Hello everyone and happy 2024! It's the spring semester of senior year (yippee!) and I'm entering the final stretch before senior comprehensive research will be presented in March. The data for the turtle project has successfully run in R after numerous trials and alterations to the code and it's provided some models and analysis. For my research, I had hypothesized that pleurodiran turtles would share more morphological scaling patterns to trionychids, because both are freshwater specialists and rely on rowing. Since emydid turtles are semi-aquatic, it would be understandable if they shared less morphological similarity to pleurodires because they are adapted to also move on land.
There will be more to come soon with findings on this study - stay tuned! Hello everyone! I hope you all had a great Halloween.
I have finished my data collection (yay)! My project was looking at maximum flexion seen in the three different surgical grafts for ACL reconstruction. Like literature shows, a majority of the participants suffered their injuries playing either soccer, basketball, or lacrosse. Fifty percent of the participants looked at had patellar tendon grafts, which has been the "gold standard" for a majority of our lifetimes. I also had three participants with quad tendon grafts and only one with a hamstring graft. Because I only had one participant with a hamstring graft, I did not include this data into my statistical analysis. When running my stats I did a t-test and a Welch's test to make up for the variation in number of participants. This also indicated what participants were considered outliers. I think if I were to do this project again, I think I would limit the participants to high level athletes. Some of the variation in flexion angles was due to improper form and landing, which could have led to the outlying data points. I think this would have improved the data significance along with coinciding more with literature, because most of the studies done have been with high skilled athletes. Overall, my data did not indicate significant differences in knee flexion between participants with patellar tendon versus quad grafts (p = 0.052). This result could have been influenced by the small sample size and the varying athletic levels among study participants. Over the next couple weeks I will be working on writing up my results and discussion sections for my senior comp paper. Hey everyone! The fall semester is already halfway over and I'm 1/4 of the way through my senior year! (Though i'm a bit in denial about that). It's been a crazy semester- with traveling to Ireland with a band, taking courses in conservation biology and kinesiology (super interesting courses btw- i'm definitely a macro-biology enjoyer), plus occasionally working in IT, and of course working on the turtle project for my senior comprehensive. I'm very excited to see what conclusions can be made once the basal y contrast analysis is completed! Will Pleurodires and Trionychids share more similarities in limb bone morphology than Emydids?? Stay tuned to find out.
Hello everyone!
I can't believe we are almost half way through the fall semester! Summer flew by and fall is here! In my last post, I mentioned that my family was expecting a new member to join. I am so thrilled to give an update on the birth of my baby cousin, Xavier! So far, the fall semester has gone by at a faster pace than I would like. I recently celebrated my 21st birthday in September with a weekend trip to Nashville with my parents and we had so much fun. But since returning to Saint Mary’s, senior year is sinking in. Jesse, Emily and are all beginning to wind down with our data collection portion of our research. Once we complete the research portion of our research we'll begin to interpret our findings. The finish line is within sight and there will be more updates on our research soon! Hi everyone!! I hope you all had a wonderful summer. I am starting my senior year here at Saint Mary's (crazy right?!). I am still studying Biology, but have decided to try out the path of medical sales before applying to medical school! I am currently applying for internships with Eli Lilly and Stryker. I am hoping to learn about joint replacement sales.
Regarding my research, I am looking at how the different types of reconstructive grafts affect flexion in women! So far I have had about 5 data collections with just injured participants. I have sent out the information to all of the sports teams and visited a handful of classes, so I am hoping to get a few more before fall break. The goal for me for this research is to look into what types of grafts are "best" for flexion in females. This choice is usually up to surgeon and patient discretion, but it would be awesome if there was a graft that could bring back complete flexion! I' look forward to updating you again soon:)) Jenna Bowman: I guess this is the end! I just wanted to thank Dr. Young for her guidance throughout my whole research journey and my fellow lab members for their support. From the research through this lab I have gained the confidence to pursue graduate studies. I cannot thank Saint Mary’s college enough for the well rounded education I obtained here to help me in my career. I am going to University of Maryland to get my master’s degree in forensic medicine. i hopefully then plan on becoming a pathologist assistant as the end goal. Lucy Chamberlin: It is sad to think that this will be my last post as my time at Saint Mary's comes to an end, but I am incredibly grateful for my time here. Being a member of the locomotion lab has been great. I have learned many different things, improved my research skills, and my confidence in my work has greatly improved. I am very thankful for everything my lab mates have helped me accomplish and the never ending support of Dr. Young, who I have learned so so much from. Next year I will be taking a gap year and working on an acute rehabilitation unit at my local hospital before hopefully attending PA school. I am very excited for the opportunity to gain more skills in the clinical setting and look forward to learning even more from my coworkers. With that I will sign off and wish everyone a happy summer! Caroline Kopack: As I am reflecting on this year and on my undergraduate years as a whole, I think that I am most surprised by how quickly it passed. I remember being a freshman and meeting with the lab over Zoom and wondering if we would ever be able to see each other in person again. Obviously, these last four years have had their own unique and unforeseen challenges, but I know that Dr. Young and my labmates have been there to offer their unique perspectives and support. We have been able to see some of the