Myocardial infarctions (heart attacks) produce currently irreparable damage to heart muscle and diminish cardiac efficiency and output. The transplantation of human embryonic stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hESC-CMs) has been proposed as a potential therapy for such infarctions. Prior studies have shown that hESC-CMs grafts can electrically integrate with host tissue in guinea pig acute and chronic infarct models. However, the risk of arrhythmias following hESC-CM transplantation in injured hearts remains inadequately studied. To better guide hypothesis development and drug screening, we are developing an in silico model of action potentials in hESC-CMs. We hypothesize that the characteristics of these simulated action potentials will reliably mimic those found in vitro and so provide insight on the presence of arrhythmias. To test this hypothesis, we have constructed an action potential model for a single hESC-CM based on similar models of other cell types. We utilize literature values and original electrophysiological recordings of parameters such as action potential duration and ionic currents (sodium, transient outward potassium, etc.) to generate hESC-CM behavior within the model. To verify action potential behavior in the model, actual cells will be treated in vitro with current blocking drugs and characterized through patch clamp experiments. The computational model should agree with the results of these experiments after appropriate modulation of parameters. Finally, we will extrapolate the model to a sheet of cells to provide a more accurate simulation of the high purity hESC-CM grafts used in transplantations and to predict action potential propagation between cells. The information generated by this model may provide insight on factors that promote or inhibit arrhythmias, leading to compelling new in vitro experiments. We anticipate that use of this model will minimize the number of animals needed in preclinical studies and hasten the clinical translation of hESC-CM transplantations.

Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is an uncommon and aggressive skin cancer having features consistent with neuroendocrine tumors (NETs)—those involving cells of both the nervous and endocrine systems. Current therapeutic options for metastatic MCC are suboptimal. Somatostatin receptors (SSTRs), usually expressed in NETs, may represent a therapeutic target in MCC. However, there are limited data on the characteristics of SSTR expression and the efficacy of somatostatin analogues (SSAs) in metastatic MCC. To study the same, we performed retrospective analyses on 45 metastatic MCC patients who underwent somatostatin receptor scintigraphy (SRS) using In¹¹¹-pentetreotide, a radioactive SSA. Metastatic MCC patients who were treated with SSAs were included in efficacy analysis. Patients were categorized as having clinical benefit (CB) if the progression-free survival (PFS) was 4 months or longer after initiation of SSA. We found the majority (35/45) of metastatic MCC patients who underwent SRS had In¹¹¹-pentetreotide uptake in MCC tumors, suggesting expression of SSTRs (subtypes 2,5). 33/35 patients received SSA (octreotide-LAR 20-30mg intramuscularly monthly). Therapy was generally well tolerated without significant treatment-related adverse events. 19/33 patients who received SSA had no other concurrent systemic therapy and were evaluable for efficacy analyses. 7 of these 19 patients had at least one target lesion, among which 3/7 (43%) patients had CB with median PFS of 8 months. The other 12/19 patients treated with SSA received concurrent radiation therapy and did not have any measurable target lesion; 5/12 (42%) patients had CB with median PFS of 13 months. Characterization of inter-lesional heterogeneity of In¹¹¹-pentetreotide uptake and its correlation with clinical benefit is ongoing. In conclusion, SSTRs are expressed in the majority of metastatic MCC tumors. Carefully selected metastatic MCC patients can benefit from SSA therapy with minimal toxicity. These results suggest SSTRs to be a valid target to pursue for the treatment of metastatic MCC.

The greatest recorded outbreak of sea star wasting disease is currently ravaging populations of over 20 sea star species along the west coast of North America, including Pisaster ochraceus. As a keystone predator, P. ochraceus consumes and regulates populations of mussels and barnacles that compete for space with other intertidal organisms. To observe changes in community structure of the intertidal zone, transect surveys were conducted over a period of eight months at field sites in West Seattle. Quadrats (50cm x 50cm) were randomly placed along transect lines running parallel and perpendicular to the shore. Community structures were measured by either counting organisms (mussels, snails, limpets and anemones) or estimating percent coverage (barnacles and algae). Preliminary results suggest that barnacle and mussel populations are neither increasing nor decreasing due to the absence of their main predator. The results may be because of a lack of sufficient baseline data for barnacle and mussel populations in the area or because not enough time has passed to see a significant change in population size. However, the data collected may be used as a baseline for further documentation of the progression of sea star wasting disease. Diseases that affect keystone predators may have effects on local ecosystems as well as cascading effects on surrounding community structures. Changes in the delicate balance of intertidal ecosystems can affect neighboring offshore ecosystems that people in the Puget Sound and other coastal populations rely heavily upon for subsistence and maintaining a certain quality of life.

 Embryonal rhabdomyasarcoma (ERMS) is cancer of the skeletal muscle and is one of the most common and devastating soft tissue cancers in children. There is no effective treatment for patients with relapsed ERMS and with less than 50% of patients surviving the disease. There is a pressing need to develop novel treatment options. The self renewing and molecularly defined tumor propagating cells (TPCs) drive continued tumor growth and relapse, yet no drugs targeting ERMS self-renewal and differentiation of TPCs have been identified. Histone deactylation is an essential posttranslational modification of protein complexes associated with DNA, and plays a vital role in regulating gene expression. Previous work with Histone Deactylase (HDAC) inhibitors has shown reduced proliferation, suppressed self-renewal and induced differentiation in vitro. However, the role of each HDAC gene in the tumorigenesis of ERMS is unknown. Based on mRNA expression profiling study, some of HDAC genes including the class 2A members (HDACs 4, 5, 7 and 9) are upregulated in ERMS. In order to define the role of class 2A HDACs in ERMS, each gene member will be systematically targeted using the CRISPR (clustered regularly interspersed short palindrome repeats)-Cas9 genomic editing technology, a powerful and effective method to knock out gene function. The effects of each HDAC loss-of-function on various aspects of tumor progression such as tumor growth, differentiation, apoptosis and migration will be assessed in human ERMS cell lines using cell-based assays. This study aims to gain insights into the role of each class 2A HDAC in the pathogenesis of ERMS. Novel drug designs specific to the anti-tumor activity of a class 2A HDAC can serve as an alternative treatment option for ERMS patients.

A clear understanding of the relationship between leaf morphology and climate is essential to predict plant responses to anthropogenic climate change. Because the leaf is the fundamental photosynthetic organ, its morphological facets will likely be affected and may mediate whole plant and population level responses. To explore this topic, I collected leaves from 90 Populus tremuloides (quaking aspen) saplings (juvenile trees < 2 m in height) in summer of 2014 across the species’ elevational range, which covers a significant precipitation and temperature gradient, in the La Plata Mountains, CO. The light environment was quantified above each sapling with fisheye canopy photos, thus elevation (climate) and competition for sunlight are my explanatory variables. For each sapling, the functional trait specific leaf area (SLA), the ratio of area of one side of a leaf (mm²) to whole leaf dry mass (mg), was measured and showed significant variation by elevation (low vs. high) and also by competition (low vs. high), suggesting that temperature, water availability, and light availability influence resource allocation. Leaf venation density will also be quantified for each sapling, to understand the importance of this trait in an increasingly warmer and drier climate. I hypothesize that 1) vein density will vary across the elevational gradient, 2) that higher vein density comprises more higher order, smaller veins (in diameter), and 3) that these higher order veins constitute greater frictional resistance thus increasing water use and photosynthetic efficiency (best at low elevation). These combined studies allow me to explore the relationship between leaf adaptations and climate, thus improving our ability to predict this species’ responses to climate change. I will further compare the functional significance of these leaf traits between sapling and adult individuals.

Wind tunnels are devices used to simulate real-world aerodynamic conditions and characteristics using small-scale models that will be experienced by larger-scale engineering structures such as aircraft, buildings, bridges, windmills, and even cities. They are useful for studying and addressing problems of the stability, efficiency, and feasibility of engineering designs on a small-scale before scaling-up to larger and more-expensive engineering projects. We present here our contributions to the enhancement of the EdCC/URSA 5-meter wind tunnel concentrating on analysis of existing wind tunnel components and improvements to fan blade design directed at increasing laminar flow efficiency and reducing test section turbulence and flow inhomogeneity,with airfoils and fan, pre-fabrication SolidWorks modeling and computational fluid dynamics simulations to post-fabrication experimental testing.

