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March 6, 2013

Winners of ULM's 13th Annual Student Research Symposium announced

The University of Louisiana at Monroe recently announced the winners of the 13th Annual Student Research Symposium.

Used as a vehicle to showcase the outstanding research being conducted by graduate and undergraduate students at ULM, the symposium presents the unique and high quality work of ULM students.

The symposium has provided a platform for the presentation of research conducted by over 2,700 student researchers since the inaugural Student Research Symposium, held in the spring of 2001.

Researchers are required to conceptualize a research question, work with a faculty mentor to address the question, design a research method, identify the subjects, correctly and objectively collect data, analyze it, reach conclusions and make recommendations.

Student researchers presented their work either by presentation poster or by a platform presentation in which they read their research aloud to the audience.

In both cases, student researchers were expected to answer questions from judges who have credentials in the student's research field.

Nine of this year's winners will represent ULM at the second annual University of Louisiana System Academic Summit, which will be held on the ULM campus, April 12-13. Those students are marked with an *.

Award Winners

College of Arts and Sciences

Undergraduate:
First place: *Melinda Johnson, a Spanish major of Bossier City, presented "English in Korean Popular Culture." Faculty Mentor: Dr. Rebecca Stephenson.

Second place: *Danielle Jones, a Pharmacy major of Alexandria, presented "The Influence of Catalunya on the Life and Works of Antoni Gaudi." Faculty Mentor: Dr. Ruth Smith.

Graduate:
First place: Adam Breitenbach, an English major of Monroe, presented "The Monkey Wrench Gang and Environmental Radicalism." Faculty Mentor: Dr. Jana Giles.

Second place: Justina Salassi, an English major of Alexandria, presented "Hipster Kitsch: Toward and Appreciation of the Other." Faculty Mentor: Dr. Mary Adams

Third place: Katherine Roy, an English major of Alexandria, presented "The High Price of Dreaming: The Performance of Masculinity in August Wilson's Fences and Suzan-Lori Parks' Topdog/Underdog." Faculty Mentor, Dr. Janet Haedicke.

Biology Undergraduate:
First place: *Cortez S. Davis of Shreveport presented "The Isolation and Characterization of a Novel Agrobacterium tumefaciens 15955 Bacteriophage." Faculty Mentors: Brittany N. Miller, and Dr. Allison M.D. Wiedemeier.

Second place: *Amit Rajkarnikar of Delhi presented "Characterizing Pit-Mound Microtopography in Bottomland Hardwood Forests." Faculty Mentors: Matthew Herron and Dr. Joydeep Bhattacharjee.

Third place: *Amanda Scott of Mount Dora, Fla. presented 2012 ULM-HHMI Phage Hunters Class, Brittany Miller, Jeremy Harmson, Christopher Gissendanner, Allison Wiedemeier, and Ann Findley. "A Genomic Comparison of A4 Cluster Mycobacteriophages Isolated from Soil Samples in Northeast Louisiana - Mycobacteriophages ICleared and Medusa;" Department of Biology and Department of Basic Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Biology Graduate:
Biology Graduate Student Poster: C. Charles Creech of Monroe presented "A Preliminary Survey of Freshwater Snail Shell Microbes from Bayou Bartholomew, and Morehouse Parish, Louisiana." Faculty Mentors: Dr. Debra Jackson and Dr. Russ Minton.

Biology Graduate Student Oral Presentation: Matthew Reid of Monroe presented "Ecological Analysis of a Bottomland Hardwood Forest Community Undergoing Secondary Succession." Faculty Mentor: Dr. Joydeep Bhattacharjee.

Graduate:
Chemistry: Catherine Schilling of Lakewood, Colo., presented "Cyclic Voltammetric Determination of Acetaminophen In A Children's Pain Relief Elixir." Faculty Mentors: Alana Klingman, Elee Barber, Maroutcha Mouawad, Badwi Mouawad, and Emad El-Giar.

