Arts - Buffalo State College

Water Permeability of Junctional Proteins
In a Non-Junctional Membrane
Jaafar Hamdan, Biology
Faculty Mentor: Professor Martha Skerrett, Biology
Gap junctions are intercellular channels that connect the
cytoplasm of two cells, allowing molecules and ions to pass freely
between cells. Each intercellular channel is made up of two
hemichannels, also known as connexons, and in chordates each
hemichannel is composed of six connexin proteins. Connexins have
four transmembrane helices and two extracellular loops containing
α-strand structures that are structurally essential for the two
connexons to dock at the extracellular gap to form a gap junction
channel. It is not currently known whether hemichannels play a
role in water movement across the plasma membrane prior to gap
junction formation. Using the Xenopus oocyte expression system,
different connexins were used to test the hypothesis. Oocytes were
injected with the desired RNA, incubated at 18 degrees C for 24
hours to allow protein expression and then dropped in hypo osmotic
solution (water). The “time-to-rupture” was recorded and compared
to AQP1, a known water channel, as a positive control. Preliminary
data suggests that most connexins mediate movement of water
across the plasma membrane, some more efficiently than others.
Swelling rates will be further assessed using time-lapse photography
and analytical software.
Presentation Type and Session: Oral – Science, Mathematics
and Technology
Water Quality Analysis In Murder Creek
Joseph Halleck, GES 460: Environmental Field Methods and
Analysis
Faculty Mentor: Professor Elisa Bergslien, Earth Sciences and
Science Education
Murder Creek, located in the Village of Akron, New York is an
interesting local waterway with a somewhat unfortunate history, as
the site of more than one ill-famed murder. In 2011, the Erie County
Soil & Water Conservation District started a stream bank stabilization
project on Murder Creek at Brooklyn Street. The project includes
installation of approximately 675 linear feet of rock riprap along
the lower bank of Murder Creek to stabilize and protect the toe and
multiple riparian plantings to promote soil stability along the upper
slope and behind the installed rock. During the project sediment and
erosion controls including a cofferdam and silt fencing will be used
to maintain the water quality of Murder Creek. In addition, there are
been other recent bridge construction projects that moved significant
amounts of sediment. Murder Creek is a class C waterway with a
history of industrial use; however, the Village of Akron water supply
is from the Murder Creek reservoir that is located in Bennington, NY.
I proposed to take water samples from multiple sites along the creek,
checking standard water quality parameters, as well as sampling
for metals such as Chromium, Copper, Iron and Nickel to see if the
Physical Geography, Sciences, and Mathematics
stabilization project or bridge construct projects have re-released
contaminants into the water.
Presentation Type and Session: Poster VIII
Western Boundary Current Simulation
Using a Differentially Heated Rotating
Annulus
Annabelle Wardzala, Earth Sciences
Faculty Mentor: Professor Jude Sabato, Earth Sciences and Science
Education
We are looking to answer two questions through a series of
experiments. First, under what conditions can we simulate a Western
Boundary Current? Second, how does the radial heat flux change
under varying conditions? To answer the questions we choose three
experiments based on theoretical predictions. All of the experiments
will be conducted in the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory,
using an annulus with ice in the center of the apparatus analogous
to the Earth’s poles; thermal couples will be set up in systematic
intervals to record the temperature. The first experiment will be
differentially heated, room temperature at the outer edge and
freezing in the center, this is the control experiment and we expect
to see no Western Boundary Current; spinning the tank at a small
rotation rate (Ω), large enough that Ro < 1, but small enough
that the fluid is in the Hadley Regime in which flow occurs in a
non-turbulent jet-stream. The second experiment will have the
same initial set up with the addition of a radial barrier blocking the
axis symmetric flow; dyes and glitter will allow the observation of
the movement of fluid parcels. The third experiment has the same
initial set up as the control with the addition of a radial barrier, and
a sloping surface on the floor of the annulus, this represents the
varying bathymetry of the ocean floor; the α-effect, a variation of
the Coriolis Force, is an effect of the curvature of the Earth and the
slope along the radius of the tank is theoretically equivalent to the
sphericity of the Earth.
Presentation Type and Session: Poster VII
107