Research Presentations - 2011-12
John Deere Chapter of Sigma Xi

6:30 - 7:45 pm, Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Hanson Science Hall, Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois
Parking is available in Lot H, just north of the building.  You may enter on the ground floor at either the north or
 south entrance.  The lecture hall is at the south end of the building.  There is handicap parking at the north entrance.

Below is the list of talks and posters that will be presented by the new associate members of the chapter inducted on Dec. 1.  The talks will all be in Room 102.  During the evening, the posters will be on display in the Atrium of the Science Building.  The students displaying posters will be introduced at 8:00 pm in Room 102.  Following that, in the Atrium, we will have refreshments, view the posters, and enjoy conversation with all of the presenters.  Here is the PDF file for this program.

The use of antibiotics in a clinical setting has caused an increase in prevalence of bacterial resistance. Because of the limitations in creating new antibiotics a recent approach to this problem has been to study the enzymes that cause resistance and find inhibitors. One such resistance enzyme, which we chose to study, is the β-lactamase of Meiothermus ruber. This organism's high temperature preference made it a good candidate for research because of the potential structural differences of this enzyme, to others that have been studied, that would make it less susceptible to heat. It is also interesting to discover why M. ruber has this gene when we believe it is less likely to encounter β-lactam antibiotics in its environment. Our ongoing research aims to address the question of why this gene is evolutionarily advantageous for M. ruber, as well as to expand our knowledge of functionality, substrate preference, and inhibition of this enzyme and others like it.

The purpose of this study is to examine how dams affect the habitat characteristics, species distribution, richness and population of freshwater mussels in Rock River, Illinois. The idea of this research was inspired by a previous study on effects of low head dams on freshwater mussels in Fox River, Illinois. The research used similar methods that the previous study used to test the hypothesis in the Rock River. We surveyed sites both upstream and downstream of the dam, and then we calculated the density and richness of freshwater mussels to analyze the effects of dams on mussel distribution, abundance and richness. Additionally, we compared our research data with the previous study on Fox River to examine if the influence of dams on freshwater mussels in Rock River is similar to the results in Fox River.

I, along with three fellow Augustana students, did a study to find out the anthropogenic effects a dam in the lower Rock River region had on freshwater mussels. We predicted that abundance and richness of freshwater mussels would be low close to the dam, but mussel density and richness would increase with increasing distance from the dam. With supporting data from previous found research we set out to test our hypothesis. The data we collected proved our hypothesis true up to a certain degree. In our ending results we found that around 3-4 km away from the dam we ran into anthropogenic effects which caused the diversity and abundance of mussels to go back down. In the end it was a successful and wonderful learning experience for both me and my fellow students. We give much thanks to our professors Dr. Geedey and Dr. Heine that made it all possible.

We conducted our research on the Rock River in Milan, Illinois above and below the Milan Steel Dam. Our group investigated previous studies and used the collective studies as a guide and model for our research. During our study, we measured the richness and abundance at eight collection sites around the dam. Our research was collected over a two day period where we measured three sites above and five sites below the dam by using rafts and a catch-per-unit-area method obtained from one of the previous studies. Then we analyzed our results and compared them to studies done by other researchers.