Category: Students Page 34 of 42

Why are Dogs Skinny in Costa Rica?

On March 7, 2014

In Animals, Biology, Global Health, Medicine, Students

By: Nonie Arora

Duke student Mary Chavarria had the opportunity to learn how animals are treated in an indigenous community in Costa Rica. Chavarria is a junior from Los Angeles, California studying evolutionary anthropology. An avid traveler, she is a also a member of Round Table and on the executive broad of the Duke Undergraduate Bioethics Society.

Chavarria and her group members presenting their findings. Credit: Mary Chavarria

Last semester, she studied abroad in Costa Rica through the Duke OTS program on tropical medicine & global health. In addition to taking classes on tropical medicine and field ethnobiology, Chavarria had the opportunity to complete a research project while in the region.

The minister of health for the region presented the students with potential topics that he believed ought to be investigated for the indigenous communities. There was a range of projects: dental health, isolated older adults, social groups and pets. Chavarria and her group chose to research how pets were perceived and the health of pets in the community.

Her group wanted to know how perceptions of animals influence their health as pets and how this would correlate with zoonosis, the transfer of disease from animals to humans. To determine perceptions of animals, they developed a survey to use in a school.

“We knew that it would be difficult to just go house to house. We would have to hike between them and there are mountains in between. We decided that the best way to access most people reliably would be to go to a school,” Chavarria explained.

They asked questions like:

Do you like your pet?
Do you play with it?
Why do you have a pet?

The team meets with students to ask them about pets. Credit: Mary Chavarria

They surveyed 70 kids from elementary and middle school. Their response rate was almost one hundred percent since they administered the survey in classrooms.

“We found that pets were not treated as you or I may consider [treating a pet]: groomed or walked. They were utilitarian, to put it gently. The pets were skinny,” Chavarria explained.

“While the animals were skinny, people also don’t have great nutrition in this under-resourced region. People would feed them parts of what they were eating, which wasn’t supremely nutritious for humans, and [was] even less so for dogs,” Chavarria said.

Chavarria’s team also found that people in the region really didn’t know the extent to which diseases could be transmitted between humans and animals. Scabies, spread by a parasite that causes similar diseases in humans and dogs, is a problem in the region, she added.

Ultimately, Chavarria believes that better awareness of disease transmission between animals and humans and better treatment of animals has the potential to reduce human disease.

Sign Up For Datafest 2014 to Work on Mystery Big Data

By Erin Weeks

On March 5, 2014

In Computers/Technology, Mathematics, Science Communication & Education, Students, Visualization

Heads up Duke undergrads and graduate students — here’s an opportunity to hang out in the beautifully renovated Gross Hall, get creative with your friends using big data and compete for cash prizes and statistics fame.

Datafest, a data analysis competition that started at UCLA, is in its third year in the Triangle. Every year, a mystery client provides a dataset that teams can analyze, tinker with and visualize however they’d like over the course of a weekend. Think hackathon, but for data junkies.

“The datasets are bigger and more complex than what you’ll see in a classroom, but they’re of general interest,” said organizer Mine Çetinkaya-Rundel, an assistant professor of the practice in the Duke statistics department. “We want to encourage students from all levels.”

Last year’s mystery client was online dating website eHarmony (you can read about it here), and teams investigated everything from heightism to Myers-Briggs personality matches in online dating. In 2012, the dataset came from Kiva, the microlending site.

This year’s dataset provider will be revealed on the first day of Datafest. Sign up ends ~~this Friday, March 7~~, Monday, March 10, so assemble your team and register here!

Students DiVE into the Body to Learn about Addiction

By sa160@duke.edu

On March 3, 2014

In Medicine, Science Communication & Education, Students, Visualization

By: Nonie Arora

Dr. Schwartz-Bloom explains the mechanics of the DiVE. Credit: Nonie Arora

There are not many six-sided, immersive virtual environments in the world–but one of them is at Duke.

Students had the opportunity to dive into pharmacology visualizations with Dr. Rochelle Schwartz-Bloom last week during a tour of the Duke immersive Virtual Environment (DiVE). She explained that the 3D in the DiVE is different from the 3D of a typical movie theater: the glasses have a refresh rate that’s out of sync between the two eyes.