Insect-mediated pollination is a mutually beneficial relationship between the flower, which gets fertilized, and the insect, which gets food in the form of nectar. Some hawkmoths are crepuscular in nature, and are therefore often faced with low light conditions and have low visual acuity at close range. In addition to inserting a proboscis that can be longer than their body into a narrow opening in the flower, the moths must also hover in place while feeding. These are difficult tasks to accomplish in the dark. Hawkmoths must then have a way of finding their food source under such conditions. Our hypothesis is that the moth uses its sense of touch through its proboscis to follow the curvature of the flower to find the nectar source. To explore the importance of non-visual sensory modalities to dark-active hawkmoths during the act of nectar discovery, we used 3-D printing technology to print and study three populations of flowers, each consisting of 6 different flower morphologies. The flowers differ in size of the nectar hole and degree of petal curvature. We used individuals of the hawkmoth Manduca sexta in our experiments. Moths were allowed to fly freely and feed on a randomly arranged array of flowers. Our metric for feeding performance was the number of emptied flowers of each flower shape during each foraging trial. We have found that flowers with a curved, trumpet-like shape, and flowers with a wide nectar aperture were emptied most frequently. The fact that all flowers are visited equally but not all are exploited equally indicates that hawkmoths are sensitive to the curvature and size of the hole. The methods that we are developing may have utility in laboratory investigations of the co-evolutionary interactions between plants and pollinating animals.

The study examined whether callous-unemotional (CU) traits predict the onset of juvenile violent offending and the extent to which CU traits predict future violent offending. The analyses were based on 1,170 male adolescent offenders from the Pathways to Desistance project, a multisite, longitudinal study of serious juvenile offenders which begain in 2000, when project staff recruited 1,354 adolescents aged 14 through 18 who were adjudicated delinquent or found guilty of a serious (felony level) offense at their current court appearance in Philadelphia, PA (N = 654) and Phoenix, AZ (N = 700). Immediately after enrollment, researchers conducted a structured four-hour baseline interview with each adolescent. At each annual follow-up interview, researchers gathered information on the adolescents’ self-reported behavior and experiences during the prior 12 months. We restricted our current analyses to male adolescent offenders (N = 1,170), as the data set had only a marginally sufficient number of females in the sample (N = 184).  Utilizing multinomial logistic regression, the present study found that adolescent males who were high in CU traits were more likely to commit a violent act before age 13, even after controlling for other known risk factors for violence.  Additionally, odds ratios from the negative binomial regression analysis revealed that participants high in CU traits were nearly twice as likely than those with low or moderate CU traits to have committed more violent crimes at the 5-year follow-up. Implementing preventative interventions with children exhibiting early CU traits (prior to the onset of serious conduct problems) seems particularly important.  If interventions can be better tailored to the unique characteristics (e.g., identifying CU traits) of children based on the developmental mechanisms underlying their conduct problems, more pronounced and sustained treatment effects will likely be achieved.

E-cigarette use is an emerging and fast-growing trend particularly among young people that has not been thoroughly researched in terms of quit rates and abstinence rates. The objective of this research is to determine whether there is an association between e-cigarette use and cessation rates of tobacco cessation program participants. This research compiled in Fiscal Year 2015 analyzes quantitative evaluation data gathered from statewide public health tobacco cessation programs in the Idaho in order to explore the relationship between e-cigarette use and quit rates. This research will look at individuals that participated in a tobacco cessation program (N=1386) and the correlation with their e-cigarette use and their quit and abstinence rates. The research will be conducted using SPSS to analyze tobacco cessation outcomes by target group. The three types of participants are adult, youth, and pregnant women. Chi square analysis will be conducted between e-cigarette use and the quit rates and abstinence rates of each target group. I expect to see a significant difference in the quit and abstinence rates of smokers who use e-cigarettes compared with smokers who did not use e-cigarettes. Therefore, I anticipate there will be an association between e-cigarette use and cessation rates. Understanding behaviors in electronic cigarette use is important to implementing changes in clean indoor air policies, improving quit and abstinence rates in tobacco cessation programs, and advancing accurate perceptions on the safety of e-cigarette use for all users.

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is one of the leading causes for patient admissions in our nation’s hospitals, and globally it is the most common cause of severe lower respiratory tract infections in young children. The virus causes approximately four million deaths annually, but a vaccine has yet to be approved by the FDA. Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a pluripotent cytokine produced by most nucleated cells and is part of the acute phase response; previous research has found IL-6 to be an important contributor to the development of Th17 adaptive immunity. The purpose of this study was to explore how IL-6 influences host immune response to RSV infection through interactions with Th2 and Th17 pathways. Bronchiolar lavage (BAL) and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) of lung tissue were used to determine leukocyte differentiation and IL-6, IL-17a and mucus-producing gene expression. Our data indicates that in the presence of RSV, IL-6 drives the production of IL-17a, another type of cytokine, leading to increased mucus production, while at the same time playing a protective role by limiting neutrophil recruitment. These results suggest that IL-6 plays a multivariate role in host defense.

Over the past decade, graphene – a single layer of carbon atoms – has risen to fame for its electronic tunability and promise in high-speed electronic devices. Intense study of this material has led to the investigation of similar two-dimensional (2D) materials – in particular, a group of materials called the Transition Metal Dichalcogenides (TMDs), which can be isolated in few-layer form. While many TMDs have seen significant study in recent years, one remains relatively untouched: tungsten telluride (WTe2). To investigate the optoelectronic properties of WTe2 and gauge its promise in devices, its atomic structure must first be known. This study aims to elucidate the thickness dependent structure of WTe2 through the use of nonlinear optical spectroscopy. Photons incident on a nonlinear material undergo a frequency-doubling, or what is called second harmonic generation (SHG). Detecting this phenomenon with respect to different polarizations of light can provide information about a material’s symmetry groups and thus, structure. To study WTe2 with this technique, samples were exposed to a 790 nanometer femtosecond laser which generated an SHG signal that was recorded with a spectrometer and charge-coupled device. Preliminary experiments showed rapid degradation of WTe2 when exposed to powers commonly used to probe other TMDs. Additionally, WTe2 showed increased degradation when exposed to oxygen. Thickness and polarization dependent SHG of WTe2 is currently underway and will provide detailed information regarding the structure of few-layer WTe2. Following the study of WTe2, identical experiments will be carried out to probe the structure of molybdenum telluride (MoTe2), providing the opportunity to compare the structure and properties of two atomically similar materials. These studies will provide a foundation of knowledge necessary for future studies of the materials, and will enhance our understanding of the structure and properties of TMDs and other 2D materials.

In spite of the United States’ very large prison population, we know little about why both official life sentences and extremely long sentences have increased rapidly in recent years. Our project seeks to fill this research gap by identifying the legal processes that lead to life sentences and by estimating the fiscal costs associated with life-long sentences. We also consider whether the state of Washington should reinstate an inclusive parole program for all offenders, and, if so, what that program might look like. To conduct the research, we analyzed Washington State sentencing data and conducted interviews with policy experts and parole board administrators across the nation. Our findings include a demographic profile of Washington State "lifers", analyses of the legislation that contributed to their growth, as well as cost projections for the imprisonment of this population. In conclusion, we argue that reinstating a well-structured, active parole board that will be available to all prisoners in Washington State will best serve the public interest.

There are many potential challenges an older adult faces when moving from their home into a retirement community. Studies have demonstrated the importance of building social and emotional connections wherever one lives but more needs to be studied about the sense of connectedness and community building for residents in a retirement community. This study examined the factors that contributed or detracted from the sense of community and connectedness in a single retirement community as well as the implications these factors have for other communities. Twenty-three residents, consisting of eight males and fifteen females with a mean age of 87.9 and a range of 75 to 100 years old from a retirement community, participated in a newly launched wellness program involving activities of the mind, body and spirit. Informants participated in a baseline interview followed by interviews every two weeks for 6 months during their participation in the wellness program. Data was collected about participation in activities as well as how connected residents felt to other residents and staff. Preliminary findings indicate that residents reported a higher sense of connectedness to other residents who have resided at the retirement community for longer lengths of time while the constant addition of new residents detracted from the connectedness. Staff connectedness appeared to be heavily linked to perceived job performance of the staff member as well as amount of time spent interacting with staff members. Findings can inform the dissemination of this program to other retirement communities to help improve satisfaction of residents with connectedness and sense of community.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a collection of neurodevelopmental disorders characterized by social, behavioral and communication impairments (CDC, 2014). Research suggests that ASD is five times more common among boys than girls (CDC). A study by Dworzynski, Ronald, Bolton, & Happe (2012) found that girls with high autism trait scores on the Childhood Autism Spectrum Test did not meet official ASD criteria as often as their male equivalents. It was hypothesized that girls with ASD may present symptoms differently than boys in ways that aren’t well captured by current autism measurements. The current study investigated the correlation of the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS) with other measures of autism in males versus females with ASD. Children aged 8-17, with a diagnosis of autism participated in this study. Participants were interviewed and rated by a clinician on their social and communication behavior during the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS). Portions of that interview were rated on conversation skills using the Pragmatic Rating Scale-Modified (PRS-M). Parents completed the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R), a diagnostic interview (ratings of social, communicative and behavioral symptoms), as well as an interview on their child’s adaptive behavior (Vineland-II). The SRS is a parent report questionnaire about frequency and severity of autism symptoms exhibited by their child in the last six months. In comparing the SRS to both observation based tests and parent reports, we will assess whether SRS scores for boys are more highly correlated across measurement type (observation, parent report) than intra-subject measurements for girls. Greater reporter variability would suggest that girls’ symptoms of ASD may either be less consistent, or more influenced by reporter perception. Gender bias in reporting of ASD symptoms may lead to under diagnosis in girls.

