AJAS 2020 projects

4D- Distracted Driver Detection Device

Every year there are 6 million car accidents in just the United States alone. The leading cause of these accidents is distracted driving, usually due to cell phone usage or drowsiness. Rough…

Accelerating Oil Spill Remediation by Using Polymers to Destabilize Emulsions

Environmental Engineering (inferred)

One of the most dangerous components of an oil spill is the emulsion that forms between the spilled oil and surrounding seawater. This submerged emulsion can last for many years and is diffi…

Adolescent Stress Reprograms the Medial Amygdala and Sex Differences in Reward

Drug overdose is currently the number one cause of death in the United States. Adolescence is a time of crucial development because structural and molecular changes occur within the brain. D…

Adult Stem Cells for Musculoskeletal Tissue Regeneration

Biomedical and Health Sciences (inferred)

Adult mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) have been cited to have immunoregulatory effects in addition to their regenerative and multipotency capabilities, meaning they contribute to a regenerative…

AI Integration into an Autonomous Irrigation System Optimized for Water Conservation

Environmental Engineering (inferred)

In this day and age where data has become our most valuable asset, it is appropriate for us to apply our ever-evolving data analysis tools and artificial intelligence algorithms to reduce th…

A Microfluidic Device for Blood Plasma Separation and Immunoassay Detection

Biomedical Engineering (inferred)

Human blood plasma and other body fluids are routinely used for identifying factors/ biomarkers for clinical diagnosis of numerous diseases. In traditional disease diagnostics, the processes…

Analysis of Upf Protein over-Expression on Efficiency of Targeting mRNAs to NMD

Quality control mechanisms exist throughout the gene expression pathway to ensure the accurate transmission of genetic information. Nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) is a translation-depend…

An Artificial Neural Network Model of Autism: Understanding the Causes

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that impairs the ability to communicate and interact. Artificial neural networks (ANNs) can serve as simple models of human br…

A New Estimate of Marine Ice Under Amery Ice Shlef

Earth and Environmental Sciences (inferred)

Accreted marine ice is present under East Antarctica’s Amery Ice Shelf (AIS). The distribution of marine ice under the AIS was previously mapped by Fricker et al. (2001) using Russian airbor…

An Intelligent System for the Prediction of Epileptic Seizures

More than 65 million people live with epilepsy. Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological conditions that results in unexpected seizures. Due to the unpredictable nature of epileptic s…

An Investigation of Vortex-Induced Vibrations as a Means of Maritime Propulsion

Engineering (inferred)

Vortex Induced Vibrations (VIV) are a phenomenon where the fluid flow causes oscillations against an object called a bluff body by vortex shedding. This phenomenon has recently been studied…

A Novel Approach to Combating Inflammation in Obesity

Biomedical and Health Sciences (inferred)

Obesity is associated with chronic inflammation of the adipose tissue. This inflammation aggravates the current state of obesity, making it harder to treat, and leads to life-threatening sid…

Antifungal Activity of Bacteria Isolated from the Endangered Green Salamander

Microbiology (inferred)

The green salamander, Aneides aeneus, is an endangered species that inhabits moist rock crevices in the Appalachian mountains. Microflora found on the skin of amphibians have coevolved, form…

Applications of Helium-4 Doubly Forbidden Lines in Astronomical Spectroscopy

Physics and Astronomy (inferred)

An important issue in modern observational astronomy is detecting low-energy gas and dust, primarily in galaxies; previous work includes extensive use of the 21cm hydrogen (HI) line in radio…

A Simple Qualitative Test for Surfactants in Glyphosate-Based Herbicides

In 2016, 286 million pounds of glyphosate were used on crops in the United States. Glyphosate is the active ingredient in glyphosate-based herbicides (GBHs), such as Round-up®️ and Rodeo®️.…