It’s like being inside of a video game. You use a Nintendo-like wand and press buttons to interact with the environment.

We walked through two simulations modeling different aspects of addiction. In the first, we learned why some people are more likely to become alcoholics than others. In the second, we observed the brain changes that underpin addiction to nicotine.

We dove right into the body of an avatar drinking a beer. Some people metabolize alcohol differently than others, depending on their genetic code, Schwartz-Bloom explained.

The simulation was created by a team of students working with Schwartz-Bloom: she assembled a team of students studying biology, chemistry, computer science, electrical and computer engineering and visual arts. They worked together for a year to build the simulation, which explains how alcohol gets oxidized depending on genetics and whether the changes in metabolism increase or decrease the risk for alcoholism.

Students dragging NAD into the active site of the alcohol metabolizing enzyme in the DiVE. Credit: Nonie Arora

Dr. Schwartz-Bloom explained the advantages of learning about this reaction with a 3D visualization. “Students made this as a game so that others could go in there to make the changes happen – they’d have to grab and move the atoms. The game gives students a real sense of why you need zinc and NAD for this chemical reaction,” Schwartz-Bloom said.

Through the second visualization, we realized why smokers who are addicted generally increase their consumption of cigarettes over time. We saw how repeated exposure to nicotine changes the brain, causing smokers to need more cigarettes over time to get the same pleasurable feelings. The tool can be used in schools to educate students how smoking actually changes the brain, Schwartz-Bloom said.

In the DiVE, I felt like I was on the Magic School Bus, jumping right into the action to learn about pharmacology principles! Free group tours are available at the DiVE between 4:30 and 5:30 on Thursdays.

Krause Hopes to Improve Sexual Misconduct Reporting Process

By sa160@duke.edu

On March 3, 2014

In Behavior/Psychology, Students

By Nonie Arora

Carly Krause, graduate student in public policy and business. Credit: Carly Krause

Carly Krause is determined to figure out why some students formally report sexual misconduct while others don’t. Krause is a dual-degree graduate student studying public policy at the Stanford School of Public Policy and the decision sciences at the Fuqua School of Business.

Krause, a California native originally from Los Angeles, received a bachelor’s in business administration from the University of California, Berkeley and has been at Duke for three years. At Berkeley, Krause was heavily involved with the women’s community: she was the president of the National Organization for Women (NOW) at Berkeley.

When the time came to decide upon a topic for her master’s thesis, Krause decided to reengage with women’s issues and approached the Duke University Women’s Center as a client for her project. From then-director Ada Gregory, Krause learned that the Women’s Center was deeply interested in learning why only some students choose to report sexual misconduct through the formal process. They also wanted to know what factors bring students in to the Women’s Center or keep them from using their services.

Krause began digging deeper into these issues. In the past, these types of questions had only been asked through surveys. Krause knew there was only so much information that could be gleaned from a survey without follow-up questions, and that students generally did not answer the free response questions. Instead of a survey, she chose to do in-depth interviews with about twenty students that she sought out by advertising on campus mailing lists and posting fliers in women’s restrooms. Krause said that her data set of twenty interviews meets the criteria for a solid qualitative study. According to Krause, the sample size also sends a signal to the university that this issue is important to the student body.

Duke University Women’s Center. Credit: Duke Student Affairs

After her research report is completed this year, it will go to the Women’s Center. From there, a distilled set of recommendations will hopefully be brought before the university administrators, Krause explained. Krause hopes that the Women’s Center will be able to make some of the changes that have come up. These will be things that students want but may not be on the Women’s Center radar quite yet, according to Krause. “I really hope that if there are recommendations that they feel are worthwhile, they will have the resources and manpower to implement them,” Krause said.

“On university side, I hope that administrators understand that the current process is re-traumatizing and disincentives students from coming forward to the point where we are only getting the select few that are so upset and traumatized that this is their only resort. I think that the process is really doing a disservice to the students,” Krause said.

