Abstract Formatting Guide for 2015 Women in Science

Transcription

1 Abstract Formatting Guide for 2015 Women in Science As part of the terms of your summer stipend, it is required that you submit an abstract with your research results, not to exceed 400 words and include a picture/diagram. The abstracts are collected and published every year in a compendium, Women in Science, providing an overview of the breadth and depth of summer research activities at Smith College. This publication receives a fairly broad distribution to agencies that provide funding for your fellowships, faculty members, prospective students and their families, and college administrators. It is also made available electronically as part of our website (see Your abstract should follow standard journal format for your discipline and include an introduction, methods, results, and discussion. The introduction provides an overview of the central question or objective of your project and states why it is an important question. In the methods section, a brief description of your research methodology is included, explaining how you conducted your research. Outlining your findings and what was learned during your research is supported under the category of results. Finally, your discussion should typically indicate that your work was both a technical and scholarly endeavor. It is here that you explain and analyze your results in the context of your central question and/or objective. How do your results contribute to your field? What further questions do these results lead you to ask? This is also an appropriate section in which to include opportunities you have had or will have to present your work and findings to other students, or at an external event or conference. Also, indicate if your work will continue into the new academic year as a special studies or honors project. After carefully proofreading your abstract, it should be reviewed by your faculty advisor prior to submission. The abstract you submit in your post-surf survey will be automatically sent to your supervisor. Please include a picture or diagram in your abstract, and also include such pictures or diagrams as independent JPEGs in an to surf@smith.edu. We present your picture or diagram in color on our website, but we also print some copies of Women in Science in black and white. Make sure, therefore, that your picture or diagram is intelligible in grayscale! Abstract length: words max (ideally, your whole abstract, including images and credits, will fit on one page) Submission: to surf@smith.edu by Friday, August 28, Format: (Font = 11 pt. Garamond) Abstract Title First line, bold and left aligned Your Name Text Next line; left-align your name followed by your graduation year: Anne Smith/2017. Do not indent your first text paragraph. All subsequent paragraphs should be indented ½ inch. References in text should be made with superscript numbers. Note placement of superscript number with regards to punctuation. The superscript number follows punctuation (for example, after the period at the end of a sentence). Scientific names should be in italics. Do not leave blank lines between paragraphs.

2 Funding Source: Advisor: References List the funding source (you will find this in your formal offer letter/agreement from May) for this independent research in parentheses following your last line of text, starting with (Supported by ) Next line, Faculty name (First MI. Last, Department) Font 8 point, Garamond. See samples for format. Please see examples on the following pages. Our preference is for abstracts that are complete on one page.

3 Understanding the Ciliate Community Linked to Water Mass Cynthia Masai/2016 Gel picture of one of my PCRs Microbes dominate the Earth, yet little is known about many microbial species. Studying the microbes will enable us to understand our ecosystem better, understand the role these microbes play in the ecosystem and understand the different disease caused by microbes. This summer the research I did mainly focused on ciliates, a group of eukaryotic unicellular organisms. I was matched with an ocean team that works on a project observing how the ciliate community in Long Island Sound is linked to water mass. Using samples collected from Long Island Sound at different stations, the team used PCR and DGGE techniques to observe the link between the ciliate community and water mass. After being matched with the group, I worked mainly at doing PCR from different stations in order to observe the relation between the ciliate communities. My hypothesis was that the probability of finding same community at two different stations that are near each other is higher than finding same community in two different stations that are further apart. By the end of the summer, I mastered PCR and other techniques necessary for this project. In addition to working on the Ocean project, I also learned basic molecular techniques needed to study microorganisms. These include cloning and DGGE. I also learned basic bioinformatics approaches to analyze molecular data. These include learning how to use Megalign, SeqMan and seaview. I also learned basic light microscopy in the lab, where I helped in picking Chilodonella uncinata, I will continue working in the same lab, doing a related project to what I did during summer. The research experience was very helpful because I was able to gain a better understanding of molecular approaches to Biology. This experience will help me as I study science in the classroom during my sophomore year. (Supported by the Schultz Foundation) Advisor: Laura Katz, Biological Sciences 42