A Survey of Lake Crescent for Endemic Salmonid Spawning Sites Using eDNA

Located in Olympic National Park, Lake Crescent is a glacially carved lake isolated approximately 7,000 years ago by a massive landslide. It is home to two endemic salmonids - the Beardslee…

A System Dynamics Model of Climate and Malaria in CˆOte d’Ivoire

Computational Biology and Bioinformatics (inferred)

This project evaluates several climate-based vector-borne disease transmission models with particular emphasis on the Parham-Michael climate-driven model for malaria transmission dynamics. I…

A Wearable Diagnostic Platform Based on RGB Color Scheme

Biomedical Engineering (inferred)

This work tested the feasibility of creating a cheap and easy to use platform for measuring the amounts of different analytes, or molecules and ions of interest. Versatile wearable devices f…

Biodegradable Backlash

The purpose of my project was to reduce the use of polyethylene plastics throughout the world and create a safer alternative. Creating a different type of plastic with the same features, but…

Bioremediating Wildfire-Damaged Ecosystems Utilizing an Autonomous Aerial Vehicle

As our world becomes increasingly impacted by the onset of global warming, the risk for wildfires has consequently risen exponentially over the past decade - causing substantial damage to th…

Blue Large-Amplitude Pulsators as Tracers for Hypervelocity Stellar Mass Black Holes

Physics and Astronomy (inferred)

Blue large-amplitude pulsators (BLAPs) were discovered in 2017 and recognized as an extraordinarily rare group of variably and thermally homogeneous stars. BLAPs appear to have lost a very s…

Calpains 8/9 Areexpressed in Murine Intestines;Regulated by wnt3a in Coloncancercells

Calpain 8 and calpain 9 are calcium dependent proteases, predominantly expressed in the stomach. They are reported to be implicated in processes such as cancer development and progression. U…

Colorful or Colorfool: The Effect of Artificial and Natural Food Dye on C. Elegans

Animal Sciences (inferred)

Food colorants are common in our diets. They are found in candies, beverages, and medicines. Recent studies suggest a link between artificial food colorants and negative behavioral patterns…

Combating Pseudomonas Fluorescens Biofilm with Adjuvant Antioxidants

Microbiology (inferred)

Combating Pseudomonas Fluorescens Biofilm with Adjuvant Antioxidants: Eighty percent of life-threatening chronic infections are caused by bacteria growing as biofilms. Biofilms are highly re…

Comparing and Correlating Vexation with Testosterone Levels

Behavioural and Social Sciences (inferred)

To answer many questions society has about why men are more likely to be the aggressor in violent contexts, a study was conducted to test the correlation between vexation and testosterone le…

Comparing the Habitat Connectivity of Fisher and Marten in the Rocky Mountains, Usa

Animal Sciences (inferred)

The connectivity of a species is the ability of its individuals to move, and importantly, to move between populations. We compare the connectivity of American marten (Martes americana), as w…

Construction of a CRISPR-I Library to Characterize Gene Function in a Minimal Cell

A minimal bacterial cell, JCVI-syn3.0, derived from Mycoplasma mycoides has been constructed at the J. Craig Venter Institute. It operates with only 473 genes, of which 149 have unknown func…

Continuous Manufacture of Homogeneous and Graded Rods by Low-Temperature Extrusion

Materials Science and Engineering (inferred)

Freeze casting, the directional solidification of solutions and slurries, is a straightforward technique for the manufacture of porous materials. However, it has reached its limitations for…

Counting Showy Lady’s Slipper Orchids with Machine Learning

Showy lady’s slipper orchids (Cypripedium reginae) are a critically endangered species in New Hampshire and much of the northeastern United States. They live in temperate regions and are hig…

Creating a Carbon Fiber Composite with Improved Elastic Properties

Materials Science and Engineering (inferred)

A critical factor to a car’s speed and efficiency is its weight. A lighter car is faster, more agile, and requires less energy. Polymer matrix composites (PMCs) are attractive because of the…