Krause emphasized that when the university designs policies for sexual misconduct there are multiple competing tensions, including protecting students, creating an equitable environment for everyone and promoting the idea of a safe campus environment.

The Catastrophic Origins of Our Moon

By Erin Weeks

On February 21, 2014

In Computers/Technology, Faculty, Physics, Students, Visualization

This still from a model shows a planet-sized object just after collision with earth. The colors indicate temperature. (Photo: Robin Canup)

This still from a model shows Earth just after collision with a planet-sized object. The colors indicate temperature. (Photo: Robin Canup)

By Erin Weeks

About 65 million years ago, an asteroid the size of Manhattan collided with the Earth, resulting in the extinction of 75% of the planet’s species, including the dinosaurs.

Now imagine an impact eight orders of magnitude more powerful — that’s the shot most scientists believe formed the moon.

One of the leading researchers of the giant impact theory of the moon’s origin is Robin Canup, associate vice president of the Planetary Science Directorate at the Southwest Research Institute. Canup was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2012, and she’s also a graduate of Duke University — where she returned yesterday to give the fifth Hertha Sponer Lecture, named for the physicist and first woman awarded a full professorship in science at Duke.

According to the giant impact hypothesis, another planet-sized object crashed into Earth shortly after its formation 4.5 billion years ago. The catastrophic impact sent an eruption of dust and vaporized rock into space, which coalesced into a disk of material rotating around Earth’s smoldering remains (see a very cool video of one model here). Over time, that wreckage accreted into larger and larger “planetesimals,” eventually forming our moon.

Physics professor Horst Meyer took this photo of Robin Canup, who was his student as an undergraduate,

Robin Canup (Photo: Horst Meyer, who taught Canup as an undergrad at Duke)

Scientists favor this scenario, Canup said, because it answers a number of questions about our planet’s unusual lunar companion.

For instance, our moon has a depleted iron core, with 10% instead of the usual 30% iron composition. Canup’s models have shown the earth may have sucked up the molten core of the colliding object, leaving the dust cloud from which the moon originated with very little iron in it.

Another mystery is the identical isotopic signature of the moon and the earth’s mantle, which could be explained if the two original bodies mixed, forming a hybrid isotopic composition from the collision.

Canup’s models of the moon’s formation help us understand the evolution of just one (albeit important) cosmic configuration in our galaxy. As for the rest out there, she says scientists are just beginning to plump the depths of how they came to be. Already, the models show “they’re even crazier than the theoreticians imagined.”

Touring the Planet's Most Powerful Gamma Ray Source

By Erin Weeks

On February 19, 2014

In Engineering, Faculty, Physics, Students

By Erin Weeks

When students pass by its unassuming building along Circuit Drive, many have no idea the world’s most intense gamma ray laser lies tucked away in the heart of Duke’s campus.

The Duke Free Electron Laser Laboratory, or DFELL, attracts physicists from across the country to study everything from nuclear security to the death of stars. Gamma rays are the most energetic members of the electromagnetic spectrum, and they can tell us a great deal about physics at the nuclear level. Cosmic events, like massive star collapse, produce high gamma radiation, but few natural sources exist on earth — so DFELL provides a window into the dense and infinitesimal world of the atomic nucleus. A group of students organized by Duke’s Society of Physics Students recently toured the lab to learn more. All photos were taken by Jonathan Lee.

DFELL’s gamma rays are generated by the collision of electron beams with photons racing around a large, oval storage ring, like a race track. Here, half the group gathers next to the straight leg of the oval’s left side.

Physics professor Ying Wu, the associate director for accelerators & light sources at DFELL, explains how electrons colliding with photons are like bowling balls crashing into an oncoming train. At left, you can see the red magnets that help guide the beams.

Though hidden to onlookers, this room houses a cavity mirror that helps to steer the beam of electrons with incredible precision. Even minute vibrations can knock the laser beam out of alignment, so the mirror assembly sits on reinforced concrete with shock absorbers.