In light of recent events in Ferguson, MO and in the larger context of the Black Lives Matter Movement increasingly coming to the attention of mainstream society, I have encountered many friends, colleagues, and peers who feel too paralyzed to talk about racial and gender inequality, or who engage in conversations about these subjects in problematic ways. The question arises: how does one speak up and speak out against discrimination when one does not belong to groups that experience those oppressions? How does one speak without contributing to the erasure of oppressed voices? I argue that while speaking for others may contribute to erasure, it is far worse not to speak up at all, and there are more effective ways to be an ally. Using salient texts from Critical Race Theory and Feminist Theory, as well as social justice and feminist media outlets run by Women of Color (such as Everyday Feminism, Black Girl Dangerous, and Urban Cusp), I have fashioned a theoretical toolkit to disclose both contexts in which speaking out is or is not appropriate and how one might speak out against oppressions in conscious and responsible ways. Using these texts as a critical framework, I also analyze and provide potential responses to common mistakes (including discursive imperialism and microaggressions) that even well-meaning allies can make. Ultimately, my project seeks to interrogate colorblindness, facilitate respectful interactions when addressing systematic oppression, and encourage those in dominant social groups to venture outside spheres of privilege to engage thoughtfully in conversations with members of oppressed groups.

The beginning of the Arikareean is marked by the arrival of Plesiosminthus, a dipodid relative of modern birch mice, in North America from Asia.  Though critical to the relative dating of fossils across North America, the record of Plesiosminthus remains scant. I present here the first cranial remains and most complete material of Plesiosminthus from the Cabbage Patch beds (CP) of western Montana, including three partial skulls and five dentaries with complete upper and lower dentitions.  Along with several other jaws and isolated teeth, these specimens confirm the presence of Plesiosminthus in CP since about 29 million years ago. The specimens display characteristics of Plesiosminthus, such as an upper first molar with a strong anterocone, upper molars with a long mesoloph, a prominent mesoconid on the lower first molar and a protoconid of the lower molars posteriolabially directed.  Examination of the specimens shows the presence of characters diagnostic of P. clivosus, previously only known from South Dakota, Nebraska, and Colorado. A phylogenetic analysis confirms the CP specimens belong to Plesiosminthus and lie at the base of the diversification of this genus.  Sister taxon to P. clivosus, it only differs from it by a single character, an anteroconid that is located on the base of the metaconid in the m1.  In the type specimen of P. clivosus the anteroconid is isolated from the metaconid and protoconid. The CP specimens also display different degrees of variation in some morphological characters than previously seen in P. clivosus, possibly reflecting the unique geographic location of these specimens, the most western occurence of the species.The presence of the CP specimens is a unique opportunity to assess variation in morphology within Plesiosminthus clivosus and examine the skull and postcranial skeleton.  This work will help understand the systematics and ecology of an important Oligocene small mammal.

Endocrine disrupting compounds (EDC) discharged into surface waters with treated wastewater effluent can negatively affect aquatic life. The goal of this research was to test the feasibility of bioaugmentation to improve EDC removal during wastewater treatment. Sphingobium sp. BiD32, a bisphenol A (BPA)-degrading bacterium, was added to lab-scale sequencing batch reactors that simulate the biological treatment process used by wastewater treatment facilities. BPA was added to the reactors and monitored by HPLC-MS/MS. Sphingobium sp. BiD32 was bioaugmented during the first cycle each day and concentrations were monitored using qPCR targeting the 16S rRNA gene. BPA removal rates were substantially higher in the cycles just after bioaugmentation, but declined through the course of the day. However, Sphingobium sp. BiD32 qPCR signatures persisted in the reactors, which could be due to measurements of DNA from inactive bacteria. These results support the original hypothesis that continuous bioaugmentation, rather than single-dose bioaugmentation, is required for improved EDC removal in wastewater treatment plants. On-going work is focused on identifying genes directly involved in BPA degradation that can act as biomarkers of activity, and on differentiating between the presence and the activity of Sphingobium sp. BiD32 in the reactors.

In the Pacific Northwest region, Anthropogenic climate change has begun to and is projected to further cause increased average annual temperatures, increased winter precipitation in the form of rain instead of snow and decreases in annual snow accumulation and snowpack. Alterations to the hydrological cycle may threaten the ability of coniferous tree populations to adequately regenerate by altering microsite habitats, especially on the edges of species ranges. Tsuga heterophylla is the dominant late successional low elevation coniferous tree species of the western slopes of the Cascade Range in Washington State, and the focal species for this study. Tsuga heterophylla’s seedlings most often germinate on soils high in organic matter, which commonly dry out in the summer months resulting in the death of seedlings. Reductions in winter snowpack and higher annual average temperatures may therefore reduce the ability of T. heterophylla populations to adequately regenerate, which could potentially have cascading effects on overall forest community structure. To address this question, we ask (i) how does the fecundity and seed abundance of T. heterophylla vary across a large elevational gradient? (ii) how does seed availability, microsite habitat and elevation influence seedling recruitment rates within and amongst stands? Two sites have been chosen for this study. The drier low elevation Wind River Forest Dynamics Plot, which is located in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in southwest Washington and the wetter mid to high elevation sites located throughout Mt. Rainier National Park. Seed abundance, fecundity and seedling density data were collected using seed traps paired with seedling quadrats across 19 locations varying in elevation. Preliminary results suggest that trees on Mt.Rainier produced a higher abundance of seeds and a higher percentage of viable seeds for the year of 2014.

The 1970s were a distinctive period in American culture and national identity, a time before the advent of neoliberalism in the 1980s when social, political, and ideological crisis touched all aspects of society. In this climate of conflict and upheaval, a number of prominent writers of poetry and popular music produced works that rejected traditional modes of expression for more impersonal, ambiguous statements. These pieces feature exaggerated and contradictory representations of identity; many also exude a salient tone of anxiety, an affect concerned with the security and integrity of the self. My research thus begins by examining the relationship between anxiety and the estrangement of subjectivity and narrative voice in lyric writing. To consider this affinity, I will close read and compare several artworks produced in New York City in the 1970s, primarily Talking Heads’s albums 77 and Fear of Music and John Ashbery’s Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror—the former two representing a popular form, the third a more “high art” one (a distinction that I mean to investigate in itself). To understand how these works reproduce and resist contemporary aesthetic and ideological trends, I will read them in conversation with critical theory on affect, subjectivity, and popular and political culture—writers like Sara Ahmed, Lauren Berlant, and Fredric Jameson. My investigation furthermore asks whether questioning straightforward depictions of selfhood is inherently counterpolitical, or if estranging anxiety might have some political utility. Does art need to be direct, polemical, (self-)expressive, or overtly political to do political work? In the broadest sense, this project weighs the merits, relevance, and influence of esoteric art, a concern that lies at the core of much scholarship in the humanities. 

Obesity is a current and significant health concern, with sleep patterns that alter appetite as an important contributing factor. Reduced sleep leads to physiological adaption to increase food intake to stay awake; however, adequate sleep is thought to be essential to prevent obesity in teenagers as they go through puberty. The purpose of the study is to describe the relationships between appetite regulation hormones (leptin and ghrelin), sleep characteristics, and body mass index (BMI) in adolescents. My study population includes 19 healthy 13-17 year old teenagers from Dr. Landis parent research of sleep in teenagers. I am currently collecting data on sleep length, total sleep time, and sleep efficiency from reliable microprocessor wristwatches that record sleep-rest activities, BMI calculated from measured height and weight, and leptin and ghrelin from fasting blood draws. Descriptive statistics and multiple bivariate correlational graphs will be used to analyze the relationship between sleep characteristics, appetite regulation hormones (leptin and ghrelin), and BMI to compare the difference in males and females. I expect my results will demonstrate gender differences in sleep patterns and appetite regulation related to obesity risks. My anticipated finding is that sleep deprivation in adolescents lead to increased BMI by stimulating appetite through reduced leptin and increased ghrelin. This study may lead to specific interventions that will improve the quality of sleep, promote metabolic health, and prevent teen obesity in the future.

Ultracold atoms, atoms at temperatures close to absolute zero, are ideal systems to study quantum few- and many-body phenomena. Our group simultaneously produces two ultracold atomic species, lithium and ytterbium, to study quantum phenomena in ultracold mixtures and in ultracold dipolar molecular gases. Finding efficient experimental schemes to produce large and highly degenerate quantum gases is crucial in this experiment. Hence, we implement a novel D1 gray-molasses cooling method to cool lithium-6. The research project is to develop the frequency stabilization of the cooling lasers on the lithium D1 transition. It involves the construction of a lithium vapor cell and the development of a saturated absorption laser spectroscopy (SALS) apparatus. SALS is a two beam method which exploits the saturation of atomic transitions due to the absorption of light to produce a Doppler free signal. It enables optical access to the precise transition frequency of lithium-6 gas. The lasers, stabilized by the SALS, can then be used to efficiently trap and cool atoms to degeneracy.

