target or opposite to the target letter. The participant’s duty is to press a corresponding key on the keyboard when viewing each target. While they are performing the task, I also stimulate their scalp using the tDCS machine, which is based on the low current of a 9 volt battery. After identifying the right spots on the participant’s head, I place the electrodes and connect them to the tDCS machine. Students are either placed on an active group (where they are stimulated for 30 minutes), or a sham group (no stimulation). I also administer several questionnaires and surveys to the participants, as well as the consent form.

This week I learned that in order to be successful in my journey it is crucial to maintain an open relationship with my mentor and consult him about any insecurity or concern related to the project. After disclosing my fears to my mentor Eric, I learned that it is normal to feel lost and overwhelmed during the research process, as it is an unknown path, where questions and dilemmas are endless. Nevertheless, maintaining a healthy relationship with my mentor will provide me with the support and knowledge I need in order to overcome every obstacle.

URSP Student Jonathan Culpepper Conducts Sediment Core and Age-Dating Analysis of the Historical Green Run Inlet of Assateague Island

I have always had fond memories of the beach. The breezes, the sunshine and the sand between my toes have always been a part of my life. I was largely raised in the Sunshine State-- Florida. As a child my parents would take my siblings and I on excursions to beaches all over the state, sometimes for just a day, other times for weeks. Being on the coast reminds me of those places and how amazing they are, and sets the stage for new experiences, new memorable times. And so, I love the beach. What better way to intermingle both my love of these locations and my educational/professional goals then to study barrier islands, aka-- big beaches.

To properly understand the geomorphology of any barrier island complex, you have to start at the bottom and work your way up, and by bottom I mean up to 10 meters below that sand that lies beneath my feet. But getting at sand that deep isn’t easy and maintaining the important aggradational structures can be even harder. We use a Vibracore.

A vibracore works essentially like pulling your straw out of your soda with your finger on top-- the soda in the straw stays in the straw as no air can rush in to fill the space. We use a really big, metal pipe (straw) with a vibrating head to sink it deep into the core of the barrier island. Then we yank it out, cut it open and eagerly examine the record of barrier island development presented to us.

The relative frequency of sand grain sizes found in the core are just as important to this record as are the structures. So, after field work actually taking the cores from the island is completed, I take pictures and describe the structures I see in them, as well as sieving through countless samples to separate and differentiate between the grain sizes taken at strategic points to garner a more complete history of the island.

I plan to work in the petroleum industry upon graduation from George Mason and as the largest, terrestrial, oil reserves have been found and tapped, the industry has shifted a major focus to prospecting efforts in the marine realm. Large slides of sediment from the land into the ocean can trap a large amount of biological material in a literal heat engine, compressing, cooking and producing the oil that world runs on. Barrier islands do not hold oil reserves as they do not remain stationary over long periods of time (geologic time), however the study of these are similar in many ways to the study of seafloor oil reservoirs. And lets be honest, I get to work on the beach, and an office like that is hard to beat.

URSP Student Dominick Casciano Researches Hollow Glass Microspheres as Lightweight Aggregate in High-Performance Concrete

A picture of me in the concrete laboratory at Vulcan Materials in Springfield, Va.

I’m a civil engineer who is primarily interested in both water treatment systems and the environment. I came to be interested in this project through my involvement in the American Society of Civil Engineers chapter on this campus. As a member of this organization, I was partly responsible for getting our first-ever concrete canoe into the water. 

Part of concrete canoe is learning how to do mix design. Since we are aiming for making national competition, it is imperative that we develop a strong, lightweight, and sustainable mix. At first glance, these objectives seem to be mutually exclusive. Through my research and hands-on experience with the cement, however, I have learned that it is indeed possible to fulfill all of these objectives in one product. This has been my drive to research and develop cements that do not rely on ordinary Portland cement as their primary binder. 

It’s easy to see how concrete has become the most used construction material on Earth. This is a material which is strong in compression and relatively inexpensive. It’s benefits, however, must be considered with the knowledge that the production of ordinary Portland cement (OPC) - the primary and essential constituent of ordinary concrete - releases large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. For the sake of future generations, it’s important to research new materials and methods that are sustainable. Today we know that it is possible to create high performance cement and therefore concrete without the inclusion of OPC. My long term goal is sustainability and this endeavor fits with this goal. If I am successful, I will discover methods to incorporate industrial byproducts and user friendly reagents into geopolymer cements suitable for construction.

On a weekly basis, I look for new research papers to digest. I am in the process of acquiring the necessary ingredients for polymerization. This week, I discovered that my initial plan of action was not possible. This is because the alkaline reagent I planned to use to catalyze the reaction is too caustic. A 12 molar solution of NaOH (lye or caustic soda) is too dangerous to be working with at this level of research. This is another motivation to continue research into more user-friendly methods for potential field applications. 

URSP Student Silva Achmar Researches Student Retention of George Mason's Biology Major

This semester I was given an opportunity to research a very relevant topic: why students at George Mason University are opting out of their Biology major. My mentor, Dr. Schwebach, is a Cellular Biology (BIOL 213) professor at Mason and this course is the first Biology course that is needed to advance further into the major of Biology. He was particularly interested in this research question because since his class is the first class that Biology majors need to take, we wanted to know if this class is a factor leading up to the decision of students opting out of their Biology majors. I was particularly interested in this study because I am a Biology major as well and I witnessed that my fellow peers were switching out of the Biology major to another area of study. I am passionate about the subject of Biology so I was wondering if it was the content itself is what was causing students to switch out of the major.

Although my research project does not involve any lab work, gloves, or test tubes, it can lead to some very interesting results. In the beginning of every semester of Cell Biology, Dr. Schwebach hands out notecards to his students and they are to write their names, current major, reason for choosing that major, and other details. After the semester is over, I am to code these notecards, organize the data in an Excel file, and determine whether or not those students who declared themselves as a Biology major, are still Biology majors. If they have opted out of the Biology major, that is where we need to find out why. Those students are e-mailed, asked to be interviewed, and then asked a set of questions during the interview, which will ultimately answer our questions of why they have switched out of the major. During the past week, I have been organizing all of the data in the notecards of several semesters and trying to pinpoint students who have switched out. Although this is a tedious process, I strongly believe that we can greatly improve the Biology department at George Mason University at the end of our study.