Behold the Blowfish. This detector system boasts 88 “spines,” which can precisely measure what happens when intense gamma rays excite a nucleus, causing it to spit out particles. The spines are comprised of liquid-scintillator cells, which produce photons triggered by radiation, and photomultiplier tubes, which convert the photons to electrical signals.

“Blowfish’s goal in life is to make precision measurements of photonuclear reaction cross-sections,” says Grayson Rich, a graduate student at UNC who studies nuclear and neutrino physics at DFELL with Duke professor Phil Barbeau. Blowfish’s proximity to DFELL’s gamma rays “allows for really rigorous evaluation of theories for how nuclear systems behave.”

Duke Labs Produce 2 Intel Talent Search Finalists

By Karl Bates

On February 9, 2014

In Biomedical Engineering, Medicine, Nanotech, Students

By Karl Leif Bates

Two North Carolina high school seniors who worked on their research projects in Duke University labs are among 40 students recently named finalists of the Intel Science Talent Search 2014.

Alec Arshavsky is a senior at East Chapel Hill High School

Alec Arshavsky, 17, of East Chapel Hill High School is being recognized for his project “Automatic Characterization of Donor Tissue for Corneal Transplantation Surgery.”

Arshavsky worked in the Duke lab of assistant professor of ophthalmology and biomedical engineering Sina Farsiu, developing an algorithm that automates the process of making precise measurements of a donor cornea for transplant. These measurements are currently being done laboriously by hand, and they ensure that the donor eye is healthy and will be compatible with a recipient’s anatomy and not change their vision too much.

Arshavsky spent two years working on his project, first learning the mathematical framework of image processing and then applying it to automate the process of analyzing corneal images from optical coherence tomography. His algorithm is currently being used in clinical trials. Arshavsky said he will pursue engineering in college but hasn’t chosen his school yet. Alec’s dad, Vadim Arshavsky, is a professor of ophthalmology and pharmacology at Duke.

Parth Thakker recently displayed a poster of his Duke research.

Parth Thakker, 17, of the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics in Durham, did his work, “Design, Assembly, and Optimization of Novel Zn_xSeAg_y Biocompatible Quantum Dot Sensitized Solar Cells” in the lab of Nico Hotz, an assistant professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science at Duke.

The Hotz group has been working on quantum dots for solar collection that don’t rely on toxic cadmium and lead, making them safe for skin contact. Thakker, who’s from Charlotte, said there might be an application for a wearable device like Google Glass that would benefit from a little safe solar power.

Thakker worked on his project over three months last summer, making some winning suggestions about counter-electrodes and new ways of depositing quantum dots on a substrate, “but it’s very much a group project,” he said. Thakker, who is also the student body president at NCSSM, will be headed to Harvard in the Fall, possibly to study chemistry. (He also gives a pretty good TV interview.)

March 6-12, Arshavsky, Thakker and the other 38 finalists will travel to Washington, D.C. for a week-long event to pick the Intel Science Talent Search winners. They’ll undergo a rigorous judging process not only on their own work, but also covering general problem-solving and scientific knowledge. “They want to see how you think,” Arshavsky said. The students will also get a chance to interact with leading scientists and national leaders and will display their research for the public at the National Geographic Society.

The top 10 winners will be announced at a black-tie, invite-only gala awards ceremony at the National Building Museum on March 11, 2014.

Alec presenting his work at the 2013 Annual meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology in Seattle.

The prestigious contest awards $630,000 in prizes this year, with the first-place winner receiving $100,000 from the Intel Foundation. Many past winners have gone on to achieve great things, including eight Nobel Prizes, two Fields Medals, five National Medals of Science, 11 MacArthur Foundation Fellowships and an Academy Award for Best Actress (that would be Natalie Portman).

The following week, Arshavsky will be off to Beijing to present his work again, this time one of four students selected as winners of the North Carolina International Science Challenge.

Student Melissa Chieffe: Budding Conservation Biologist

By sa160@duke.edu

On February 5, 2014

In Animals, Biology, Field Research, Lemurs, Students

By Nonie Arora

Melissa Chieffe, a Junior Biology major, grew up outside Cleveland, Ohio and arrived at Duke enthusiastic about following a pre-vet path. As a freshman, she began volunteering at the Duke Lemur Center as a technician assistant. Through her work, she became interested in conservation in Madagascar and decided to apply to OTS – South Africa.

