Talk to Wooster
Summer 2006
Diverse Disciplines
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Story
6)
BIOCHEMISTRY AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY
Investigation of the creatine/creatinine ratio in serum and urine: A potential link to muscle pain associated with statin use
Statin drugs such as LipitorTM and CrestorTM effectively treat high cholesterol and prevent cardiovascular disease, but many patients experience muscle pain as a side effect. Working with Judith Amburgey-Peters, associate professor of chemistry, and David Shewmon, department of endocrinology, Cleveland Clinic Wooster Specialty Care Center, Matt Craig proposed that the disruption of cholesterol and protein interactions induced by statins leads to muscle pain resulting from insufficient creatine (Cr) metabolism. Craig first discerned methods for measuring Cr and its breakdown product, creatinine (Crn), in serum and urine. Next he compared the Cr/Crn ratio in patients who had exhibited multiple-statin intolerance to those patients who tolerated the substance. Finally, Craig determined if the Cr/Crn ratio was elevated during statin use. He successfully demonstrated that patients who cannot tolerate the drugs have a significantly higher serum Cr/Crn ratio than tolerant patients, a ratio that worsens when using statins.
7) POLITICAL SCIENCE
The eroded path to conflict: A study of unsustainable environmental practices and acute violent conflict in the Sudan and Sri Lanka
Since the events of Sept. 11, 2001, security has dominated the concerns of decision makers and policy analysts. Increasingly, the concept of security is framed narrowly, in terms of terrorist threats. Jon Taylor Delhagen, Pultneyville, N.Y., looked at the issue through a wider lens. He explored the relationship that countries have with their natural environment, specifically with land, water, and climate.Working with Mark Weaver, professor of political science, he researched the environmental practices of two countries torn apart by civil war—the Sudan and Sri Lanka. Delhagen found that, on the one hand, careless depletion of natural resources undermines livelihoods and increases vulnerability to disaster.On the other, violent conflict and political instability lead to mismanagement of vital natural resources. He concluded that human security and environmental protection are mutually dependent.
8) MATHEMATICS
The capacity of a graph and the theorems of Shannon, Rosenfeld, Hales, and Lovász
Because communication channels are used in CDs, wireless phones, and computers, their efficiency is important to many users. If certain letters of the alphabet are used to transmit information through the channel, which subset of letters would be most effective? Using graph theory and focusing on graph capacity, Anshuman Bagaria, Kolkata, India, tackled this question. Working with Stan Hales, professor of mathematics and College president, Bagaria evaluated graph cycles, with special attention to the theorems of Lásló Lovász.
9) PHYSICS
Simulation of synchrotron radiation from relativistic particles in tangled magnetic fields
Jeremy Hohertz, Middleburg Heights, Ohio, worked with Lowell Boone, assistant professor of physics, on a computational astrophysics project. Hohertz's research indicates that a user-defined "tangle" parameter—related to the probability of changing the magnetic field—is an important factor in containment time, which in turn increases the intensity of observable radiation.
10) ANTHROPOLOGY
She brings home the bacon and she fries it up, too: A Marxist analysis of gendered divisions of labor in the home, 1944-1994
Focusing on the 50 years between 1944 and 1994, Kate Carden, Orrville, Ohio, examined the politics of gender as it relates to domestic work in the home, labor force participation, and women's role as wives and mothers.Working with Nick Kardulias, associate professor of anthropology, Carden researched and developed the idea that this time period was an era of "stalled revolution."Women had gone to work out of necessity, but the workplace, the culture, and—most importantly—the men had not adjusted to the new reality. Society still expected women to be the primary care givers and domestic laborers at home. Carden used the ideas of Arlie Hochschild, Karl Marx, Eleanor Leacock, and Marvin Harris to understand this period of social tension.