Public policies often assume that engaging in a criminal behavior is purely a personal choice. However, psychoanalytic theorists such as Sigmund Freud attribute criminal behavior in later life to childhood development. Policymakers must consider the inextricable link between early life experiences and criminal behavior when addressing crime prevention and criminal justice reform. Prior research often fails to consider the total life experience of criminal offenders. This study uses individual level data from the Child Development Supplement (CDS) of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) to test whether negative early life experiences can predict future criminal behavior. If confirmed my research will suggest that public policies focusing on child development may be one of the best ways to reduce future crime, in addition to their other benefits .

There is enduring fascination with the so-called heretic 18th dynasty pharaoh Akhenaten, whose unusual iconography has prompted questions about the truth behind these depictions, genetics or aesthetics. His implementation of total religious reform during his reign, ridding Egypt of its gods for a monotheistic devotion to “Aten”, set him apart from the traditional rulers of this time. I am primarily interested in the New Kingdom period spanning the 18th and 19th Dynasties. My research looks at rediscovering Ancient Egypt during the “golden age” of excavation and exploration at the turn of the 20th century, specifically an analysis of Tomb KV55. I will examine primary sources of Egyptologists working at this time under the sponsorship of Theodore Davis who financed the earliest excavations in the Valley of the Kings, through the diary of his companion, Emma B. Andrews. The EBA diary will be a vital source of first-hand accounts of these discoveries and the hypotheses these Egyptologists held at the time of the discovery of the Tomb of Akhenaten. Specifically my methodology will be focused on using Omeka, an open-source digital collection and access platform that allows users to create online collections and exhibits to display scholarship. This way, I will be able to interactively present my research through a digital humanities medium. My KV55 exhibit will feature my research detailing pdfs, maps, articles, contemporary accounts, images, artifacts, etc. My study will be the first test of the application of the EBA project texts for recreating the personal history of this archeological endeavor, and with a comparative look at contemporary research on KV55, I hope to answer why 20th century Egyptologists held the hypotheses that they did, how they came about, and its broader implications on Egyptology and the archeology of the region.

Properties of granular material control sediment transport in rivers, slip on faults, and landslide movement. This study focuses on granular avalanches on scree deposits, which are accumulations of course debris commonly found at the base of steep cliffs. The central aim is to determine how force chains and grain size control the size and effective friction angle of granular avalanches. We hypothesize that as force chains increase in length relative to grain size, avalanche size increases, and effective friction angle decreases. To test this hypothesis in a controlled, laboratory setting, we use an avalanche box, which consists of a split platform with one side designed to drop incrementally, a high speed camera used to document the size and shape of granular avalanches, and a clinometer used to measure the incline of the granular piles. In each experiment, we slowly lower one side of the box, documenting changes in drop elevation, slope angle, and the sizes and locations of avalanches. In agreement with previous studies, we find that longer force chains tend to trigger larger granular avalanches at lower effective friction angles than shorter force chains. We will test these laboratory results in the field in the Columbia River Gorge, northwestern United States, where scree accumulations at the base of basalt cliffs have decimeter-scale grain sizes and range in length from 30 to 200 meters. We will measure the length and slope of the scree formations, and anticipate that scree deposits that are small relative to their average grain size will attain steeper slopes due to higher effective friction angles as seen in the laboratory experiments. Using avalanche size and friction angle data will bring us closer to predicting where, when and how large granular avalanches occur.

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a problematic disorder that affects every aspect of the individual’s life. Effective therapy for BPD is necessary for the individual to live a healthy and successful life. Research is continuously being conducted to find effective forms of therapy for patients with borderline personality disorder. The current literature review provides a detailed account of research that has been conducted on two different forms of therapy for patients with borderline personality disorder. The research provides evidence that both dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) and cognitive analytic therapy (CAT) may be effective forms of therapy for BPD patients. Although both forms of therapy have different characteristics, they both focus on changing the individual’s behavior. In current research both DBT and CAT were compared to other types of therapy. Overall both forms of therapy provided effective outcomes for all participants. Future research could perhaps focus on the comparison between both DBT and CAT on its use for BPD to obtain insight in to which is most effective and what about the type of therapy makes it more effective.

Oregon is looking to enact a new senate bill which gives state police officers the ability to seize guns from convicted domestic violence offenders, as well as people with active restraining orders. This is already a federal law but not a state law, thus it is not actively enforced by state officials. Despite all these efforts, the majority of homicides involving intimate partners are a result of gun violence. Researchers use these data to advocate for limitations on gun accessibility for domestic violence perpetrators, but do not address whether federal gun confiscation laws have caused a substantial decrease in intimate partner violence rates. Therefore, I ask is there a relationship between weapon possession and homicidal and/or non-homicidal acts of intimate partner violence. Also, to what extent have federal gun seizure laws achieved the goal of alleviating intimate partner violence? Using both archival criminal justice research and data, I examined whether there is any difference in the prevalence of intimate partner violence between people with and without ownership or possession of a gun or other firearms. Because a lack of gun possession and immediate access could be overcome by individuals who are sufficiently motivated to obtain access to a gun, I predict that my review of the literature will show that federal laws have had minimal effect on homicidal incidents and no effect on non-homicidal incidents. Additionally, I anticipate to find that there is no difference in the prevalence of intimate partner violence between people with and without access to weapons. Gun policy is a very controversial issue, so research is the best approach to substantiate the necessity of gun seizure statutes. The findings from my review will give insight into whether gun confiscation laws are a practical and effective means of alleviating intimate partner violence, or rather if other measures need to be considered.

The fossil record provides the unique opportunity to analyze mammal communities across habitats over an evolutionary timescale. Such analysis requires well-sampled deposits rich in small mammals such as those preserved in the Oligocene-aged Cabbage Patch beds of western Montana (ca. 29 to 25 million years ago [Ma]). Previous work on these beds has shown evidence for dramatic changes in the mammalian fauna through time, possibly in response to environmental change. This pattern has emerged from a series of fossil assemblages from successive horizons, snapshots through time of the mammalian fauna of the area. I am exploring how accurately one assemblage may represent the mammalian fauna of its time by comparing two sets of fossil taxa from Cabbage Patch that are very similar in age (ca. 28 Ma) and geographically close (less than 1 km apart). The two assemblages, adding up to over 165 fossils identified at the species level, preserve similar numbers of mammalian taxa both at the generic and species levels. They differ, however, in the relative abundance of the taxa present. Based on the ecology of the mammalian taxa inferred from the morphology of the fossils and comparisons with extant relatives, one assemblage is rich in forest-dwelling mammals (e.g., mouse-deer), while the other includes many mammals associated with riparian habitats (e.g., beavers). These differences in the composition of the two fossil datasets suggest distinct environmental settings consistent with the sedimentological characteristics of each assemblage (floodplain vs. riparian). These results suggest that the environment in which the animals lived and their remains were deposited and preserved contributed significantly to the composition of the fossil assemblages. This work supports the need for an isotaphonomic study of the Cabbage Patch beds and emphasizes the importance of considering preservation in analyses of fossil communities more broadly.

Infrequent high-magnitude releases of dammed water, known as outburst floods, are important to understand due to their hazard to humans and property, as well as their role in shaping landscapes. This importance increases as glacial outburst floods become more frequent in mountainous regions due to climate change and glacial melting, yet numerical models that simulate flood hydraulics and predict hazard have not been rigorously evaluated in mountainous terrain. The 2000 Yigong dam-break-flood in the Eastern Himalaya of Tibet and India is the largest, best documented opportunity to ground truth flood simulations with observations. In this study the flood trimline (high water marks) was mapped to compare to the inundation of Yigong flood simulated using 2D shallow water numerical model. Trimline position was identified by vegetation change observed in two kinds of remote sensing data, GoogleEarth and Landsat imagery. Post-2000 GoogleEarth imagery was used in the southern part of the study region (India), with a total distance of 564 m of trimline being confidently mapped. Results show that mapped trimline positions match the numerical model predictions well. The GoogleEarth imagery also showed the positions of landslides triggered by the flood, indicating the spatial distribution of erosion and landscape modification caused by the flood. Preliminary analysis of 2001 Landsat 7 imagery suggests better resolution and location accuracy for trimline mapping than GoogleEarth, particularly in the Northern region of the study area (Tibet). The most notable benefit of Landsat analysis is the ability to quantitatively isolate vegetation change using specific band widths, thus eliminating subjective interpretation of imagery by the analyst. The good match of mapped trimlines and simulated high water marks validates the numerical model in this region. Our results suggest this modeling approach is promising and applicable to evaluating impacts of floods on hazard and landscape change in other mountainous regions.

