Many undergraduate researchers conduct independent research under the supervision of a professor, as part of UCLA’s student research program. The researchers then present their topics at Science Poster Day each year. Undergraduates gathered to share their findings Tuesday afternoon in Ackerman Grand Ballroom.

Here’s what some undergraduates are currently researching.

Alyson Ramirez, a fourth-year molecular, cell and developmental biology student, conducted research in a neurobiology lab. Ramirez is studying the development of cells called motor neurons, which allow people to breathe, interact and move. “There are diseases, such as spinomuscular atrophy, which can result in the loss of these neurons and eventually death,” she said.

There are no cures for these diseases, yet she said she wishes to gain more insight by looking into the development of these neurons. “We found proteins essential for the expression of neurons, and we hope to make a virus that has that protein,” she said. The purpose of that virus would be to replicate that protein in apetri dish, allowing for further analysis of neural development.

Amanda Loftin, a fourth-year psychobiology student, works in an orthopedic surgery lab. She is evaluating different implant materials, such as titanium, trabecular metal and stainless steel. Her experiments with these different metals aimed to see which metal accumulated the least bacteria and, therefore, which was the safest material for prosthetic implants. “Titanium and trabecular metal resulted in the most infections,” she said. “(This) may have been due to the metals’ poor structure (because of) large surface area, which creates more bacterial burden.” She is also looking into coating hardware with different antibacterial chemicals.

Amy Alayari, a fourth-year neuroscience student, was accompanied by her co-worker, Zafar Gill, a fourth-year psychobiology student. They are researchers in the molecular, cell and developmental biology department. They are looking into retinal degeneration, which is cell death in the eyes. “We’re using the fruit fly as our model organism, but it’s also found in humans,” Alayari said. She added that some people are born with normal retina, but they degenerate over time, causing sight problems like tunnel vision, which is the loss of peripheral vision. Another reason why fruit flies are experimented on is because flies’ eye gene structure is very similar to that of humans. “We want to identify what genes are involved in the degeneration process, and elucidate a pathway,” Gill said.

—Brian Pham

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Beating yourself up because you could’ve done better on your chem midterm? Feeling anxious about getting a job or being able to pay off student loans? All of these behaviors could be described as addictive and harmful. In a presentation given Wednesday at the UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center, Diana Winston, co-author of “Fully Present,” and Dr. Rory Reid of the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, discussed coping methods for those who struggle with issues such as depression, anxiety, ADD, ADHD and addiction. Here are five tips they shared with the audience.

1. Learn self-compassion.

Self-compassion is being kind to oneself in the same way that you would be kind to another human being. Kindness sometimes comes in the form tough love, and it can include getting yourself help when you know you need it. Do you hate your friends when they fail a midterm? If you don’t, you shouldn’t hate yourself either.

2. Understand the difference between guilt and shame.

Guilt happens when a behavior is deemed bad  (e.g., feeling guilty for eating the brownie). Shame occurs when you feel like you are bad because of the guilt you feel (e.g., I am a horrible person for eating that brownie). Feeling guilty does not have to lead to shame. Once you are able to differentiate between the two, you can stop the self-shaming and learn to accept and let go of the guilt.

3. Stop forming judgments.

According to Dr. Reid, an act itself is neither good nor bad. For instance, if you just went on a summer beach body diet and decided that brownies are off limits, you are deciding that brownies are bad. Then, when you eat that brownie, you decide again that that action is bad. Instead of deciding whether the action is bad or good, acknowledge that it happened, accept the consequences and move on.

4. Recognize you aren’t alone.

During the presentation, Winston asked people in the audience to stand up if they had ever felt alone, hurt, scared and defeated. Most of the room stood up during this exercise, demonstrating Winston’s point that everyone deals with many of the same core struggles that come with being human. Dr. Reid pointed out that oftentimes suffering can be magnified when we think we’re the only person dealing with the issue. Normalizing the problem by realizing other people are just as worried about finding a job or getting good grades can make the suffering a little less painful.

5. Be present and observe.

Using the tiger picture above, Dr. Reid asked us to find the hidden tiger. After looking at the picture for a few minutes, most people in the audience could not see another tiger. He then explained that the stripes spelled the words “the hidden tiger,” and argued that our perceptions are tainted because we automatically assumed that the “hidden tiger” would be another drawing of a tiger, not the phrase  in text. Being present in the moment and observing instead of judging is called being mindful. This practice of mindfulness prevents us from obsessing on the future (anxiety) or fixating on past hurts (depression) and allows us to move forward in a happier state.

Mindfulness has been proven to help those with anxiety, depression, addiction issues, ADD, ADHD and negative thoughts, Dr. Reid said. Learning to forgive ourselves for all the nasty things we’ve said to ourselves can be hard. Harder still is the act of recognizing that we are imperfect humans, Reid said, but there is hope.

—Morgan Dobbins

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Diet: (n) the kinds of food a person habitually eats; (v) to restrict oneself to small amounts or special kinds of food in order to lose weight.

Doesn’t sound very fun, does it?

This week is International No Diet Week, spearheaded by the UCLA EATask force with the aim of challenging the cultural attitudes in society today that cause people to diet. On Wednesday, there will be a screening of America the Beautiful, a film that touches on subjects such as the perception of beauty and the dieting craze. After the film, a panel of professionals will answer students’ questions concerning nutrition, fitness and body image.

One of the professionals on the panel is Eve Lahijani, a registered dietician at the Bruin Resource Center. She also teaches a Fiat Lux class about nutrition and body image. This week we caught up with Lahijani and asked her a few questions about what to expect at the event this Wednesday and her thoughts on dieting in general.