4 The Bioaccumulation of Mercury in the Avery Brook Watershed Clare Jacobson/2016 Methylated mercury is a dangerous neurotoxin that is accumulating in water sources across the globe. Elemental mercury is produced naturally on the Earth as well as from sources such as coal burning power plants. This elemental mercury is then deposited into the environment where it is methylated and bio-accumulates up the food chain In my research, I focused on the Avery Brook Watershed in West Whately, MA. This watershed contains a series of beaver ponds, which are hotspots for mercury bioaccumulation Sulphate-reducing bacteria (SRB), the main methylaters of mercury, are abundant in the sediment of beaver ponds. Therefore, using a core sampler I sampled and analyzed four different beaver ponds from the watershed. The bottom, middle, and water-sediment interface levels of the core were run through the Hydra C mercury analyzer to determine the ppm of mercury in each sediment. The data collected with the Hydra C demonstrated that there is the most mercury in the water-sediment interface level of the sediment, then mid layer, and the lowest concentration was the bottom layer. This is demonstrating my hypothesis that the source of the mercury, the SRB, is in the water sediment-interface layer. They are methylating the mercury and it is then dissipating into the sediment. To definitively tell if SRB are the source of the mercury I will sequence the DNA found in the water-sediment interface. This will let me speciate any bacteria found in order to look at the presence of SRB. Two sets of primers were designed for a MiSeq next-gen sequencer and they were designed to sequence variable regions of the dsra and dsrb genes, which are the genetic markers for sulfur reduction and subsequent mercury methylation in SRB. MegaAlign software from DNAStar was used to align various dsrab sequences from SRB to find conserved and hyper-variable regions within the gene. Primers were then designed to bind to conserved regions bracketing the hyper-variable ones, one pair on each gene. I intend to sequence these in the fall when I continue my research. (Supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute) Advisor: Robert Merritt, Biological Sciences l, F.M The chemical cycle and bioaccumulation of Mercury. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics. 29: , Shao, D Effects of sulfate reducing bacteria and sulfate concentrations on mercury methylation in fresh water sediments. Science of the Total Environment 424:

5 Reproductive Patterns Between Talus and Non-talus Dwelling Pika Abbey Fleming/2014 Pikas belong to a single genus, Ochotona, within the family Ochotonidae. Pikas live primarily in Asia, but some species exist in North America. Ochotonids can be split ecologically into talus and non-talus dwelling species. 1 Talus dwellers live within crevices between rocks in mountainous areas, while non-talus dwellers live in habitats such as meadows, usually at high elevations. In general, talusdwelling species tend to be heavier than non-talus dwellers, though this difference is not significant. 2 Research has suggested that a pattern between body size and reproduction exists within the order Lagomorpha, of which Ochotonids belong. 3 Seeing as talusdwelling pikas have typically larger body mass than non-talus dwelling Pika, I wanted to look at potential differences in reproductive patterns between the two ecological groups. In general, larger mammals give birth to smaller litters due to the added energy costs of reproduction. As expected, talus-dwellers have smaller litter sizes than non-talus dwellers (Fig. 1A). Non-talus dwellers exhibit a positive relationship between litter size and female body mass, which was not as expected. As body mass increases, we would expect to see litter size decrease but this pattern is not seen in non-talus dwelling pikas. Talus-dwelling pikas show little variation in litter size within the group. Also, talus-dwelling pikas have fewer litters per year than non-talus (Fig. 1B). Within the group, non-talus dwellers show no relationship between litters per year and body mass. Within talus-dwellers, a slight positive relationship exists between body mass and litters per year. Again, this positive relationship is not expected as generally larger mammals give birth to fewer litters per year. (Supported by the B. Elizabeth Horner Fund in the Biological Sciences) Advisor: Virginia Hayssen, Biological Sciences References: 1 Smith, A. T Patterns of pika (genus Ochotona) life history variation. Pp in Evolution of life histories of mammals: theory and pattern (M. S. Boyce, ed.). Yale University Press, New Haven, CT. 2 Hayssen, V., A. van Tienhoven, and A. van Tienhoven Asdell s patterns of mammalian reproduction. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NewYork. 3 Swihart, R. K Body size, breeding season length, and life history tactics of lagomorphs. Oikos 43: Figure 1A: Litter size versus female body mass among talus and non-talus dwelling pika. Figure 1B: Litters per year versus female body mass among talus and non-talus dwelling pika. Key: Non-talus represented by circles and talus represented by squares. 25