research proposals from the current juniors in the lab, which is very interesting but is also incredibly bittersweet. It feels like not that long ago that we were writing our literature reviews and practicing our research proposal presentations. However, I have the utmost faith that they will continue to succeed and achieve their goals as students and as members of the Locomotion Lab. I would like to again thank Dr. Young for her support, understanding, and guidance over the course of this project, both in and outside of the lab. I would also like to wish all of my fellow seniors the best of luck in their future endeavors. Hana Larkins: The time has to come to say goodbye to the Locomotion Lab. I had the best time with the lab and will miss everyone so much! I look forward to hearing about everyone’s research and future endeavors! After researching biomechanics with Dr. Young and marine biology at Friday Harbor, it reaffirmed my passion for the two and I hope to pursue both in the future. For now, I’m still applying to research assistantships and lab technician jobs for my gap year before applying for Ph.D. programs for Fall 2024. I’ve had a couple of interviews, but we’ll see where I end up and I’ll keep my eyes open for any opportunities thrown my way! Thank you so much to Dr. Young for allowing me this opportunity to be part of your lab. Being with you has opened up so many opportunities and I could not thank you enough. Thank you to all members of the lab for being great support (and for reading my many paper drafts)! Go Belles! Go Biology! Hello everyone and happy almost summer! My name is Jesse Miller, and I'm a junior Biology major/french minor at Saint Mary's College. I joined Dr. Young and the Locomotion Lab gang at the beginning of this semester and it’s been a blast! I’m currently working on the most recent turtle project that’s been ongoing since 2021. I’ve been doing a lot of research on comparative limb bone scaling and shape between Pleurodire and semi- aquatic Cryptodiran turtles. Right now we’re still in the process of running code in RStudio, which is a really great tool for data analysis (and also really fun to work with, others might disagree.) I was very interested in studying biomechanics after taking Dr. Young’s course in animal biomechanics and I'm excited to see what conclusion we come to with this project. I also had the opportunity to attend the Midwest Regional SICB conference in March, which was a great experience for myself and others in Dr. Young and Dr. Whitlow’s labs. I can’t wait to attend again next year!
The Locomotion and Whitlow Labs teamed up to head to Chicago for the Midwest rSICB meeting in early April. Hana and Emily reflect on their experiences below:
Hana: This past weekend the locomotion lab, in conjunction with Dr. Whitlow’s lab, had the opportunity to attend the Midwest Regional SICB Conference at the University of Chicago! It was a great experience for not only myself, but for others who had never attended a conference before. Though I thoroughly enjoyed the national conference, I enjoyed how much more relaxed it was compared to the national SICB conference. At this conference, I presented my summer research/ senior comprehensive poster looking into the effects of flow on filtering and gaping behavior in M. galloprovinciallis. During my presentation, I got to meet other undergraduate researchers and had the chance to speak with professors from other institutions. This conference was such a wonderful experience and I can’t wait to present again in the future! Emily: This past weekend the Whitlow lab and locomotion lab attended rSICB at UChicago. It was a fun filled weekend full of fantastic talks from sloth vertebrae to mudskipper blinking. Having been to the national conference in Austin, Texas, I was also able to reconnect with some of the friends that I made there, and also meet lots of new people. During the conference we were also able to tour some of the spaces at UChicago; the anatomy lab, fossil lab, and the XROMM facility. All of which were very cool experiences especially the fossil lab where we were able to see many dinosaur, turtle, and fish fossils! Overall this conference was one to remember and the best people to be nerds with! Hello again!
The spring semester has flown by and juniors in the lab have begun preparations for our independent research, which we will conduct in the fall! For my senior comp I will be looking into how the women’s menstrual cycle affects the knee. Did you know that depending on where a woman is in her menstrual cycle, she may be at an increased likelihood of knee injury? To further examine how the menstrual cycle impacts the knee, I will be comparing participants’ knee flexion based on two separate drop jump tests they participate in: one during menstruation and another when she is not menstruating. I am very excited to continue this process and to get to the point where we will get some answers! More to come in the fall semester! Over the summer I will be traveling back home to Oakfield, NY and will be working in a coffee shop as a barista. When not serving the best coffee in the world, I will be volunteering at a comfort care home for the terminally ill and I look forward to giving back to my community. Just so I end this post on a positive note, I will also be doing a little bit of traveling here and there as well as helping with my aunt and uncle who are expecting in early July! Hello everyone!!! A little update on my life is that I am currently studying for my MCAT that I will be taking at the end of May! Right after my test, I will be leaving to study abroad in Greece for two weeks. I am planning on going right into medical school and specializing in trauma orthopedics and sports medicine :)
My research in the locomotion lab has led me into loving trauma ortho even more! As of right now I have chosen my area of concentration for my senior comp. I will be looking into whether the different types of ACL reconstruction grafts affect post-recovery knee flexion in college-aged women. I will be comparing participants with patellar tendon, hamstring, and cadaver grafts and measuring their knee flexion based off of a drop jump test. This will be done by videotaping participants and then using software to measure the different angles in the knee to determine if the different grafts play a role in post-recovery flexion. There is no clear answer on what the "best" graft choice is, so I am hoping to continue working on this throughout my career. So far I have been working on my literature review along with exploring how I am going to set up my data collection! |
AuthorsAlok Agwick Archives
February 2024
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