Stephen Drake: "Mass Balance Assessment of Mercury in Lake Champlain, A Continuing /Effort"

Winter Guffey: "Photocatalytic Remediation of Semiconductor Wastewaters"

Melissa Rury: "Building a Mass Balance Model of The Little River"

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Advisor: Dr. J. Greathouse

Jesse Hoffman: "Computer Simulation of Montmorillonite Clay Binding to Sodium Ions"

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Advisor: Dr. T. Budd (Biochemistry)

Jenn Zagursky: "Location of Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein on Glial-Neural Type Cell Concentrated in Fetal Mouse Calvaria Cultures"

Maureen Zagursky: "Location of Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein on Glial-Neural Type Cell Concentrated in Fetal Mouse Calvaria Cultures"

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Dr. L. French (Organic Chemistry)

Dr. N. Marano (Biochemistry)

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Mass Balance Assessment of Mercury in Lake Champlain, A Continuing Effort - Stephen Drake
Advisor: Dr. N. Gao

Hazardous chemical compounds attack bodies of water in the world on a daily basis. The sources and outlets of these compounds are of high interest to many scientists. The more common compounds include, but are not limited to, phosphorous, PCBs, and mercury. Located on the border of New York and Vermont is Lake Champlain, one such body of water. Of the hazardous chemicals listed above, mercury is of highest concern in Lake Champlain. Natural ways that mercury finds its way into the lake are
abundant. Surface run-off, tributary streams, and by wet and dry atmospheric depostion are a few major contributors.(1)

Once in the lake, the aquatic environment, especially biota, is highly affected by the Mercury content in the system. The mercury itself is either cycled through the food chain, or becomes part of the lake bottom sediment. Due to biomagnification and methylation, the mercury pollutants are allowed to re-enter the system. This resultant contamination has elevated the concentrations of mercury inn fish to where consumption of 250g of fish per month exceeds the maximum Hg dosage by the US EPA.(1)

Using Stella software (2), a preliminary mass balance model of the lake was produced by Nathan G. Armatax, SLU'02, under the direction of Dr. Ning Gao using the available air and water sampling data to project the mercury level in lake Champlain in the next few years. My project goals are
1) to refine the existing mass balance model by researching and including more non-natural variables (e.g., wastewater treatment facility effluents, sedimentation, and sediment resuspension, etc.) (3) into the model:
2) to create a GIS linkage, through collaboration witht he SLU GIS specialists, for the existing STELLA model to expand its modeling and graphic capabilities.

References:
1. "Mass Balance Assessment of Mercury in Lake Champlain." Nathan Gabriel Armatas. St. Lawrence University Senior Project Report, July 2002
2. STELLA II. High Performance Systems Inc., 1994.
3. Environmental Protection Agency. www.epa.gov/grtlakes/bndocs/mercsrce/merc_scre.html#II.

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Computer Simulation of Montmorillonite Clay Binding to Sodium Ions - Jesse Hoffman
Advisor: Dr. J. Greathouse

Yucca Mountain in Nevada is presently being considered as a region available for the disposal of nuclear waste. Montmorillonite clay is an abundant mineral in this area and will have an important role in the effect that the nuclear waste has in that area. I will be investigating the mineral-water interactions in order to initiate a process that will eventually determine the effect of the nuclear wastes on groundwater. Montmorillonite has a permanent negative charge on either its octahedral layer, tetrahedral layer, or both. In this research, a model using a charge on both layers will be used. I plan on continuing the work previously done by Hannah Stella-Levinsohn in using Monte Carlo computer simulations to study how sodium ions bind to montmorillonite. The purpose of working with the sodium ion is to determine an accurate model for the charge distribution in the tetrahedral layer. Several properties of the system will be investigated such as the number of water molecules in the system, the charge on the Al atoms, the charge on the O atoms, and the orientation of the Na ion. Results from this study will be used in simulations of radionuclide ions near montmorillonite.

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Location of Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein on Glial-Neural Type Cell Concentrated in Fetal Mouse Calvaria Cultures - Jenn Zagursky.
Advisor: Dr. T. Budd

Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein, or GFAP as it is most commonly referred to, is an intermediate filament in certain cells. Since it is an intermediate filament - meaning that it provides structure and support for the cell - it should not be found on the outsdie of the cell, only on the inside. What has been shown is that when Calvaria cells, the cells in a fetal mouse brain that eventually harden to become the skull of the head, are cultured from fetal mice, there is a "contaminant" cell that comes with it. This is a glial cell and it has been shown to have GFAP on the surface. (1, 2) The goals of this research are to 1) find different monoclonal antibodies (McAbs) that will bind to different epitopes on GFAP, see if these mcAbs opsinize the glial neuronal cell for lysis by serum complement, confirm that these mcAbs do in fact bind to different epitopes using an ELISA inhibition assay; and to localize GFAP on the cell surfaces by confocal and scanning electron microscope.

1. Avrich, Erin E. (1997-98) Fetal Mouse Calvaria Cells Released Into Culture. Biology Honors Project.
2. Sharma, K. (1997) Characterization of Fetal Mouse Calvaria Cells Released Into Culture. Senior Honors Project.

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Location of Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein On Glial-Neural Type Cell Concentrated in Fetal Mouse Calvaria Cultures: - Maureen Zagursky
Advisor: Dr. T. Budd

Glial fibrillary acidic protein, also known as GFAP, is an intermediate filament protein found in certain types of neural cells. While this protein is normally found inside cells in order to support the cell's structure, there has been some evidence that there may be some cells which have GFAP on their surfaces. When calvaria, the cells in fetal mice that will eventually become the skull, are harvested and cultured, there are some cells that stick to the calvaria during harvesting. These "contaminants" are glial cells and have been shown to have GFAP on their surfaces. (1,2) The goals of this research are to use monoclonal antibodies (mcAbs) to bind to epitopes on the GFAP that are different than those bound in previous research and determine if this binding causes the lysis of the cells by complement, to verify the binding of the mcAbs by ELISA inhibition, and to pinpoint where on the cell surface the GFAP is by confocal and scanning electron microscopy.

1. Avrich, Erin E (1997-98). Fetal Mouse Calvaria Cells Released Into Culture. Biology Honors Project.
2. Sharma, K. (1997) Characterization of Fetal Mouse Calvaria Cells Released Into Culture. Senior Honors Project.

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