First, can you tell us a little bit more about the event on Wednesday? 

We’re going to show the film, and then we’re going to answer two questions: What is the biggest wellness myth? What is the truth? The myth I’m going to cover is how restricting and skipping meals actually causes people to eat more and be more obsessed with food.

We’re also going to talk about our favorite parts of the movie. My favorite part of the movie is when the dietician in the movie shows what balanced eating is actually like.

What are your thoughts on gender and dieting, from your experience with students and clients?

From my experience, dieting is just as much a problem for men as it is for women. And unfortunately men seem to have less resources, so the problem is sometimes even worse. Men often are trying to bulk up by consistently overeating or overexercising to the point where they have overuse injuries. It’s definitely a problem for men as well as women.

Do you think that location – living in LA, for example – influences people’s decision to diet?

Los Angeles is a hard place to be, for both women and men. This campus being right in the middle of Hollywood and Santa Monica, that’s tough. I definitely think that location feeds into it.

What would you say is the alternative to dieting?

It’s like what we teach in the Cosmo class and the FITTED class – learning how to reconnect with your body’s own natural hunger and fullness. Your body is very wise, and we trust (our bodies). For example, we don’t ever ask ourselves “is it okay to go pee?”. Eating should be self regulatory too; it’s about listening to your body’s cues, interpreting those cues and responding to them.

What does listening to your body look like?

Eating a balanced meal (including carbohydrates, protein and fat) every few hours when you get hungry, and making sure that the meal is both satisfying and nourishing. And if every now and then that includes fried food or chocolate, that’s okay too. Balance, variety and moderation are all important. If you eat a cookie or some ice cream, that’s not going to make you or break you. It’s when you binge on the bag of cookies that it’s a problem, especially if you’re doing that consistently.

Where’s your favorite place to eat on campus?

I love burritos and I love Mexican food, so I like to order a burrito at Rubio’s when I eat on campus. Sometimes I go to the bistro on South Campus. That’s really good, too.

What’s your favorite snack?

A mini burrito? Or something like a peanut butter sandwich and a glass of soymilk, or a piece of fruit with string cheese.

What’s the importance of the no diet week to college students?

I think that a very important aspect of healthy eating is a healthy relationship with food. You might know some people who eat “totally clean” and it looks like they’re doing the right thing, but if they happen to be around a cookie they freak out. I think that a healthy relationship and attitude towards food is very overlooked.

Lahijani will speak at the International No Diet week panel on Wednesday, May 8, at 6:30 p.m. in De Neve Auditorium.

—Julianna Foster

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 Coffee and tea are generally the drinks of choice for students busily cramming for exams. Take a break from studying and find out some more information about the latter drink. The Student group Nutrition, Complementary, and Alternative Medicine held its fifth annual Tea Party at UCLA Tuesday night, and experts tackled many of the common tea myths listed below.

Myth 1: Not all tea contains caffeine.

All teas contain caffeine. But the caffeine affects the body in a different way than coffee. Tea kicks in slowly, inducing a more gradual alertness instead of a sudden energetic rush.

Myth 2: Chai tea is its own kind of tea.

Chai tea is made from black tea mixed with spices such as cardamom, cinnamon and ginger. It’s generally paired with milk instead of water and is generally a sweeter tea. This drink originates from India.

Myth 3:  Green Tea is the most beneficial tea.

Different teas provide different benefits. The four kinds of tea are Green, Oolong, White and Black. Green tea comes from the leaf that is fried right after being picked to stop fermentation; this type of tea is usually less that 15% fermented. Tea that is fermented 15%-85% is called oolong tea. Black tea is fermented up to 100%. Different tea tastes come from different fermentation time periods, water used, the actual tree and the climate. It’s best to make tea with purified water so that different minerals in the water don’t conflict with the tea’s taste.

Myth 4: Herbal tea is a true tea.

Tea has come to mean any beverage that involves the use of hot water and a plant to make a flavorful drink. Only tea brewed from leaves of a tea tree is considered “true tea,” however. Many herbal teas such as lotus, chamomile or rooibos, are considered teas and have many beneficial properties, but are not officially classified as teas.

Myth 5: Herbal tea is better for you.

Herbal teas and true teas have different health effects. Some teas are better for digestion while others are used for their soothing qualities. If you are drinking mixed herbal teas, it’s important to research what each tea is supposed to help with so that you don’t drink a tea that is both relaxing and energizing.

Myth 6:  The darker the tea, the better.

Actually, the color of the tea only has to do with how long the tea leaves were brewed. The coloring has no effect on quality of tea or type of tea. Although black tea will generally be darkest, it is not always the case that dark tea is black tea. It’s important to try different teas to find out which teas are best for you as quality of tea can only be tasted and assessed by an individual.

Fun Fact: In order to have the “best tea ever” you should use the local spring water near the actual tea tree, as the water contains complementary minerals and nutrients.

Information courtesy of Imen Shan, tea expert.

—Morgan Dobbins

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Midterms are fast approaching: An inordinate amount of chocolate and coffee is about to be consumed. Your butt will get that numb, I’ve-been-stuck-in-a-chair-all-day feeling (yeah, you know what I’m talking about). Not to mention your brain will start feeling like it’s about to explode if you have to write one more word or do another math problem.

My solution to this is a 5-minute body-weight workout, which I can do from the comfort of my dorm room. These workouts will break up long periods of studying, and get more blood flowing to your brain so that you can think more clearly. The post-workout endorphins will put you in a better mood (your roommates will thank me for that one), so that when you sit back down again to study, you’ll feel refreshed and ready to tackle some more work.

—Julianna Foster

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