Mississippi Academy of Sciences: sixty-ninth Annual Meeting--February 2005; Late and corrected abstracts.

Cellular, Molecular and Developmental Biology

PROTEOMIC ANALYSIS OF COTTON FILLER PROTEINS AT DIFFERENT DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES

Meng-Hsuan Ho and Din-Pow Ma, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS 39762

Cotton fibers are epidermal cells differentiated from the outer integument of a developing seed. Fiber development can be divided into four stages: initiation, elongation (primary wall synthesis), secondary wall deposition, and maturation. Many genes expressed in fibers cells at different developmental stages have been isolated and characterized. The functional role of these genes that control fiber development is the major goal in our cotton research project. As an alternative approach to understand the molecular mechanism(s) of fiber development, we have used the two-dimensional (2-D) SDS-P AGE method to study fiber proteins that are differently expressed during the elongation and secondary wall synthesis stages. The stained 2-D protein profiles are imaged with Bio-Rad Versa 3000 and analyzed with the PDQuest 2-D analysis software. The protein spots that are differentially expressed are excised from the gels and analyzed with the Thermo Finnigan Proteomix Workstation (housed in LSBI, MSU), a capillary-column liquid chromatography (LC)-electrospray-ion trap tandem mass (MS/MS) spectro-photometer.

HARNESSING THE PLASMODIUM FALCIPARUM GENOME DATA-BASE FOR NOVEL DRUG TARGETS

Babu Tekwani, Mitchell A Avery, and Larry A Walker, University of Mississippi, University MS 38677

The morbidity and mortality attributable to malaria are staggering (approximately 500 million new infections and 1 to 3 million deaths per year). Almost half of the world's population is currently under the risk of getting malaria infection. Although the incidences of malarial infection are mostly centered in tropical regions, the impacts, especially economic, of the disease are global. Considerable efforts have been devoted towards understanding the molecular peculiarities and genome structure of Plasmodium falciparum, the causative organism for the most deadly form of malaria. A fully sequenced and annotated genome map of P. falciparum is available now. The parasite genome data-base may be utilized for identification of novel drug targets. Through analysis of PlasmoDB (www.plasmodb.org), expressed sequence-tags data and oligonucleotides/cDNA microarray expression profiles of P. falciparum several potential target genes have been discovered in the malaria parasite genome. Studies were undertaken to clone the target genes, their overexpression in heterologous prokaryotic organisms and purification of the target proteins for functional and structural characterization. A unique proteobacterial-type malate dehydrogenase, an enzyme associated with carbohydrate and energy metabolism pathways, was characterized from Plasmodium falciparum. The enzyme was suggested to complement the function of NAD/NADH coupling in the malaria parasite. A novel adenosine deaminase, an important enzyme of purine salvage pathway, was found to be a peak function enzyme in P. falciparum. Also a novel pathway for biosynthesis of thiamine was discovered in the malaria parasite. The unique molecular, structural and functional characteristics of the malarial enzymes may be useful for design and development of selective inhibitors as potential antimalarial agents.

Ecology and Evolutionary Biology 

PRELIMINARY PHYLOGENY OF THE SOUTHEASTERN MATELEA SPECIES

Margaret Parks and Mark Fishbein, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS 39762

Matelea (Apocynaceae) is a genus of over one hundred species of mostly twining vines found in tropical and subtropical North and South America. In the southeast United States, eight species are found, and of these, six are in need of taxonomic revision. Within the Gonolobinae, the subtribe to which Matelea belongs, genera are not cleanly delimited, and morphological features defining genera are few. A phylogenetic analysis of Matelea, and the Gonolobinae as a whole, has never been conducted. Thus, there exists a great deal of controversy over the circumscription of these species. A phylogeny of southeastern Matelea was inferred from rpoB-trnC intergenic spacer and rpl16 intron sequences. Taxon sampling included 25 species of Matelea, as well as species of Gonolobus, Pherotrichus, Schubertia, and Macroscepis. Hypotheses tested with this data set included the monophyly of southeastern Matelea, as well as the monophyly of Matelea and Gonolobus. Results support the mono phyly of southeastern Matelea and Gonolobus. Most Matelea are placed in a single clade; Pherotrichus may belong to the same clade. In addition, the closest relatives to southeastern Matelea in the data set are identified.

