JSU Student Symposium 2020

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  Unraveling R44P: A SLC6A1 Variant Which Induces Childhood Epilepsy

  Caleb Hudon

  SLC6A1 is a gene with several variants that often express themselves phenotypically through slowed cognitive development, early onset seizures, and epileptic encephalopathy. The particular variant in question is the amino acid sequence R44P. According to PubMed, R44P is a sequence change in which arginine is replaced with proline at codon 44 of the SLC6A1 protein. This patient, which was reported to ClinVar, represents the only documented account of this sequence and was placed into the category of uncertain significance. However, that account recorded the condition of myoclonic-atonic epilepsy and was defined as deleterious and probably damaging in its effects. Also, the variant R44P has a total impact score of 53.8125 which put it in the middle range for the impacts of all known SLC6A1 variants. Compiled metrics provided statistics that demonstrated that the impact score does place the variant in a mixture of groupings with some pathogens and benign patients. Further modeling is important to understand the effect of this mutation on the overall organization of this transmembrane protein.

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  Andy Warhol's Influence in the American Pop Art Culture

  Miranda Ivey

  In the mid to late 1950s, Pop Art started to become the next artistic movement for commercial and abstract artists. Fred S. Kleiner’s Gardner’s Art through the Ages: The Western Perspective in the 14^th edition states that even though Pop Art had originally developed in England, it reached peak popularity in the United States during the 1960s due to the mass consumer culture America had cultivated and matured to. One of the artists that emerged during the Pop Art trend is Andy Warhol, who found his passion creating works of art relating to this rise of the postmodern artistic movement, that being Pop Art. In my paper, I argue that Warhol’s mixed media artwork, Green Coca-Cola Bottles, made in 1962, is a statement piece derived from his belief that mass-produced products, such as a bottle of Coca-Cola, symbolized both equality and individualism among consumers, poor and rich alike. My iconographic and socio-cultural analyses of Warhol's Green Coca-Cola Bottles, as related to America Pop Art and consumer culture in the early 1960s, elucidates Warhol's belief that American mass-produced objects could reflect the egalitarian and individual identities of its American consumers.

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  Positive and Negative Aspects of the United States Social Security Program

  Brett Johnson

  While many Americans have an opinion on the topic of public assistance in general, they may or may not be fully informed of the positive and negative aspects of Social Security. In order to form a position on the topic of Social Security, one must examine the history, purpose, and future of this long-debated safety net program. This essay examines lessons-learned from field literature which informs the variable pros and cons of Social Security in the United States. Some of the positive aspects examined include decreases in destitution and dependency, provision of income for aging and disabled citizens, and increases in the standard of living for U.S. citizens. Negative aspects of the Social Security program include insufficient funding mechanisms due to increased life expectancy of claimants, moral hazard dependency on the assistance program, and limitations placed on worker freedom. Additionally, this essay examines the positive and negative aspects of several reform plans which have been proposed, including increasing the retirement age, increasing the funding tax base, and slowing the indexed growth benefits. In summary, the reader finds a well-informed list of pros and cons of the general Social Security program in America. The author recognizes, supported by a survey of relevant literature, the significant need met by the Social Security program, but discusses some of the ways in which the program has been expanded over time to include safety nets which were not originally included in the program. Summarily, readers will find that what “Social Security” means to one individual may differ from the understanding another holds of the same term. Therefore, this in-depth analysis should aid readers in understanding what this broad term can mean at the global level of interpretation in addition to understanding the specific aspects of the program such as disability income, retirement income, etc. On reform, many recognize that reform is needed, but none want reform to affect their personal financial future.

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  Graphic Design, Symposium Printed Program Contest, Hannah Jones

  Hannah Jones

  Art and Design students participated in a graphic design project contest. The winning design was used for the 2020 JSU Student Symposium printed program.