What role does the spatial distribution of trees within a conifer forest have on seed production and seedling dynamics of Tsuga heterophylla (Western hemlock)? This question is important to understanding how climate change may cause this species to respond to climate change, given that tree seedling recruitment strongly influences population dynamics. To answer this question, we examined seed and seedling dynamics relative to adult trees in the Wind River Dynamics Forest Plot (WA). Specifically, we collected seeds from 40 seed traps located within 20x20 meter quadrats within the Wind River plot – with seed trap contents sorted by species and quality (viable vs. unfilled, not viable). We also surveyed seedling densities (1st year germinants) at seedling quadrats adjacent to each seed trap. We next compared seed densities (viable and total) and seedling densities to the abundance (basal area) of trees 20 meters from seed trap / seedling quadrat pairs, the average distance between trees in each quadrat, and species richness and evenness. I hypothesize that total seed production will be greater with increased basal area, but that there might be a decrease in the number of viable Western Hemlock seeds (due to resource competition). Similarly, seedling recruitment should increase with seed input, but recruitment rates decline with density (density-dependence). I additionally predict that the number of filled seeds (total viable seed production) will increase with increasing species richness and evenness, as species diversity has been shown to have a positive impact on productivity. Continued measurement of seed and seedling dynamics in the Wind River plot is planned for many years, which will allow for a better understanding of the patterns in forest dynamics and forest recruitment, particularly with the possibility of climate change.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder observable in 1/68 individuals. Those with ASD experience marked social and communication impairments. Deficits in pragmatic language skills are often associated with ASD, and this deficiency can generate social anxiety, lower self-esteem , and reduce social acceptance among peers. Group intervention research on socialization skills for children with ASD has been conducted with promising results. However, it is unknown if participation in team sports or involvement with formal group organizations is related to more social motivation, better social ability, or stronger social-communication skills. Participants included children with typical development (n=20) or a diagnosis of ASD (n=20), between the ages of 5 and 22 years. Parents completed the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), and rated their child on involvement with friends, sports, and group organizations and their overall social problems. Child participants also completed a 20 minute interview with a clinician. Diagnosis-blind coders used the Pragmatic Rating Scale-Modified (PRS-M) to assess verbal and nonverbal social communication. Analyses (analysis of variance) will be used to compare reported group involvement, pragmatic language skills, and measures of social problems in ASD and TD participants. The relationship between measures of social competence and group involvement will be assessed via correlations. We expected that children with ASD will spend less time with friends, and in group activities (both sports activities and formal organizations). Children with ASD will also have poorer pragmatic language ability and increased social problems compared to the TD group. We hypothesized that for both TD and ASD groups, group involvement would be associated with better social-communication skills (pragmatic language ability) and fewer social problems. This study may provide evidence to support the use of formalized group engagement to provide socialization benefits for children with ASD.

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) affects more than 16 million persons in the U.S. However, due to inconsistent diagnostic criteria, MCI is frequently under diagnosed which is problematic because MCI predisposes individuals to several morbidities. Using accurate screening tools is the first step in addressing this problem. Therefore, the purpose of this project is to assess if scores on a screening tool (the Memory Impairment Screen-Telephone; MIS-T) correlate with those from a validated cognitive test (the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery; CANTAB). The project uses secondary analysis of data collected in a study looking at whether cognitive training decreases fall risk in older adults. Initially, participants will be screened over the phone using the MIS-T, and given a score representing cognitive level and deficit. If the participant qualifies for the study, data will be collected using the CANTAB, assessing cognitive functioning in cognitive areas such as reaction time, processing speed and planning. I will use the original sores from the MIS-T, and compare them to these baseline sub scores from the CANTAB. Correlations between the scores on the MIS-T and sub scores on the CANTAB will be completed and the individual comparisons presented graphically. Based on the literature, it appears that the MIS-T may be more useful in identifying dementia rather than overall cognitive functioning. Therefore, scores on the MIS-T may not be predictive of all the sub scores on the CANTAB. The results for this study are important, because if they suggest that the MIS-T is not predictive of scores on the CANTAB, then it may not be the best screening tool to use, specifically when screening and assessing for MCI. On the other hand, if scores on the MIS-T are predictive of scores on the CANTAB, then it would be an appropriate screening tool for identifying and quantifying MCI.
 

The social climate on lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgendered (LGBT) has shifted with survey data showing that people are becoming more accepting of LGBT across a number of settings. The emergence of LGBT affirming ministries has produced leaders whose unique experiences add to the understanding of contemporary LGBT community life. In this phenomenological study, nine semi-structured interviews were conducted with gay and lesbian Christian leaders across the United States. Preliminary analysis reveals a developing sense of pride, social justice, and optimism in this community. One implication of this study is the need to move beyond negative constructs to explore what makes this community vibrant, dynamic and resilient in order to inform current counseling and health psychology practices.

Chapman Elementary in Portland, OR was identified by USA Today as being in the 2nd percentile of schools in the nation for poor air quality. ESCO Corporation, the metals foundry identified in the report as the leading contributor to the poor air quality at Chapman, currently meets its Title V permit and reports these permitted emissions to the EPA’s Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) program. The USA Today ranking was based on the EPA Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators (RSEI) model using this TRI data. However, these models are based on emissions from permits and are not necessarily reflective of actual emissions. To assess actual emissions, two MiniVol Tactical Air Samplers were placed 1km from the facility at Chapman Elementary to sample according to the EPA six-day monitoring schedule for one year. The MiniVol is an inexpensive and mobile solution for collecting particulate matter that can be analyzed for heavy metals. A meteorological station was placed at Chapman School to record temperature, pressure, wind-speed and wind-direction to determine when emissions could be traced to ESCO Corporation. Ogawa NO2 samplers were placed at various points around the Chapman neighborhood to assess air flow in the surrounding area. Data collected from this study measure levels of PM2.5 mass, manganese, and eight other heavy metals of most concern (As, Cd, Co, Cr, Hg, Ni, Pb, Se). In order to further assess human interaction with urban and industrial air pollution, a mobile application of the EPA Odor Diaries was developed to document real-time resident odor detection and location. We will conduct future analysis comparing the accuracy of predictions from atmospheric dispersion models such as RSEI with data collected from this study. Results from this study were disseminated to the community and appropriate agencies to inform policy initiatives in public education and exposure reduction.

The development of new drugs is essential for human health. Approximately 40-60% of all currently prescribed drugs target G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs), essential membrane proteins which mediates cell-cell communication. Commonly used GPCR drugs include anti-histamines and opioids. My project investigates the cysteinyl-leukotriene 2 receptor (Cys-LTR₂) - a primary regulator of inflammation and cardiovascular system function. Cys-LTR₂ pathophysiological role is comparably less studied than its isoform Cys-LTR₁. Locally produced leukotrienes activate the Cys-LTR₂ which consequently enhances vascular permeability in response to invading pathogens. Cys-LTR₂ allows for the migration of immune T-cells from the circulatory system to the site of infection, thus novel small molecules targeting this receptor may be useful in treating diseases such as systemic sepsis and atherosclerosis – both leading causes of death worldwide. Interestingly, the Cys-LTR₂ contains a protein-protein interaction domain termed a PDZ ligand. Targeting GPCR-PDZ protein interactions represents the leading edge of pharmaceutical research and pushes for the development of novel small molecules which can either selectively enhance or disrupt this interaction. As a result, there’s the possibility to enhance therapeutic efficacy and minimize side effects relative to traditional orthosteric medicines. More than 150 human proteins contain a PDZ domain which may recognize the Cys-LTR₂ PDZ ligand and potentially affect the pharmacological and signaling properties of the receptor. We recently discovered in unbiased proteomic screens that the Cys-LTR₂ interacts with four different PDZ proteins in human cells, suggesting this receptor exists as a dynamic macromolecular complex. My working hypothesis is the Cys-LTR₂ forms a single macromolecular complex containing all four PDZ proteins rather than four different individual complexes. My long-term goal is to determine the functional purpose of each PDZ interacting protein for Cys-LTR₂ signaling in cells by using cutting edge molecular biology and functional assays.

Despite advances in mental health screening and treatment, suicide remains a problem on U.S. college campuses. Suicide is the second leading cause of death in youth ages 15-24 and the suicide rate is 15% higher in Washington State compared to the national average. Husky Health and Hope (HHH) is a suicide prevention initiative at the University of Washington (UW) with broad goals for creating a cohesive suicide prevention program on campus. One HHH component is gatekeeper training, a method to help faculty and staff learn to identify individuals at high risk for suicide and refer them for help. I will help assess the effectiveness of three different types of gatekeeper training. Study participants will be recruited from interested UW departments. Individuals will be randomly assigned to one of three training options: online training type I, online training type II, and in-person training; all will complete 12-question pre- and post-tests to evaluate their knowledge, skills, and abilities regarding suicide prevention. I chose three questions from this survey to analyze further because they assess the participant’s intention and confidence towards taking action (or not) when they become aware of a student in mental health crisis. I will analyze differences between pre-test and post-test responses and compare data by other identifiers such as role at UW and years of service. The results of this study will help determine which type of gatekeeper training is most effective for UW employees in a variety of roles. While the scope of my student research will not allow for more long-term data analysis, in the future, study participants will complete another post-test at three or six months to assess retention of training material. This will address one of the knowledge gaps in gatekeeper training, long-term retention of suicide prevention knowledge and skills.