History and Philosophy of Science 

GUNTER LIBRARY: CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF SERVICE

Bin Zhang and Joyce M. Shaw, Gulf Coast Research Laboratory, University of Southern Mississippi, Ocean Springs, MS 39564

Gunter Library was established by Dr. Gordon Gunter in September 1955. As the library celebrates 50 years of service to the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory, a special effort is being made to organize archival materials relating to the history of the library. Archival materials include: newspaper and magazine articles, photographs, scrapbooks. quarterly and annual reports, brochures, maps, correspondence, and reprints of scientific and popular works written by GCRL staff. To highlight the 50 years of service, a poster illustrating library services and activities will be displayed at the 2005 Mississippi Academy of Sciences annual meeting. Included in the discussion is the role of libraries in marine laboratories and their mission in preserving the history of science.

Psychology and Social Science

USING MOVIES TO TEACH PRINCIPLES OF LOGOTHERAPY

Leah Campbell, Cahryn Anderson, Mary Katherine Ulmer, Shara Adderholt, Amanda M.A. Melton, Heather Foote, and Stefan E. Schulenberg, University of Mississippi, University, MS 38677

Logotherapy is a way of thinking that emphasizes the importance of meaning in life. There are many books and articles that illustrate principles of Logotherapy. However, one potentially useful way of learning about the importance of purpose in life is through contemporary cinema. Movies often address issues related to life purpose. Examples of meaningful movies include Cast Away and Life as a House (Schulenberg, in press). Despite the existence of meaningful movies, little has been written on using films to teach principles of Logotherapy. With the aid of graduate and undergraduate psychology students, this issue was examined. After being exposed to readings in Logotherapy, students were asked to watch Life is Beautiful, a movie with meaning-laden content (Paden-Levy, 2000). It is the story of a man's love for his family and his passion for life in the midst of their imprisonment in a concentration camp during World War II. Students were then asked the following questions: 1) What Logotherapy themes became evident to you upon viewing the film? 2) What are the pros and cons of using film clips from such movies to teach principles of Logotherapy? Many examples of Logotherapy were noted that involved choice, responsibility, and finding meaning in unavoidable suffering. Many pros of using movies to teach Logotherapy were noted: 1) Modern cinema, with its popularity, can make learning enjoyable; 2) Movies demonstrate concrete examples of very abstract concepts. They apply the principles to life situations that people can see and grasp more clearly than just being taught the principles themselves; and 3) Movies may create an impression that lasts longer than other methods of instruction. Several cons of using movies were noted: 1) Movies may not seem as scientific as other methods of instruction; and 2) The same movie may affect people differently.

THE MEANING IN SUFFERING TEST (MIST): A FACTOR ANALYTIC INVESTIGATION

Cahryn Anderson, Stefan E. Schulenberg, and Carol L. Gohm, University of Mississippi, University, MS 38677

The Meaning in Suffering test (MIST; Starck, 1985), grounded in the Logotherapy framework, was designed to assess the amount of meaning people have discovered in unavoidable suffering experiences. The part of the MIST used in research due to ease of quantification is composed of 20-items using a Likert-type response format ranging from 1 to 7. Items are summed to arrive at a total score that ranges from 20 to 140. The MIST has a proposed structure consisting of three subscales (Starck, 1985): A (subjective characteristics of suffering, items 5, 11, 12, 16, 18, 19), B (personal responses to suffering, items 1, 3, 4, 8, 10, 13, 15, 20), and C (meaning of suffering, items 2, 6, 7, 9, 14, 17). In a study of the psychometric properties of the MIST and other measures in a sample of undergraduate students (N = 341), Schulenberg (in press) reported that two of the three MIST subscales (A and B) had unacceptably low reliabilities. Concerns over the proposed factor structure led to the current investigation, a follow-up study examining the internal structure of the MIST with the original data set. We attempted to use Amos 5.0 to confirm the MIST subscale structure. However, the fit of the model with the data was so poor that the analysis failed. Next, exploratory factor analyses were performed using SPSS 11.5. A theoretically useful and statistically viable factor structure was not found. Given the current data, the MIST appears to be a unitary measure.

