Introduction

September 26, 2017

 

College can be overwhelming. Keeping up with all of the available opportunities at your disposal is a major time commitment, and that’s on top of classes and homework and going to sleep at a reasonable hour.

UConn has the resources to help you make the most of your time in college. And I’m here to help you navigate them.  This is Live and Learn, a podcast about finding your way through college.

I’m Danielle Chaloux, and this semester I’m going to talk to  faculty who can help you with your thesis , to university staff about what to do when your hard drive crashes or your grades aren’t what you’d thought they’d be, and to students who have been right where you are now – and made it out the other side.

You’re in the right place and you’re here because you’ve worked hard. But now it’s time to work smart.  Start Monday morning, on your walk to class. Spend 10 minutes getting up to date with upcoming events and approaching deadlines and stay ahead of the pack with the inside scoop on taking advantage of everything UConn has to offer.

Live and Learn: coming September 25th to a podcatcher near you. Subscribe at honors.uconn.edu/podcast and you’ll get new episodes when they come out, because you already have enough to remember.

This is a production of the University of Connecticut Honors Program.

 

Rowe Researcher: The Effects of Cranberry Consumption on Lipid and Lipoprotein Metabolism

September 20, 2017

The Effects of Cranberry Consumption on Lipid and Lipoprotein Metabolism in Human Apolipoprotein A-I Transgenic Mice Fed a High Fat and High Cholesterol Diet

May 2017

Investigators: Christian Caceres, Dr. Ji-Young Lee, Dr. Young-Ki Park

The development of pathological conditions including cardiovascular disease are well documented to manifest from an obese state due to high lipid burden at adipose tissue and consequent low-grade inflammation. We hypothesized that anthocyanin-rich whole cranberry powder would prevent inflammation while simultaneously modifying high- density lipoprotein (HDL) metabolism to confer cardioprotection in C57BL/6J mice expressing human apolipoprotein A-I transgene (hApoAITg). Male hApoAITg C57BL/6J mice were fed a modified AIN-93M high fat/high cholesterol diet (HF/HC; 15% fat, 0.25% cholesterol by weight) with only the treatment group receiving 5% whole cranberry powder by weight for 8 weeks. Our results suggest that CR supplementation decreases obesity-induced inflammation in adipose tissue at least in part, by modulating energy metabolism in skeletal muscle. However, additional investigations are required to conclusively determine the effect of cranberry consumption on serum lipids and HDL metabolism.

Rowe Researcher: Tyrosine Phosphorylation of the Bacterial Stress Factor BipA

September 19, 2017

Akua Owusu at Frontiers in Undergraduate Research

Tyrosine Phosphorylation of the Bacterial Stress Factor BipA aids in Adaptation and Pathogenicity

Summer 2016

Investigators: Akua Owusu and Jui Chaugule

Faculty Advisors: Dr Victoria Robinson and Dr David Benson

BipA is a multi-domain prokaryotic GTPase universally conserved in pathogenic bacteria.  It regulates a number of virulence events including pedestal formation, flagella mediated motility and expression of virulence genes. Most importantly, BipA null mutants are avirulent, suggesting it is a prime target for antimicrobial development.  Central to the function of BipA are its GTPase activity and its association with the ribosome. An examination of the ribosome binding properties of the protein revealed that BipA has two ribosome binding modes. Under normal growth conditions, GTP-bound BipA associates with 70S ribosomes. However, under conditions of stress, ppGpp-bound BipA associates with 30S ribosomes. A study by the O’Connor group at the University of Southampton (UK) demonstrated that BipA undergoes phosphorylation on one of its tyrosine residues and perhaps this modification may play a role in its ability to regulate virulence processes. Therefore, the purpose of my project was to identify the tyrosine phosphorylation sites in EHEC BipA and then determine how this modification affects its biochemical properties particularly its GTPase activity.

Rowe Alumni Spotlight: John Zyzo

September 18, 2017

Dr. John Zyzo

UConn Year of Graduation (Undergraduate): 2012
Undergraduate Major(s): Molecular and Cell Biology
Currently Employed By: Waterbury Smiles and Old Greenwich Dental Associates, Licensed General Dentist
Updates: Recently graduated from Danbury Hospital GPR and currently practicing comprehensive general dentistry in Waterbury and Greenwich, CT.

Legal Institutions and Social Change (Conversion opportunity)

August 29, 2017

Legal Institutions and Social Change: From Latin America to the United States by Way of Europe
LLAS 3998-001; SOCI 3998-001

Instructor: Ángel Oquendo

While this is not an Honors course, Prof. Oquendo welcomes Honors students of any major and would be happy to offer Honors conversions for interested students.

This course has as its foci the history of interdependency between legal institutions and social change, as well as the multiple bodies of law emergent in particular historical contexts. It deals, at a law-school level, with constitutional law, as well as with specific areas of private law, such as civil law, civil procedure, and business law, and considers how, since early Rome, legal institutions further social change. It first introduces the civil law tradition, as well as legal history, comparing the Latin American experience with that of the United States and Europe. The discussion, which maintains this comparative aim
throughout, then moves on to constitutional law: to the notion of constitutionalism, to basic principles, to the vindication of rights, and to second and third generation entitlements. Thereafter the emphasis shifts to civil law—i.e., civil codes, interpretation, combating codified sexism, and civil remedies—and to civil procedure—specifically to the attainment of legitimacy through procedure, to procedural guaranties, and to collective actions. The class closes with an exploration of corporate law. Students will become fully conversant with the principal legal concepts used by lawyers in the regions traversed.

Professor Oquendo is a George J. and Helen M. England Professor of Law at UConn School of Law. He has lectured and published extensively in five languages and is an authority worldwide on comparative law and international litigation. He graduated from Yale Law School and clerked for Judge Stephen Reinhardt of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Honors Alumni Spotlight: Brittany Bendel

July 26, 2017

UConn Year of Graduation (Undergraduate): 2015
Undergraduate Major(s): Chemical Engineering
Currently Employed By: Teach for America, Corps Member
Updates: I am currently training to be a secondary math teacher through teach for america. I will be teaching in Hartford in the fall!

Rowe Alumni Spotlight: Mallory Perry

UConn Year of Graduation (Undergraduate): 2014
Undergraduate Major(s): Nursing
Currently Employed By: CT Children’s Medical Center, Clinical Nurse III
Updates: I’ve recently passed a certification exam, earning the title of Certified Pediatric Nurse (CPN). Also, as of June 2017 I have passed my qualifying exams for the PhD program, earning a Master of Science in Nursing along the way.

EDLR 3600: Education Policy and Reform (non-Honors)

June 13, 2017

Instructor: Shaun Dougherty

While this is not an Honors course, Prof. Dougherty welcomes Honors students of all levels and majors. 

This new course is an in-depth survey of educational policy and reform movements from the last century with applications in contemporary policy. It originated out of Prof. Dougherty’s UNIV 1784 section and will allow for greater depth of discussion than is possible in the one-credit version.