Eight students at ETSU, with their faculty mentors, have received ETSU Student Faculty Collaborative Grants allowing them to conduct and present their research on everything from exploring an Appalachian childhood to investigating lizards in the Bolivian rain forest.
A total of $6,000 in grants has been awarded.
Annie Molla will present her honors thesis to a roundtable composed of five well-known writers of Appalachian children’s literature at the March 2001 Appalachian Studies Conference.
Molla’s project is a children’s autobiography based on her own move into the region as a child and the problems of cultural assimilation.
The transition from large, Midwestern cities to a small, Appalachian town meant that Molla stood out, not only because of her Yankee accent, but as the only child in the area with a Yugoslavian-born parent.
Molla’s thesis is being written under the direction of Dr. Roberta Herrin of the ETSU English department.
Chris Perry and Dr. Michael Harvey of the department of biological sciences received a grant to support their fieldwork in the rainforests of Bolivia. They are studying a diverse group of lizards that range across the continent and inhabit a variety of environments, with some living in trees, some on rock outcrops, and still others in sandy deserts.
The females of one type have a bright red head and black body, a stark contrast to the drab gray males (and to the usually colorful males and drab females found in other species in nature).
Anatomical characteristics are being studied to determine evolutionary relationships among this diverse group of lizards.
Perry is a senior at ETSU interested in morphology and vertebrates.
Rachel Rice, supervised by Dr. Foster Levy and Dr. Elaine Walker of the department of biological sciences, will examine the problem of bacteria becoming resistant to many antibiotics, a topic that is of great concern throughout the worldwide medical community. For example, penicillin can be neutralized by a bacterial enzyme that breaks down penicillin.
In 1946, the discoverer of penicillin, Alexander Fleming, proposed another potential mode of resistance. He noticed that bacteria that produce b-lactamase were often found in infections with penicillin-sensitive bacteria.
The sensitive bacteria are possibly gaining “community-acquired resistance” to the penicillin as a result of the activity of the penicillinase produced by the resistant bacteria.
Rice will conduct experiments with mixtures of bacterial species to determine the extent to which a penicillinase producer can provide protection for an otherwise antibiotic-sensitive bacterial species.
The results from her studies will determine the extent to which a benign bacterial species can provide a “safe haven” for a disease-causing organism in the face of antibiotic treatment.
Rice is an ETSU senior majoring in biology and biochemistry.
Maria Zakharova and Dr. John Laffan, department of microbiology, will try to learn how our bodies know we are facing an invasion of infection.
They are testing the hypothesis that the pituitary gland is able to directly detect the presence of bacteria and yeast indicating an infection.
Once the pituitary is able to notice an alien presence it can then dispense hormones, like proactin, and take other steps to boost the immune system to combat the invaders.
Zakharova is a senior with a great deal of lab experience.
Sarah Whaley, under the supervision of Dr. David Williams, department of surgery, is investigating whether glucans, a type of carbohydrate polymer, exhibit antioxidant activity.
Research by Williams suggests that glucans interfere with the signals that cause the body’s immune system to “overreact” to an injury or infection, but how this interference works is unknown.
After an injury or infection, the body releases “free radicals” (oxygen molecules that have lost one electron) which steal an electron by attaching to, and damaging, proteins, fats and other chemicals in the body.
Antioxidants, like glucans, limit the damage done by free radicals in ways that are not fully understood.
Whaley, a senior biology major at ETSU, will use grant funds to present, as co-author, the scientific paper accepted for publication about this research at an international conference in Orlando this spring.
Andrew Downes and Dr. Cecilia McIntosh of the department of biological sciences are investigating flavonoids, compounds found in plants.
Flavonoids begin in one form, then diversify to produce results as different as the deep red found in petunias and the bitter taste of grapefruit.
The study will examine grapefruit to see why and how plants produce particular flavonoids and what benefits they provide for the plants.
Ultimately, this information may help boost the flavonoids most beneficial to humans, increasing the nutritional content of plants.
Downes, a senior at ETSU, is known for “his intellectual curiosity and dedication to detail,” qualities which have made him especially suited for research.
Misty Handley and Dr. Donald B. Hoover of the department of pharmacology are doing research to determine the presence and functions of adrenomedullin in the heart.
Adrenomedullin is a small protein that could act as a local hormone to affect various target cells within the heart.
The investigators have established that adrenomedullin is present in their experimental model and found that it has an action to decrease the force of cardiac contractions.
These observations agree with recent clinical data and support the concept that adrenomedullin might contribute to the development of heart failure.
Such work might eventually lead to the treatment of cardiovascular diseases with drugs that block detrimental effects of adrenomedullin.
Handley and Hoover will present their findings at the national Experimental Biology Confer-ence in Orlando next spring.
Handley is an ETSU senior majoring in chemistry.
Genell Webb and Dr. Larry J. Prather of the department of economics, finance and urban studies will investigate a stock trading rule affectionately dubbed “dogs of the Dow,” which suggests that forming a portfolio of the 10 Dow stocks with the highest dividend yield allows an investor to outperform the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and more than 75 percent of mutual funds.
The study’s goal is to ensure that data errors are not causing the conflicting prior results and to determine whether changes in institutional characteristics caused this phenomenon and create an exploitable trading strategy that is likely to persist.
Webb is a senior at ETSU majoring in finance.
The ETSU Student Faculty Collaborative Grant program, unique among regional schools, is funded by the office of research and sponsored programs and administered by the University Honors Programs.
These small grants let outstanding students purchase chemicals and equipment too expensive for departmental budgets, giving them opportunities to conduct beneficial research and preparation for graduate school.

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