THE INFLUENCE OF PANIC ON ANXIETY SENSITIVITY

Pamela G. Banks, Jerome Hales, and Jessica Quinn, Jackson State University, Jackson, MS 39217

The purpose of this study project was to examine whether experience with panic attacks influences anxiety sensitivity in an African American sample. Anxiety sensitivity is the fear of anxiety related bodily sensations, arising from beliefs that the sensations have a harmful somatic, social or psychological consequence (Reiss, 1991; Reiss & McNally, 1985). The Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI) (Taylor & Cox, 1986) which measures the fear of the symptoms of anxiety was administered. Participants whose scores fell one S.D. above the mean (cut-off score = 55+) and one S.D. below the mean (cut-off score = 25) on the ASI were placed in the high anxiety sensitivity (N=61) and low anxiety sensitivity groups(N = 65), respectively. Personal experience with panic attacks was assessed on the Panic Attack Questionnaire (PAQ) (Cox, Norton, & Swinson, 1992. As predicted, high anxiety sensitivity scores were significantly greater for the panickers (92%) than for the non-panickers (42%) Fisher's exact probability test = 23.46, df = 1, p < 0.001). This suggests anxiety sensitivity is a clear characteristic of persons who experience panic attacks. Because the sample consisted of African Americans, these findings expand the literature regarding African Americans and their panic experiences.

Mathematics, Computer Science and Statistics

ANALYTICAL STUDIES OF THE NTH ROOT OF 2

Harold Billings, William Clay, Priscilla Dixon, and Virgie Hicks, Mississippi Valley State University, Itta Bena, MS 38941

Have you ever considered the massive amount of numbers between 1 and the square root of 2? Given the fact that the interval between 1 and the square root of 2 is less than 1/2, it might seem unfathomable that the numbers in this interval contain an uncountably infinite set of irrationals. First, we show that the nth root of 2 is irrational. Second, we show that there is a 1-1 correspondence between decimal approximations to the nth root of 2 and the set of natural numbers, thus showing that the set of these approximations is a countable, infinite set. Also, by taking the derivative and the limits of these approximations as a function of n, we show that the function decreases and converges to 1. We conclude that this set of numbers which approximate the nth root of 2 is an infinite, decreasing, irrational function that ranges from 1 to the square root of 2.

AUGMENTED WORD FREQUENCY MATRICES FOR TEXTUAL DATA MINING

Tom Rishel and A. Louise Perkins, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg MS 39406

Textual data mining typically formulates word frequency matrices to help locate the knowledge desired. In this paper we combine word frequency matrix matching with a part-of-speech tagger to provide finer grained textual-based data mining. The part-of-speech tagger is used to further classify word usage. For example, if the root word "match occured in text A in the sentence "she matched the pieces together," it would be entered into the augmented word frequency matrix as an entry for "match--verb". If the sentence "He lit the match" was encountered in text B, the frequenc};' entry will be for "match--noun." The noun, "match" and the verb, "match" describe fundamentally different concepts, and if text A is compared with text B it will be clear that two separate concepts were being discussed. Thus, including the part-of-speech tagger in the data mining operation allows for a more precise results set. The result is a better ordering of 'Google'-like searches.

A COMPLEMENTARY ERROR MODEL FOR A FINITE DIFFERENCE LINEAR BAROTROPIC OCEAN MODEL

Farnaz Zand and A. Louise Perkins, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg MS 39406

In this paper we present a way to objectify grid truncation error. The eventual goal of this objectification is to build a software tool to assist numerical modellers assessment of the impact of their specific grid on their model forecasts. We use a multi-dimensional Taylor Series expansion for all numerical approximation terms within a modeling system. We then transform these to Frequency space, and reformulate the equations with the goal of separating the grid dependent terms from their individual frequency components. This allows us to construct a complementary error model where the evolution of the errors may be approximated in parallel with the forecast model. A complementary Linear Barotropic Ocean Model will be presented.

