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Description
Colchicine is a chemical known for inhibiting mitosis during eukaryotic cellular reproduction by halting the tubulin formation necessary for the division of the chromosomes. The meristem is the primary source of mitosis in developing flowering plants, and it was the focus of our research to determine if the hindrance of mitosis would interfere with the production of capsaicinoids within pungent pepper plants. Moruga Scorpion peppers have one of the world's highest concentration of capsaicinoids with Scoville Heat Units (SHU) averaging 1.2 million SHU (Bannister, 2012). The highest concentration of these capsaicinoids are within the placental and endocarp regions of the fruit, which are the primary location for capsaicinoid biosynthesis (Aza-Gonzalez & Nunez-Palenius, 2010). Hindering mitosis from the earliest stage of development could lead to phenotypic abnormalities within those placental and endocarp regions, quite possibly through the mechanism of the induced polyploidy. In many cases, this polymerization interference is beneficial in cultivating plants with characterized polyploidy due to its desired increased size of fruits and leaves. Due to the lethal nature of colchicine, there is threshold of effectiveness where it may induce polyploidy or it may result in fatality. This first stage of this research sought to determine which lethal dose was required to elicit a polyploid response or lead to seed unviability. The second stage was analyzing capsaicin concentration within the fruit of the mature dosed plants to determine whether there was an effect on the capsaicinoids, and whether polyploidy played a role in those effects. The final inspection of this research was in germinating the seeds from the hottest F1 pepper that had developed the fruit the slowest of all the doses, and determining whether there were any effects on the germination or seedling development.
ContributorsKeppler, Lydia Jacqueline (Author) / Cahill, Thomas (Thesis director) / Sweat, Ken G. (Committee member) / Hackney Price, Jennifer (Committee member) / School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
Stress, empathy, and emotion regulation are factors that can greatly shape an individual's behavior, thoughts, and physiology. The degree to which an individual experiences stress, demonstrates empathy, or is able to regulate emotions can influence his or her ability to establish strong social bonds. The current study investigated the relationships among stress, empathy, and emotion regulation and considered gender differences in these relationships. I hypothesized that higher levels of current stress would be associated with lower levels of empathy and greater difficulties with emotion regulation, and that empathy and emotion regulation would be positively related. Supporting these hypotheses, the following relationships were found: (a) negative correlation between stress and empathy, (b) positive correlation between stress and emotion regulation difficulties, and (c) negative correlation between empathy and emotion regulation difficulties. Results also revealed that greater perceived stress was associated with less empathy in women, but it was unrelated to empathy in men. On the other hand, stress was associated with greater emotion regulation difficulties in both men and women, indicating that either gender may experience a greater disturbance in their emotional response within a social situation when under the influence of stress. Empathy and emotion regulation are positively correlated in both genders, which might suggest that high emotion regulation may allow for appropriate empathy responses within a given social context.
ContributorsHanna, Rand Maria (Author) / Roberts, Nicole (Thesis director) / Burleson, Mary (Committee member) / School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
Capsaicin and dihydrocapsaicin account for 90% of capsaicinoids when it comes to the pungency of peppers. Capsaicin stability was investigated through a cooking and storage parameter where three different tests were done; cooking duration, cooking temperature, and storage stability. The concentration of capsaicinoids was quantified through gas chromatography-mass spectrometry where those values were then used to determine the total Scoville heat units (SHU). Furthermore, half-life was determined by finding the decay rate during cooking and storage. Results showed that there was an increase in degradation of capsaicinoids concentration when peppers were cooked for a long period of time. Degradation rate increases with increasing temperatures as would be expected by the Arrhenius equation. Hence, if a maximum pungency is wanted, it is best to cook the least time as possible or add the peppers towards the end of the culinary technique. This would help by cooking the peppers for a short period of time while not being exposed to the high temperature long enough before significant degradation occurs. Lastly, the storage stability results interpreted that a maximum potency of the peppers can be retained in a freezer or refrigerator opposed to an open room temperature environment or exposure from the sun. Furthermore, the stability of peppers has a long shelf life with even that the worse storage condition's half-life value was 113.5 months (9.5 years). Thus, peppers do not need to be bought frequently because its potency will last for several years.
ContributorsBustamante, Krista Gisselle (Author) / Cahill, Thomas (Thesis director) / Sweat, Ken (Committee member) / Armendariz Guajardo, Jose (Committee member) / School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-12
Description
Since the advent of DNA analysis, organizations such as the Innocence Project have been able to exonerate people who were wrongfully convicted of crimes, often due to erroneous forensic evidence analysis. In many cases, analytical techniques, such as fingerprint analysis, toolmark analysis, or hair comparisons have been cited as nearly infallible sources of evidentiary fact. However, these methods rely on subjective interpretation by a forensic examiner and lack stringent, quantitative methods for ensuring reliability and accuracy. For most of these methods, the examiner is supplied only with the unknown sample from the crime scene, and a known sample from a suspect. This, combined with the influence of psychological factors such as confirmation bias, has resulted in the need for a reliable mechanism of ensuring the efficacy of a particular type of analysis as well as the objectivity, and competence of the analyst. One proposed method to resolve these issues is the use of a filler-control method, in which analysts are given an “evidence line-up” containing at least three samples: the unknown sample from the crime scene, a sample from the suspect, and at least one filler sample from an individual who is not involved in the investigation. This method provides a reliable method for estimating error rates for an analyst and can provide the analyst with direct feedback about their performance to accurately gauge their competence. This method also helps to prevent the introduction of confirmation bias, as the source of the samples is unknown to the analyst. The goal of the current research is to test the capacity of a filler-control method to lead to better confidence-calibration of examiners’ match judgements when compared to the conventional method. The hypothesis of this experiment is that participants using the filler control method will have improved performance and increased confidence calibration due to receiving feedback over the course of the trials when compared to participants using the traditional method.
ContributorsRocha, Bethany (Author) / Smalarz, Laura (Thesis director) / Kukucka, Jeff (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences (Contributor)
Created2022-05
DescriptionResearch has shown that adverse and traumatic events negatively affect a person's psychological outcome. However, research is lacking in the area examining at which life stage trauma is more harmful to experience. Additionally, the role of vulnerability and resilience factors may strengthen or ameliorate this relationship.
ContributorsColvin, Carah (Author) / Davis, Mary (Thesis director) / Lemery-Chalfant, Katheryn (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences (Contributor) / Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor)
Created2023-12