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  Piet Mondrian’s Stylistic Development

  Hannah Jones

  Piet Mondrian, a famously recognized De Stijl artist in the 1900s, changed the course of modern art through his stylistic accomplishments and innovative works. He was originally an impressionistic landscape painter that was focused on academic rules; however, he was influenced by cubism through Cezanne and Picasso and had a breakthrough in his interpretation of true forms. Through this study of cubism, Mondrian was then able to reinterpret his original ideas and develop an even stronger style. In my paper, I will argue that Mondrian achieved his artistic goal of dynamic rhythm in his final works due to his integration of abstraction, harmony, color planes, and equilibrium of parts in his evolution as an artist. From The Grey Tree to Tableau No. II with Red, Blue, Black, Yellow, and Gray to Broadway Boogie Woogie, Mondrian works toward an ultimate sense of dynamic rhythm through concrete structure, which he accomplishes in Broadway Boogie Woogie.

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  Expanding "the Quadrature of a Parabola" to Cubic Functions

  Benjamin Junkins

  A brief summary of Archimedes' "Quadrature of the Parabola" is given showing the use of recursively defined triangles to find the area bounded by a parabola and a line. A special relationship between the initial inscribed triangle and the total bounded area was shown in his work, and this idea of finding a relationship between the initial triangle and bounded area is then expanded to a general depressed cubic function. The derivation of Vieta's formulas is shown, and the formulas are used to greatly simplify the algebra and calculus of this expansion. After finding the relationship, a pattern from the quadratic to cubic case is found, and it is conjectured that this pattern holds for any degree polynomials of a certain depressed form.

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  The JSU Biodesign Challenge: Imagine, Experiment, Solve!

  Avery Lowe, William Milner, Kyra Watral, Matthew Hillgartner, Gabrielle Armstrong, Laura Dempsey, Thomas Galbreath, Jamal James, Emma Lindsey, McKenna Mitchell, Amanda Pinkard, Abigail Read, Reagan Tidmore, and Ruby Thamert

  The Biodesign Challenge is an interdisciplinary course that brings together students from Art, Engineering, and Biology to create innovative solutions for problems facing the environment and society while using the natural world as inspiration. The team is challenged with designing a revolutionary eco-friendly technology and simultaneously critiquing the potential impact of their creation in a world that is increasingly hostile to nature. The students will present work-in-progress and highlight the process of collaboration and experimentation at the heart of the class. Following the completion of the course, our team will have the opportunity to present their work at the Biodesign Summit at the Museum of Modern Art and the Parsons School of Design, along with competing students from 46 universities and six continents.

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  2020 JSU Student Symposium Printed Program

  Brooklee Mason

  The printed program from the 2020 JSU Student Symposium.

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  Graphic Design, Symposium Printed Program Contest, Brooklee Mason

  Brooklee Mason

  Art and Design students participated in a graphic design project contest. The winning design (this design, by Brooklee Mason) was used for the 2020 JSU Student Symposium printed program.

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  SLC6A1, Its Variations, and Their Link to Epilepsy

  Eryn McCoy

  SLC6A1 is a gene that encodes for gamma-aminobutyric acid, otherwise known as GABA, transporters. They facilitate the removal of GABA from the brain, ensuring it doesn’t build up and inhibit the brains neuronal function. These transporters are found in various regions of the brain and are linked to sodium concentrations. SLC6A1 has been reported to exhibit many different mutations, some of which can cause a form of epilepsy, Myoclonic-Atonic Epilepsy (MAE) or severe autism with seizures consistent with the MAE. Not all mutations (variants) of the SLC6A1 lead to clinical manifestations. This project is focused on developing methods to rapidly assess the possible variants association with specific diseases and to indicate whether it is likely the cause of specific genetic diseases. The mutation examined in this presentation is known 419RC. This particular variant as a low conservation score on the amino acid (0.25) which indicates it is not as likely to cause disease as other variants. However, it interestingly has a 21-codon region score that is fairly high, 1.5 out of 2.6 which indicates that the protein motif where it is located may increase chances that it is deleterious. This variant was listed as being of unknown significance however the patient is listed as having clinical symptoms. The modeling should confirm changes in the 3D shape of the protein consistent with a pathogenic variant. It may also indicate that specific drugs would be recommended for treatment of the disease.