PROGRAMMING A DIGITAL SIGNAL PROCESSING CHIP

Dan Goad, Jason Baxter, and A. Louise Perkins, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg MS 39406

Signal processing is the lynch pin of most electronic systems. Historically such si~nal processing has been provided by analogue devices. However, chip speciallzation is now sufficiently inexpensive to allow the manufacture of a processor designed specifically to perform digital signal processing (DSP) in near real time. The processor is available, but the operations are not yet built in. In this project we present several programs to alter a signal. A Fast Fourier Transform, convolution, and several filters are presented.

A PEDAGOGICAL STRUCTURE FOR A UNIVERSITY NETWORK LABORATORY

Ted Stringfellow and A. Louise Perkins, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg MS 39406

We present the design of a networking laboratory that we have constructed to reinforce the lecture portion of the university of Southern Mississippi computer Science Department's graduate networking course. projects have been constructed that cover all 7 levels of the 150 standard network. Disparate operating systems families of computers and networking equipment are included to provide the widest exposure to the students.

Physics and Engineering

ANALYSIS OF INVERTED-F ANTENNAS USING THE FINITE DIFFERENCE TIME DOMAIN METHOD

Wei-Chung Weng, Veysel Demir, Atef Z. Elsherbeni, and Charles E. Smith, University of Mississippi, University, MS 38677

This study applies the three-dimensional finite difference time domain (FDTD) method to analyze the Inverted-F antenna, which can be used for wireless local area network (WLAN). The antenna is fabricated on Rogers FR4 printed-circuit-board substrate. The Berenger perfectly matched layer absorbing boundary condition (PML-ABC) is used to truncate the FDTD computational space. The proper choice of the source time domain waveform parameters allows for the antenna frequency response to be obtained using the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) technique. The FDTD results of the designed antenna are compared with the results obtained using the commercial software package ADS Momentum of Aligent Technologies and the measurements conducted at our lab. The good agreement between measurement and simulations is observed and confirmed the suitability of the antenna for WLAN applications.

Science Education

MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS INVOLVED IN RESEARCH OF WATER QUALITY ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

Saundra M. Humphrey, Letemeskel Asfaw, Sonia Eley, and Mary Marie Trimble, Alcorn Sate University, Alcorn State, MS 39096

No environmental issue is a study unto itself. The issue of water quality is, by far, one of the most pressing environmental issues today. Educators agree that children should be taught and encouraged to learn to manage the delicate ecological balance of man and nature. It is from this premise that this Power Point presentation was created. It is concerned with the impact of sustaining the quality water, which is an integral part of al living things on Earth. Middle school student are involved in a demonstration of a series of experiments, oral presentation and display of their findings on how they view their responsibility to contribute to water quality processes and sustain the future of all living things. They explored and discovered the natural processes that created it, display their interpretation of how nature uses it to sustain living things and how nature purifies and recycles it to be reused time and time again. More importantly, students discovered and appreciated their role within this dynamic cycle. Our middle school students will take the center stage in the future. Understanding the process now, we believe, will enhance their active and influential involvement throughout their adult life. Special acknowledgements go to the Saturday Science Academy (SSA) who provided the Middle School students depicted in this instructional demonstration. SSA is a Title III federally funded project of Alcorn State University, providing enrichment in science and mathematics to the surrounding Claiborne and Jefferson county Middle Schools.

Zoology and Entomology 

THE VARIEGATED MUD-LOVING BEETLES (INSECTA: COLEOPTERA: HETEROCERIDAE) OF MISSISSIPPI

Jonas G. King and Paul K. Lago, University of Mississippi, University, MS 38677

Thirteen species of Heteroceridae representing two genera (Heterocerus and Tropicus) were found to occur in Mississippi, including one new species in the genus Tropicus. Collection data has been compiled from material housed at the California Academy of Science, the University of Mississippi and Mississippi State University. Collecting efforts were focused on riparian habitats throughout Mississippi during the summers of 2003 and 2004. Geographic and seasonal distributions are presented for each species. Of the species occurring here, two are generally distributed throughout the US, seven are widely distributed in the East, one is primarily mid-western in distribution, one is known almost exclusively from Florida and another almost exclusively from Mississippi. The undescribed species of Tropicus occurs in Mississippi, Florida and South Carolina.