Biomedical Sciences

Cholesterol deposits in the arteries causes Atherosclerosis also known as ‘The Silent Killer’. Medications to lower cholesterol have many harmful side effects. The purpose of my experiment was to find out if home remedies are effective in lowering cholesterol. I soaked 100 grams pig fat in 200 ml of six different home remedies, Indian Gooseberry, green tea, apple cider vinegar, honey garlic, ginger cinnamon, and coriander. My control group was Crestor 20mg. I recorded the change in mass of pig fat and the residue of each sample every 6 hours for a period of 24 hours in the data table and analyzed the data. The mass of pig fat soaked in honey garlic reduced by 4.8 % and was the best, next was apple cider vinegar with a mass reduction of 3.7%, followed by Crestor 20 mg that showed a mass reduction of 3.5 %. Indian gooseberry solution effected a 3.1% decrease, ginger cinnamon a 2.9% decrease, and coriander and green tea a 1.6% decrease. My alternative hypothesis that home remedies will reduce the fat content was supported, however my prediction that Indian gooseberry would be the most effective was proved wrong. Honey garlic was the most effective. This must have been because garlic has abundant antioxidant nutrients. Garlic is also rich in selenium which helps boost the effectiveness of antioxidants. Honey is also known to be an antioxidant powerhouse. As an extension, I would test the effect of honey, garlic, ginger, and cinnamon individually rather than in combination. I would also use different concentrations of some of these solutions to test their effect.

Mechanism of Immuneregulation During Allergen lmmunotherapy Allergic diseases such as rhinitis and asthma are very common chronic conditions responsible for significant morbidity and cost. Subcutaneous allergen immunotherapy (SCIT) is a widely used procedure for tolerizing patients to their inhaled allergens. This procedure is so time consuming that only l7o/o of patients who start the treatment complete the full course. Further, the only lab test currently available, specific IgE level, lags by several years following immunotherapy even though patients have clinical benefit much earlier. We here hypothesizetbat intra-lymph node immunotherapy (ILIT) can achieve sustained clinical improvement in a much shorter duration. We further hypothesizethat evaluation of T cell profile through mass cytometry can yield much stronger correlation between observable irnmune responses and clinical benefit. In this study, allergens were injected in the cervical lymph nodes of 10 patients with severe grass allergy. The process was repeated at 4 weeks and I weeks, resulting in three doses each. Blood was drawn before each injection, and regularly following the last injection. Even after the first ILIT, there was a dramatic reduction in the number of T cells activated in the presence of grass allergen. This effect was sustained during the three month follow-up, and correlated strongly with standardized symptom score of patients. In conclusion, ILIT is an effective treatment for inhalant allergies. Reduction of allergenactivated T cells as determined through mass cytometry correlates strongly with improvement in symptom scores. ILIT appears to be a safe, effective, and efficient treatment for inhalant allergies.

People often forget everyday objects as people get older. This project looks at whether spatial clues will help people have a better memory. To tackle this project, gathering 100 people was the first step. Then, people were split into four groups. Group A has a box and a paper without lines. Group B has a box with lines and a paper without lines and a paper with lines. Group C has a box with lines and a paper without lines. Group D has a box and paper with lines. Each participant was shown the box of objects for one minute and after one minute the box will be covered. Next the participant will be asked to write down the objects they remembered. Females remembered better between the males and females because the female brains are more mature and developed than the males. Ages eleven through twenty had a better memory. Group D also had a better memory because the lines on the box and paper helped the people. In conclusion, the lines helped people remember the objects better because the objects were organized and grouped separately.

Relationship Between Molar Eruption and Academic Achievement

The purpose of this project was to search for a relationship between the number of erupted permanent molars and brain growth based on academic achievement measured by test scores. Data was obtained from one class of kindergarten students at Joshua Chadbourne Elementary. Their teacher distributed consent forms and surveys to the students, who brought them home for their parents to fill out and return. The survey asked for the number of erupted first molars as well as birth date, ethnicity, and gender. The teacher also compiled test scores from an ELA (English Language Arts) assessment and from a mathematics assessment. Results showed a positive correlation (1.45, R^2=0.023) between number of erupted molars and ELA scores, but a negative correlation (-1.16, R^2=0.04) between number of erupted molars and mathematics scores. It was hypothesized that a positive correlation would be found between test scores and molar eruption, but because the two correlations were weak and in opposite directions, and because brain growth should support learning of all subjects, a general conclusion about test scores can not be made. Because of this, there appears to be no correlation between molar eruption and test scores. By extension, it appears that erupted molars are not a reliable biomarker of brain growth. There were however, several errors, including the small number of participants (16) and time having passed between the taking of the test and collection of data.