At Woodland Park Zoo, a subset of human visitors interact with captive orangutans in potentially enriching and mutually beneficial ways. This study seeks to describe the contents of these interactions, as well as the benefit of engaging in them for both humans and orangutans. Hypotheses include the expectation that interactions often involve visual stimulation and opportunities for orangutan choice-making, and that engaging in interaction positively changes visitor perceptions of orangutans. Over the course of six months, data was collected in the form of observations of interactions, interviews of humans who interact with orangutans, and logging of zoo visitor comments. Preliminary results indicate a range of types of interactions, including demonstrations of painting or drawing and displays of contents of bags or pockets. Results also indicate the importance of choice, control, and individual preferences as a motivator for orangutans, and the importance of connecting with another species as a motivator for humans. Implications include the possible promotion within zoos of mutually beneficial modes of interaction between zoo visitors and captive primates, as well as research on whether forms of enrichment which aim to allow captive primates to exert some type of control over zoo visitors are effective in lowering animal stress levels.  

The highly regulated cardiac differentiation pathway of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) coordinates a myriad of complex events leading to the correct formation of cardiomyocytes, or heart muscle cells. Suppression of Wnt/β-catenin signaling in hESCs permits the cell fate transition from lateral plate mesoderm (LPM) to the specification of cardiomyocytes. Through temporal chromatin dynamics and gene expression analyses during the directed differentiation of wild type hESCs, we have shown that shisa2 (a known Wnt inhibitor) is upregulated and identified shisa2 as a potential delineator of mesoderm into cardiovascular progenitor cells, which give rise to cardiomyocytes. Furthermore, during early development in chicken embryos, Cshisa (the chicken homologue) transcripts are localized to the LPM, where cardiac tissue specification originates (Filipe et al., 2006). We aimed to discover shisa2’s role in human cardiogenesis by examining shisa2 knockout (KO) hESCs differentiated to cardiomyocytes. We knocked shisa2 out using a genomic editing tool - the CRISPR-Cas9 system – a nuclease that causes insertions or deletions to the targeted gene, shutting it off. By analyzing the results of qRT-PCR, flow cytometry, karyotyping, attrition rates, and physiological measurements in these shisa2 KO mutants, we expect to find that shisa2 is indispensible in cardiogenesis. We argue that shisa2 plays a critical role in proper cardiogenesis by inhibiting Wnt signaling and specifying lineage commitment of cardiomyocyte development. Identifying shisa2’s exact effect on cardiac differentiation gives researchers a more complete cardiac developmental pathway, bolstering basic scientific knowledge and potentially yielding more effective therapies to repair infarcted tissue.

Permeability is a rock property that significantly affects fluid flow in porous media. The ability to accurately estimate permeability from well logs in oil and gas wells where core samples are unavailable is a critical component of the reservoir characterization process. However, permeability estimates cannot be quantitatively obtained from well logs. As a result, it is common to use statistical regression techniques to estimate permeability from commonly available sources of data such as well logs. In this study, we explore the use of a smoothed Generalized Additive Model (GAM) on well log and core data from a well drilled in a carbonate reservoir. Carbonate reservoirs can display complex fluid flow characteristics, which makes it difficult for obtaining reliable estimates of permeability from traditional methods such as multivariate linear regression. GAMs provide a nonparametric technique that extends the application of linear regression by replacing the linear function used in linear regression with additive smoothing functions. One of the strengths of GAM over linear regression is that it provides a fit for highly nonlinear data and data that contains a significant amount of noise in the independent variables. The smoothed GAM applied in this study uses penalized regression splines to fit the data and was performed using R, a statistical programming language. The results are promising and show that the smoothed GAM can provide accurate estimates of permeability. The estimated permeability displays consistency with the measured permeability, has a high Pearson correlation coefficient, and a minimized mean squared prediction error. The smoothed GAM is computationally efficient, provided a method for quantifying uncertainty, and produced reliable estimates for our data set.

In order to detect the products of high-energy particle collisions produced at accelerators like the large hadron collider, specialized sensors are required. At a basic level these sensors are not so dissimilar from what you would find in a digital camera, just tuned differently. In order to control these sensors, specific frameworks are developed to configure and gather data from the sensor as rapidly as possible. Recently, efforts have been made to create a more general-purpose framework, Basil, which can be used on multiple sensors. This research focuses on adding to the Basil framework to make it compatible with our development board, SEABAS, and with T3MAPS, a sensor prototype we are testing here at the University of Washington. T3MAPS is cheaper to produce than current sensors, and is also more resistant to radiation. Both qualities are highly desired at the Large Hadron Collider’s detectors, which use many thousands of sensors to track particles. T3MAPS must go through the same process, using the Basil framework to construct commands and gather data from the sensor. By using a general-purpose framework like Basil we are able to make relevant speed comparisons to other sensors using the same hardware platform. Currently, Basil is 90% functional on our development board and has been conformed to work with the Basil framework on other boards. After Basil is fully functional on SEABAS, T3MAPS will be compared to other sensors currently used in the Large Hadron Collider.

With rising air temperatures, melting rates of polar ice are increasing. Black carbon (BC) is a troubling particulate created by incomplete combustion of fossil fuels, biofuels and biomass. BC has a very low albedo compared to natural particulates making it a very efficient absorber of solar radiation. When BC is deposited in the cryosphere, albedo is decreased. A significant enhancing of solar heating further increases meltwater production leading to enhanced global sea levels. BC deposition on sea ice enhances the melting and thinning of the ice shortening its life span covering the polar oceans. By looking at the spatial pattern of snow albedo in Polar Regions, trouble spots of BC in the cryosphere can be identified. We expect that BC will be found downwind of industrial sources. A spatial pattern of BC is inferred by the spatial pattern of snow albedo and compared to the expected pattern of BC deposition. Snow albedo will be derived from satellite products provided by the National Snow and Ice Data Center, Boulder, CO. The challenge is to differentiate between processes that produce perhaps similar particulate loadings but different concentrations of BC. Here we rely on site specific studies on BC concentrations and industrial processes. Atmospheric circulation transports BC into the Arctic and is affected by the strength and location of the polar front in relation to the North Atlantic oscillation. Due to less disruption of circulation patterns and decreased land mass surrounding Antarctica, we expect less BC to be found in the Antarctic atmosphere. Assessments of BC have been made through direct observational data and models of the Arctic region. Our study will determine the extent of BC in the Arctic and sources contributing to its appearance in the cryosphere.

2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) is a widespread environmental contaminant that elicits toxicity through the aryl hydrocarbon receptor. We have recently discovered that exposure to TCDD exacerbates fibrogenesis in a mouse model of experimental liver fibrosis elicited by chronic administration of carbon tetrachloride (CCl4). The goal of this project is to test the hypothesis that TCDD treatment increases liver damage in CCl4-treated animals through changes in microRNA (miRNA). C57Bl/6 mice will be treated for 8 weeks with a 10% CCl4 solution. TCDD (20 ug/kg) will be administered by gavage during the last 2 weeks of the experiment. miRNA will be isolated from the liver and analyzed using quantitative, real-time PCR. We hypothesize that increased fibrosis in TCDD/CCl4-treated mice will correlate with decreased hepatic expression of miRNA-122, the absence of which is reportedly associated with liver fibrosis and steatohepatitis. Results from this project are predicted to advance our understanding of mechanisms of TCDD toxicity and shed light on how exposure to this environmental contaminant may impact miRNA expression in the liver.

There exists minimal understanding of domestic past life, for women, as they performed mundane tasks of everyday; this project explores the tools used for washing clothing and will provide insight into the lives of individuals who used them, as well as give a greater idea of how the evolution of these tools changed their way of life. Using the Prownian Method, an interpretive analysis will be completed for approximately a dozen artifacts selected from the Idaho State Historical Society's collection. This method based on the works of Jules David Prown, consists of multiple steps; these include a thorough description of the artifact, making deductions based on description, creating hypotheses about what the artifact signifies, and testing those hypotheses, which will then culminate in the completed analysis. This analysis will help to address such questions as; how was class status affected by these changes, were women comfortable using this newer technology, and where did the time saved with these advanced tools get reallocated? In addition, I will create a blueprint and budget to determine how best to showcase the selected pieces, while maintaining the integrity of the artifacts. Through the study and presentation of these artifacts, the hope is that an interest in this history can be ignited for coming generations of scholars leading to the long term care, preservation, and future research of these tangible pieces of the past.

Radar can be used to detect faint movements through dense material, map terrain through dense cloud cover miles above the earth, and calculate the distance from a point to an object. While regarded as a mature technology, Radar is by no means a dead field; current research includes detecting motion through walls, for search and rescue and law enforcement applications, detecting landmines, and consumer vehicle collision detection. We present here our work on the construction and testing of an extremely flexible yet inexpensive Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) microwave radar, based on MIT open courseware, which is suitable for simultaneous range finding, synthetic-aperture imaging, Doppler-shift velocity determination and measurement of microwave absorptance of materials. Our Radar is constructed from off-the-shelf RF components, waveguide antennas made from recycled coffee cans, and interfaces with a laptop PC through its sound card, allowing us to perform digital signal processing and software visualization.