A map of Chieffe’s travels. Credit: Melissa Chieffe using Google Maps. (click on map to learn more)

Through OTS – South Africa, she had the opportunity to travel all around the region and work on three group research projects, focusing mainly on ecology and conservation in the Kruger National Park.

Melissa Chieffe. Credit: Liza Morse

In the first, she collected data for the Kruger long-term research initiative on vegetation changes caused by elephants. Specifically, she honed in on damage done to AppleLeaf trees (Philenoptera violacea) and assessed damage done to 175 trees of that species in the Kruger National Park. The study looked at bark stripping and toppling of trees caused by elephants. Bark stripping happens when elephants rub their tusks on trees; if the elephants remove too much mark the trees are more likely to die, according to Chieffe.

From their study, her team observed a bottleneck in tree size: the elephants generally knocked trees over before they could reach their mature height. Their preliminary data indicated that higher elephant population densities – combined with frequent burnings in the savannah – made it harder for trees to reach the mature stage.

In their independent research project, Chieffe and her group had the opportunity to work with a population of captive elephants. The elephant population in the Kruger National Park has been growing exponentially since the termination of culling operations in the 1990s, which is causing problems for the vegetation and the nearby rural farms, according to Chieffe. The elephants are known to destroy crops, fences, and storage facilities. The students looked into using bee hives as a deterrent for elephants. Chieffe explained that beehive fences could have great applications for conservation through community based conservation initiatives.

They used the sound of bees buzzing & the scent of honey to stand in as surrogates for bee hives. Wild elephants exhibited defensive retreating behaviors when exposed to the bee sounds and scents.

Chieffe learns to use camera traps (above) and photo of lion cubs taken by a camera trap (below). Credit: Melissa Chieffe

Chieffe learned to use camera traps (above) and made a photo of lion cubs with a camera trap (below). Credit: Melissa Chieffe

In her faculty field project, Chieffe worked with Professor Jeremy Bolton, an expert in the field, and Professor Tali Hoffman from the University of Cape Town to study camera traps. Chieffe’s team set up four camera traps at five different watering holes, which are known to act as “nodes of activity” for wildlife, to compare efficacy of two types of camera traps: field scan and motion sensor. Camera traps can be used to to record endangered animals and to survey biodiversity of an area.

“I enjoyed living in nature reserves, the national park, constantly surrounded by amazing researchers and scientists and others who are involved in conservation management. It was inspiring to live near them. We also got to present our findings to park management, which was awesome,” Chieffe said.

The program has helped her further her ambitions in conservation biology.

“I thought it was a dream [to become a conservation biologist]. But meeting people who are actually doing what I now want to do has made it seem realistic,” Chieffe said. She hopes to continue with her research in South Africa on elephants and vegetation this summer.

Volunteer Network Shouldn't be Stranded and Dying

By Karl Bates

On February 4, 2014

In Animals, Biology, Field Research, Guest Post, Students

measurements on a dead dolphin (Photo: Susan Farley)

During a lab necroscopy, Dr. Vicky Thayer (left) takes measurements on a dead dolphin as student Samantha Emmert records the data. (Photo: Susan Farley)

Guest Post by Samantha Emmert, a Biology and Evolutionary Anthropology undergraduate at the Duke Marine Lab

The rolling sand dunes and gentle waves of Emerald Isle are so picturesque that I almost forget why I am there: to conduct a necropsy (autopsy on a non-human) on a stranded bottlenose dolphin. Vicky and I have been searching for the animal for about an hour now, driving up and down the beach. Suddenly, I catch a whiff of rotting flesh. Great! We’ve found it!

During my year at the Duke Marine Lab, I am volunteering for the North Carolina Central Coast Marine Mammal Stranding Network. This is no normal year for the network and others like it on the east coast. In the last seven months, 1081 bottlenose dolphins have stranded between New York and Florida. This magnitude of strandings is almost ten times the average, and has therefore been declared an “Unusual Mortality Event” by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The cause of these deaths? Morbillivirus, the disease family that includes human measles.

