RSS 1.0Quest
Quest is a Symposium dedicated to sharing the scholarly and creative pursuits of faculty, staff, and students of the State University of New York at Oswego. It is sponsored by the Office of the Provost, The Scholarly and Creative Activities Committee, The Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching, and The Office of Research and Sponsored Programs.
Recent Submissions
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An Analysis of COVID-19 News Articles: How Media Creates Cognitive Distortions Through Psychological BiasesA variety of sources from all over the political spectrum that focus on the Novel COVID-19 Pandemic between the months of February and November 2020 are analyzed to find psychological biases. This small sample size of stories exemplify the biases and human instincts which lead to the cognitive dissonances affecting the state of the American mind. The results of this analysis support the hypothesis, that psychological biases lead to widespread cognitive distortions which inhibit the United States from independent thought. The analysis further considers the effects of these biases and the subsequent lack of critical thinking on the American political and social climate, concluding that free thought is indeed in danger.
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Sonar Imagery of Shoreline Tufa Deposits and Bathometric Mapping at Green Lakes State Park, NYGreen Lakes State Park, located in Fayetteville, New York, holds two deep and narrow meromictic lakes which are hypothesized to be plunge pools associated with the retreat of the Laurentide Ice Sheet (~13,000 years ago). Today, the catchment area for Green and Round Lake is small and the lakes are mainly groundwater fed. This groundwater flows through the Syracuse formation and the gypsum-bearing Vernon Shale and discharges into the lakes rich in calcium, magnesium and sulfate. Tufa deposits are located at sites of groundwater discharge. Tufa deposits are thrombolitic microbialite structures, mainly composed of calcite accreted during cyanobacterial photosynthesis. The tufa deposits vary in size from meters to tens of meters and are found in various locations along the lakeshores. Here, we update the bathometric mapping using sonar techniques and provide the first sonar imagery of the nearshore environment to identify the locations of tufa deposits. Sonar data was collected with a Humminbird SOLIX 12 CHIRP MEGA SI + G2 with frequencies of 50/83/200/455/800 kHz & 1.2 MHHz during the summer and fall of 2019 and 2020. The sonar data was analyzed using Reefmaster, Sonar TRX, ArcGIS and Google Earth. Results indicate, both lakes exhibit steep slopes about 30° and the maximum depths detected at Green and Round Lake were ~175 feet and ~159 feet below the lakes’ surfaces. Sonar imagery reveals numerous locations of woody debris and clearly shows tufa deposits. In Green Lake, we identify 14 locations of tufa deposition, those being previously discovered and newly discovered, most concentrated on the East and West shores. Tufa deposition was limited in Round Lake with 4 localities of tufa found each consisting of multiple distinct tufa heads all concentrated on the eastern and southern shore. Our work provides data needed to refine prior bathometric mapping and provides a new viewpoint for understanding tufa geometry and the locations of tufa formation. These data will aid in understanding the link between groundwater discharge and tufa formation. It will also help with ongoing and future conservation efforts of this unique site.
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Regulation of Ras-Associated Protein-1 By Kinase responsive to Stress B in Dictyostelium discoideumDictyostelium discoideum is a social amoeba that is commonly used as a model organism for studying chemotaxis, which is a directed migration along a chemical gradient, due to its similarities to human neutrophils and metastatic cancer cells. There are multiple pathways involved in regulating migration. In particular, kinase responsive to stress B (KrsB), a homolog of mammalian tumor suppressor MST1/2 and Drosophila Hippo, is a negative regulator of cell adhesion and migration in D. discoideum. However, little is known about the molecular mechanism of KrsB action. Another regulator of adhesion is small GTPase Ras-associated protein 1 (Rap1), which acts by affecting talin and myosin II. In mammalian cells Rap1 can be phosphorylated, which leads to its inhibition. We hypothesized that KrsB might negatively regulate Rap1 by phosphorylation, thereby disrupting the activation of Rap1 on the membrane. To determine if KrsB phosphorylates Rap1 we will perform immunoblotting for Rap1 in cells with or without KrsB and look for a shift in the electrophoretic mobility as an indicator of phosphorylation. In this study, we were able to detect RFP-tagged constitutively active Rap1G12V on an immunoblot using an antibody against mCherry. We will now continue to conduct immunoblotting to detect mobility shifts of phosphorylated Rap1. To be able to track Rap1 localization, we successfully generated an RFP-Rap1 expression construct. We will examine RFP-Rap1 localization in cells with or without KrsB.
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Outside of the Expected: How Sex Discrimination Effects Gender Non Conforming PeopleGender roles in the workplace have been studied extensively as the United States attempts to work it’s way towards gender equality. We understand that jobs are gendered, with the traits of the job unconsciously being reflected in those hired. This is based upon Alice Eagly’s 1987 Gender Theories of communal and agentic roles. The problem that this paper attempts to address is where gender non-conforming (GNC) people fit in this gender equality fight. It is my hypothesis that because GNC people do not adhere to the traditional traits of either gender, they are subject to additional discrimination in the workplace. I claim that GNC people assigned male at birth who are perceived as men will be “punished� or less likely to secure employment because of their defection from their assigned masculine expectations. I also attempt to describe that GNC people assigned female at birth are just as likely to experience the discrimination of women because of the perception of them as women. GNC who are androgynous are not seen as capable of performing the duties of man or woman. These statements result in the exploration of how discrimination based upon sex is more complicated than simply female/male, and the United States must bridge the gap through revised legal protection.
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Investigating the Function of Enzyme 2014Enzyme 2O14 is a protein of unknown function, but is hypothesized to be an esterase. We investigated the function of this enzyme using a chromogenic ester substrate, p-nitrophenyl acetate (PNPA). The product from the hydrolysis of PNPA is yellow, allowing for the measurement of absorbance as a function of activity. Enzyme 2O14 was shown to hydrolyze the ester substrate, indicated by the increase in absorbance as a result of the formation of the yellow product.
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Mechanism od Filamin Action in Response to Mechanical StimuliMolecular mechanisms by which cells sense and directionally migrate in response to mechanical perturbation, which is critical in homeostasis and many diseases, are not well understood. Dictyostelium discoideum cells exposed to a brief burst of shear flow show rapid and transient activation of multiple components of the signal transduction network, a response that requires an intact actin cytoskeleton of the cell. However, exactly what aspect of the actin cytoskeleton network is responsible for sensing and/or transmitting the signal is unclear. Previous data from our laboratory suggested that actin crosslinking protein filamin is involved in the ability of cells to respond to shear flow. In this study we further characterized the mechanism of filamin action in this response. Filamin itself showed rapid and transient relocalization from the cytosol to the cortex following 2 sec stimulation with shear flow. To detect activation of the signal transduction network in the presence or absence of this actin binding protein, we used fluorescently tagged Ras binding domain biosensor that detects active Ras and was previously shown to relocalize to the cortex following mechanical stimulation. Reduced responsiveness of the network to stimulation with shear flow in the absence of filamin was specific to mechanical stimuli since response to global stimulation with a chemoattractant was comparable between cells with or without filamin. To understand how filamin might be regulating shear flow induced responses we generated truncation constructs of filamin lacking either the actin binding domain or the dimerization domain. Studies are underway to determine whether these truncation constructs are able to rescue the reduced response of filamin null cells to brief stimulation with shear flow, which will offer insight into the molecular mechanism of filamin action in this context.