Chlorine is one of the most cost effective and accessible water disinfectants used worldwide, but a number of important waterborne pathogens are resistant to chorine treatment. Recent work has led to the development of a simple, new technique for water disinfection that utilizes solar illumination of chlorine in water for the in situ production of the potent oxidants ozone and hydroxyl radical, which are effective for inactivating certain microbial agents that are resistant to chlorine itself. However, the effect of this process on formation of harmful disinfection-byproducts (DBPs) – which are produced when chlorine reacts with natural organic matter (NOM) in treated water supplies – has not yet been explored in detail. This research focuses on quantifying the formation of two important classes of DBPs – trihalomethanes (THMs) and haloacetic acids (HAAs) – during exposure of chlorine-containing waters to sunlight. Test tubes are filled with 2-8 mg/L of a commercially-available NOM isolate and 2-8 mg/L of chlorine in buffered water and then placed in a solar simulator for 0, 15, 30, or 45 minutes. Once the samples reach their target irradiation time, they are allowed to react in the dark until the cumulative exposure of the solution to chlorine, or CT value (where CT =∫[Concentration] dt), reaches 400mg/L*min. Once the desired CT is reached, excess chlorine is quenched using sodium thiosulfate, and DBPs in collected samples are then liquid-liquid extracted, treated with acidic methanol (to convert HAAs to their methyl esters), neutralized with sodium bicarbonate, and quantified by gas chromatography with electron capture detection. This experimental procedure is being run under 24 different conditions selected to investigate how DBP yields are influenced by changes in chlorine and NOM concentrations, pH, alkalinity, and bromide. Results will be used to identify treatment conditions leading to optimal disinfection efficiency and minimal DBP formation.

The world’s population is aging in a rapid and unprecedented manner. According to a WHO report in 2012, from 2000 to 2030, the number of people aged 65 and over will double and their health needs will also increase substantially. Unfortunately, most of older adults have various health needs and as a world, we are not ready yet to fulfill all their needs. According to numerous studies, aging in place is strongly desired by the vast majority of older adults. This presentation will detail research that identifies housing-related features and barriers that affect older adults’ ability to successfully age in place. This research project will evaluate three key elements of aging in place: the physical environment, the social environment, and services that affect older adults’ ability to age in place. To answer the research question, a qualitative case study method will be used by analyzing several data sources: archival files, interviews, and focus groups. The participants will be recruited through staff from Institute on Aging at Portland State University by communication with board members and Portland’s north and northeast residents via e-mail, print flyers, and through verbal communication. Between 5-10 participants aged 65 and over who live in north and northeast of Portland will be interviewed, including participants considered to be young-old (65-74), middle-old (75-85), and old-old (85+). As a result of this project, the features and barriers identified that affect older adults’ ability to age in place will be shared with Portland-based stakeholders in an effort to improve the ability of older adults to successfully age in place.

Pre-eclampsia, or pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH) is a major clinical problem that affects about 8% of women of childbearing age. Compared to normotensive pregnant women, those with PIH have ~5 times increase risk of maternal mortality. The current drug of choice for treating PIH is labetalol, which is a mixed adrenergic receptor (AR) antagonist. ARs are G-Protein Coupled Receptors (GPCRs) that respond to norepinepherin. Unfortunately, not all patients respond to labetalol, which raises questions about its use for treating PIH, possibly due to changes in adrenergic receptor expression and activity during pregnancy. The overarching goal of my research is to aid in the development of a pre-therapeutic diagnostic test to predict the efficacy of labetalol for treating PIH. At the conclusion of these studies, I will know for the first time precisely which AR subtypes are expressed on human lymphocytes; agonist potencies for stimulating these responses; and antagonist functional affinities for blocking these responses.These studies will help guide future experiments aimed at determining if lymphocyte AR function correlates with labetalol efficacy for treating pregnancy induced hypertension.

The purpose of this research is to explore the impact sexual objectification has on self-perception and participant willingness to engage in risky behaviors. I am focusing on identifying the negative impact sexual objectification has on student self-perceptions, as well as explore the risky sexual behaviors these individuals might indulge in. Online surveys will be distributed to self-selected general psychology students and data will be selected using Qualtrics. I hypothesize that students who report exposure to sexual objectification in media images have a negative self-perception and are more willing to engage in risky sexual behaviors. This study will provide needed insight into how college students perceive themselves, as well as explore individual participant willingness to indulge in risky sexual behaviors. 

 Worldwide plastic production was 288 million tons in 2012 (Plastics Europe). It is estimated that by 2025 around 220 million tons of plastics will be discarded annually. These plastics can be categorized as macro- (>200mm), meso- (4.76mm-200mm) and micro- (0.33mm-4.75mm). Microplastics have inundated the global marine environment with negative effects on organisms that may ingest them. However, very little research has been done in fresh water environments to analyze the concentrations and effects of these particles. The Snohomish River in western Washington was sampled to quantify both its microplastic load as well as its contribution to Puget Sound microplastics. Samples from the river were collected using a 300um net suspended in the current and quantified with a flow meter. Twenty-four sites were sampled to evaluate the impact of population density on microplastics load. The water samples were dried and processed with hydrogen peroxide to reduce the amount of organic material; microplastics were then separated and catalogued using a dissecting microscope. Preliminary results have found microplastics near the head of the river, where industrial and city runoff is a negligible factor. It is expected that as the Snohomish runs through towns and industrial areas microplastic introduction will increase, ultimately resulting in the Snohomish being a significant source of microplastics to the Puget Sound. Further research needs to be done in other fresh water bodies to catalog the sources of these harmful particles.

Does diversity between congressional members contribute to declining productivity within the legislative branch? I will examine whether members' diversity in terms of gender, ethnicity and wealth impacts their decision-making process when voting on the floor. I theorize that representatives of historically underrepresented populations in Congress (minorities and women) tend to vote more progressively than their white male counterparts, other things equal. To test this, I identified diverse members and examined their congressional voting patterns. With the addition of women, minorities, wealthy and poor members, Congress is an overall better representation of the public because of their different backgrounds and needs. My methods include the following: quantitative and regression anaylsis. I collected outside datasets of members names and congressional voting patterns from 2003-2013. From here, I identitifed members who were considered diverse and recorded for them giving them a "1" for diverse and "0" for non-diverse. After collecting and compilling this data, I then used regression analysis to examine the relationship between members voting patterns and their diverse factor(s) to see if these factors suggest that this could contribute to how they vote. I expect to find that the poorer, female and minority members vote more progressively, after controlling for members' previous careers, party and district ideologies. This is important because in recent years Congress has seen an increasing amount of diversity and I expect these results will enhance the current understandings of increasing congressional polarization and declining productivity. 

Patients with diabetes face unique risks during surgery, particularly factors that would elevate their blood glucose level, as this increases their risk for a number of post-operative complications. Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) is a specific protocol carried out before, during, and after surgery to hasten the recovery of patients post-operatively. A local Seattle hospital will start implementing a version of ERAS in the abdominal surgery population in which a carbohydrate-rich drink is administered directly before surgery begins. This aids recovery for patients but may increase risk for complications in patients with diabetes, and in particular is a concern for patients not yet identified as having diabetes. Currently, glycosylated hemoglobin (HgA1c) is a test to identify diabetes but is not a standard part of the pre-operative protocols for most surgeries in patients with undiagnosed diabetes. According to the CDC, of the 29.1 million diabetics in the U.S., 8.1 million of them are undiagnosed. The goals of this project are to determine (1) what proportion of the ERAS-qualifying sample population have undiagnosed diabetes, pre-diabetes, or experienced post-op stress hyperglycemia, and (2) how often each sub-group required post-operative insulin treatment. The study design used will be a retrospective analysis. The sample will be drawn from the anonymized medical records of 226 abdominal surgery patients who fit the parameters for ERAS and underwent HgA1c testing within 3 months of their surgery and who had blood glucose results during their hospitalization. It is anticipated that there will be a significant number of potential ERAS patients who would be included in ERAS inappropriately due to their unrecognized diabetes status. This project may lead to a modified implementation of ERAS. Secondarily, increased diabetes education and monitoring might be justified for ERAS patients with HgA1c greater than 5.7. Future research endeavors might include evaluating the effectiveness of the ERAS protocol without the carbohydrate-rich drink and the impact of diabetic education on diabetes detection and control in ERAS patients.