For Independent Study credit I have been collecting data about the stranded dolphins and comparing them to data from 1987-88, the last and only other time there was a morbillivirus Unusual Mortality Event affecting bottlenose dolphins. I have found that this event is following the patterns of 87-88 almost exactly, particularly in terms of the sex and age of dolphins, and when and where they are stranding. These patterns may be a strong indicator for the path of future events.

Dolphin strandings in the area are reported to Dr. Vicky Thayer, the network’s coordinator and a Duke alumna (M.E.M. 1982, Ph.D. 2008). Vicky then calls her volunteers, such as myself, to assist in a response. Today, the dolphin was freshly dead and in good shape for a full necropsy. As Vicky assesses the dolphin for signs of human interaction, I sharpen knives and prepare vials to hold tissue samples. I put on my boots, coveralls, and gloves (things are about to get bloody). Together, Vicky and I peel back blubber and slice through flesh in order to reach the organs that are most impacted by morbillivirus: the lungs, associated lymph nodes, and spinal cord.

This Unusual Mortality Event is not the only problem that the network has been facing this year. Their federal funding for the upcoming year was not renewed.

Many marine mammal rescue networks, such as this one, rely on the John H. Prescott Marine Mammal Rescue Assistance Grant Program, established under amendments to the Marine Mammal Protection Act. However, the number of networks that received awards declined from 39 in 2012 to 12 in 2013. Only two of those 2013 recipients are in the geographic range affected by the dolphin mortality, compared to 13 in 2012. Particularly during a time when they are busiest, the loss of funding has been a huge stress for the networks.

Samantha climbs out of a freshly dug beach grave for yet another dead dolphin.

Samantha and Vicky got to this dolphin just before town workers buried it on the beach and were able to get their tissue samples.

Throughout the necropsy, several fishermen stop by to ask what we are doing. They’ve been fishing on this beach for decades and are aware of the increased occurrence of strandings in the area. It is vital to us that they understand the importance of reporting stranded animals.

“As top predators in coastal waters, these animals are sentinels of ocean health. When they wash ashore in unprecedented numbers, we should direct our attention and funding to learn as much as we can about the cause,” Vicky explains while taking apart the carcass.

We reach the lungs and, sure enough, they are discolored and covered in lesions. We cut chunks from the lung, lung lymph node, and spinal cord and I squish them into small vials. They will be sent to a lab in California to be tested for morbillivirus. The data we record and samples we take will be useful for the many researchers interested in this event across the nation.

It is hard to say what will become of the NC Central Coast Marine Mammal Stranding Network and others like it. Without renewed funding in the 2014 year, Vicky will be unable to continue the network and stranding response will stop in this area. Valuable data for long-term research on stranded animals will be lost. Live-stranded animals will die on beaches unaided. In order to protect and conserve these beloved species, the Prescott Grant and other funding sources must be made more readily available.

Beers with Bob — Without Beer

By sa160@duke.edu

On February 3, 2014

In Cardiology, Science Communication & Education, Students

By Nonie Arora

My living group, Round Table, had the opportunity to meet up with Dr. Bob Lefkowitz in his office for “Beers with Bob without Beer.” Arnab Chatterjee, a Pratt sophomore and one of our members, works in his research lab and arranged the meet-up…and later dropped the beer from our plans.

We enjoyed being immersed in Dr. Lefkowitz’s office. We saw the jersey, hanging from the “rafters”, that Coach K presented to him last year amidst cheers of “He’s so smart” from the Cameron Crazies.

He showed us a video – three times – of the first pitch he threw out for the Durham Bulls baseball game.

Dr. Lefkowitz’s biggest piece of advice to us all was to eat a square of chocolate every day. He jokingly attributes part of his Nobel prize to the threshold effect of upping his chocolate consumption from two squares a week to one a day just two months before receiving the call from Stockholm. That’s one recipe for success that I can get behind!

Round Table meets with Dr. Bob Lefkowitz. (Nonie’s just to the left of Bob in red top.)