Atmospheric Science, Earth Science, and Physics: *Anthony Viramontez of Monroe, and *Adam Gildwarg of Pineville, presented "Investigating Instrumental and Environmental Contributions to Microscale Rain Gauge Variability." Faculty mentor: Dr. Larry Hopper

Mathematics:
Jesse Lee Pope of Homer presented "Persistence of Water Hyacinths in Northeast Louisiana;" Faculty Mentors: Dr. Joydeep Bhattacharjee, Dr. Youssef Dib, and Dr. Mariette Maroun.

College of Health Sciences

Janease Traylor, a psychology major of El Dorado, Ark., Sandra Dillon a gerontology major of Quantico, Va., and Scott Lepley a psychology major of New Orleans, assisted by Dr. Jeffrey Keller, director of the Institute for Dementia Research and Prevention of Pennington Biomedical, presented "Predictors of Mental Flexibility in a Sample of Elder Community Residents." Faculty Mentor: Dr. Karen Frye.

College of Business Administration

Undergraduate:
*Charles Sam Parker of Monroe presented "Personal and Corporate Tax Avoidance Strategies: Legal but Ethical?" Faculty mentor: Dr. Arturo Rodriguez.

Graduate:
Anshika Malaviya of Monroe presented a poster presentation titled "A cost-benefit analysis of DNA sequencing and restriction endonuclease DNA digestion." Faculty mentor: Dr. Paul D. Wiedemeier.

College of Education and Human Development

Undergraduate Poster Presentation:
First place: *Jameson Alston, a kinesiology major of Baton Rouge, assisted by Dr. Kilian Garvey, presented "Medical Mistrust and Belief in a Just World." Faculty Mentor: Dr. Kilian Garvey

Graduate Oral Presentation:
Christopher Myers, a kinesiology major of Dayton, Ohio, assisted by Dr. Lisa Colvin, Dr. John Anderson, Dr. Ken Alford, Dr. David Kean, and Dr. William McCown, presented "The Calculation of Torque Generated by a Swimmer's Arm During the Free-Style Swim Stroke." Faculty Mentor: Dr. Lisa Colvin

Graduate Poster Presentation:
First place: Erika Caramillo, a psychology major of Virginia Beach, Virginia, assisted by Dr. Jack Palmer, presented "Reexamining the effects of context on reasoning in Wason Selection Tasks." Faculty Mentor: Dr. Jack Palmer

Second place: Brian Bush, an educational leadership major of Monroe presented "Perceptions of Eighth Grade Students on Transition from Preadolescence to Adolescence in a Selected Middle School." Faculty Mentor: Dr. Timothy Ford

College of Pharmacy

Undergraduate Poster Presentation:
First place: Brian C. Primeaux of Crowley presented "Effect of Orlistat on in vitro uptake of γ-tocotrienol." Faculty Mentor: Dr. Amal Kaddoumi

Graduate Poster Presentation:
First place: Alaadin Alayoubi of Syria presented "Tocotrienol nanoemulsions stabilized with DSPE-PEG 2000 show similar activity but longer blood circulation time compared to poloxamer stabilized nanoemulsions." Faculty Mentor: Dr. Sami Nazzal

Second place: Baher A. Ibrahim of Egypt presented "Caudal hindbrain glucose deprivation impairs the positive feedback effect of estrogen on LH secretion through noradrenergic A2 and hypothalamic GnRH neurons connectivity." Faculty Mentor: Dr. Karen P. Briski

Third place: Suryatheja Ananthula of India presented "Oxazine Derivatives of γ-Tocotrienol Display Potent Anticancer Effects In Vivo." Faculty Mentor: Dr. Paul W. Sylvester

Graduate Oral Presentations:
First place: Pratistha Tamrakar of Nepal presented "Neuroprotective Action of Estradiol in Maintaining Hindbrain A2 Noradrenergic Metabolic Sensory Neuron Energy Status During Insulin-induced Hypoglycemia." Faculty Mentor: Dr. Karen P. Briski

Second place: Priyanka Prathipati of India presented "Nitric oxide from L-arginine treatment plays a vital role in alleviating coronary endothelial dysfunction in obese Zucker rats." Faculty Mentor: Dr. Keith Jackson

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