The Hippo-YAP Pathway is a cell-signaling pathway that controls organ size and growth through regulating cell proliferation and apoptosis. Upon signaling activation, the LATS1 and LATS2 genes inhibit the protein activity of YAP, a transcription factor that activates expression of target genes essential for promoting cell growth. Several studies have implicated a tumor suppressive role of LATS1 and LATS2 in a subset of cancers. However, we have yet to characterize the effect of these genes on tumor initiation and progression of embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma (ERMS), one of the most common and lethal cancers of soft tissue in children. Using the recently developed CRISPR-Cas9 genome engineering technology, we have developed a system for efficient gene targeting in which to target LATS1 and LATS2 individually and simultaneously in ERMS to interrogate their gene functions. Through various cell-based assays we will be able to determine the effects of LATS1 and LATS2 loss-of-function on various aspects of ERMS tumorigenesis including tumor growth, differentiation, and apoptosis. The results of this research will provide a better understanding of how these genes act as tumor suppressors and the magnitude of their role in tumorigenesis could identify opportunities for new drug therapies and cancer treatments.

Are certain types of climate change policy more effective than others? In 2008 the federal government of the United States tried but failed to pass a comprehensive climate change policy. In response, some states have taken up the issue on their own. This has resulted in a diversity of state policies. There are currently no quantitative analyses of the impact of state climate change policies in reducing carbon emissions. I investigated whether existing polcies are effective and which appear to be the most effective. The results of this study will inform and assist policymakers with future climate change policy decisions.
 

Fires cause thousands of deaths and billions of dollars in damage each year in the US alone; CERBERUS (Community Extinguishing Robot for the Brisk and Expedited Restoration of Unexcited Space) is an autonomous firefighting robot designed to reduce human interaction with fires and significantly reducing transit time. CERBERUS does this by functioning without any human interaction and being located inside a building before the fire even starts. CERBERUS navigates a single floor of a building and attempts to douse the fire using an on-board portable fire extinguisher. After extinguishant release CERBERUS remains in position to aid firefighters in locating the source of the fire. Visual and audio alarms allow for building occupants to be alerted to CERBERUS’s presence, and are the main system in place for firefighters to locate CERBERUS. Planned incremental improvements include multi-level functionality or opening of blocked passageways.

Highly viscous and thixotropic silver nanoparticle-based inks can be used to print 3-dimensional conductive structures with applications ranging from printable spanning electrodes to antennas and strain gauges. However, tailoring the ink’s rheological properties to maximize thixotropy, while minimizing particle size to prevent clogging, remains problematic and limits minimum feature size. Most silver nanoparticle synthesis methods use polymeric capping agents to inhibit growth kinetics and agglomeration, but these capping agents can adversely affect the rheological properties at high shear rates and be chemically incompatible with certain polymer additives. Thus, there is motivation to adopt a ligand free, small molecule synthesis procedure, which would allow precise control of the ink’s rheological properties and nanoparticle size distribution. The decoupled synthesis approach can be used to tailor the rheology of the ink to any application, whether for highly viscous inks used in direct write assembly, or low viscosity inks used in roll to roll printing of transparent electrodes. Preliminary results show that heavy agglomeration occurs during nanoparticle synthesis due to extended synthesis time at elevated temperatures. These agglomerates rapidly precipitate out of solution, even when capping ligands have been reintroduced to the system after the synthesis is complete. Thus, we hope to optimize synthesis time and temperature to minimize agglomeration, while maximizing nanoparticle yield. In this way, a stable suspension of nanoparticles can be formed in the ink, preventing nozzle clogs and extending the shelf life of the ink; ultimately, producing a silver nanoparticle based conductive ink with rheological properties that can be engineered to meet the specifications of a wide range of applications.

Public investments in children are thought to benefit society by producing a healthy and productive workforce. However, in the race to produce competitive workers in the new international market, differing political approaches can result in variations in expenditures and disparities amongst children. In this research I analyze how overall childhood well-being differs between red states (states that voted for the Republican presidential candidate in two out of the last three elections) and blue states (states that voted for the Democratic presidential candidate in two out of the last three elections) to see if political ideologies are related to child outcomes. I also consider whether any differences between red states and blue states vary significantly for black and white youth. I create a barometer of child wellbeing using measures that are related to three dimensions of the well-being of children: (1) health (infant mortality, percent immunized and Medicaid expenditures), (2) educational achievement (high school dropout rate and education expenditure per pupil), and (3) economic security (percent of population below the poverty line, and state expenditure on welfare programs) to determine which political orientation is associated with better conditions for youth. I expect Blue states, or Democratic leaning states, to yield better scores of adolescent wellbeing due to their advocacy for a larger social safety net. Previous research has shown that blacks typically have worse health, lower educational attainment and less economic security than do whites. Therefore, I expect blacks to fare more poorly than whites on the barometer of child well-being. I have no hypothesis regarding whether the relationship between political orientation and child well-being differs significantly by race. I anticipate that my research will contribute to a more in-depth understanding of how different political outlooks influence the nation’s one of the most vulnerable populations--children. With the upcoming 2016 presidential race, this research is especially relevant.

As we age, the human body becomes increasingly susceptible to damage from internal and external factors. Aging is the greatest risk factor for most of the major causes of death in developed nations, including many neurodegenerative diseases, cardiovascular disease, and most forms of cancer. Identification and disruption of molecular mechanisms critical in the process of aging can inhibit the acquisition and progression of age-related pathologies. The compound honokiol, a component purified from magnolia, is shown to have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor, and neuroprotective properties in both in vitro and in vivo models. The goal of this research is to examine the effects of honokiol on aging and longevity, and to elucidate the molecular mechanisms associated with its effects, in the invertebrate model Caenorhabditis elegans. C. elegans is a particularly useful model for aging research due to its short lifespan of around twenty three days. In addition, they are non-pathogenic, reproduce rapidly, and share many fundamental genetic pathways with more complex organisms, including humans. In preliminary studies we have observed a significant lifespan extension in C. elegans treated with honokiol. The goal of this project is do further characterize the mechanisms of lifespan extension from honokiol. This will be accomplished initially through genetic epistasis analysis of honokiol in combination with known longevity pathways such as the insulin-IGF signaling (IIS) pathway, the hypoxic response pathway, and the dietary restriction pathway. These studies will generate hypotheses for future experiments in C. elegans and mouse models, and may ultimately contribute to therapies to delay the onset and progression of age-related diseases in people.

According to the World Health Organization, cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of mortality worldwide. When damaged, adult heart muscle has poor capability to repair itself due to a low regeneration potential of cardiomyocytes. The goal of this research is to engineer cardiac tissue constructs with improved electrical conductivity by doping them with carbon nanofibers (CNFs). CNFs have been proved to promote cell alignment and electrical signaling between cells by facilitating electron transfer of electroactive analytes. My hypothesis is that an increase in intracellular Ca2+ through better T-tubule formation would eventually lead to better calcium handling properties and excitation-contraction (EC) coupling. The first part of this project is to fabricate collagen and fibrin- based bioengineered human cardiac tissues using cardiomyocytes derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs). For this, I’m investigating various approaches to homogeneously disperse the CNFs in my cardiac constructs as they are typically observed to be hydrophobic. The second part of the project is to study the effect of electrical stimulation on the conductivity, Ca2+ signaling and maturation of cells within these constructs. This is done by electrically pacing the CNF-doped cardiac tissues at different frequencies and time intervals. I intend to study the mechanical and electrical properties of the constructs by taking active and passive force measurements, staining for several cell signaling and Ca2+ handling markers as well as through Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). I hope to improve the properties of these cardiac tissue constructs through enhanced transmission of electrical signals. These engineered cardiac tissues will then provide a better platform for therapeutic applications such as drug screening, disease modeling and cardiac repair.

Age related diseases are large drivers of mortality yet the aging process and the etiology of these diseases are not well understood and widely debated. Mitochondrial dysfunction has been implicated in some of these age related diseases, including cancer and Parkinson’s disease. The mitochondrial genome accumulates an even greater number of mutations with age than the nuclear genome which is thought to underlie the dysfunction in mitochondria. Mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS) have been proposed as the driver of mtDNA mutations but no definitive link has been made between ROS induced mutations and aging. However, current technologies can only detect relatively high prevalence mutations, present in about 2% or more of all mtDNA copies, and cannot detect low frequency mutations. Therefore it remains unclear if previously undetected low frequency mutations induced by ROS give rise to mtDNA mutations that drive the aging process. Our hypothesis is that with age mtDNA mutations will increase and the types of mutations will align with mutational signature induced by ROS. We developed a high fidelity next generation sequencing technology that we used to detect the mitochondrial mutational rate and signature in young and aged S. Cerevisiae. We isolated and fragmented DNA and prepared sequencing libraries to be analyzed by the high fidelity next generation DNA sequencing. Once sequenced, we compared the aged yeast mutational spectrum to established mutational signatures to assess the role of mtDNA mutations in aging. Understanding the mutational spectrum of mtDNA in young and aged yeast will help determine what role ROS and mutation accumulation play in aging yeast and can be more broadly applicable to other species.

Radio frequency integrated circuits (RFIC) are major components in enabling wireless communication. The RF inductor is integral to these applications but has traditionally suffered from low quality factors (i.e dissipative losses) and thus has had lower performance than off-chip discrete inductor components. Adding permalloy (80% Ni, 20% Fe), a soft-magnetic material, in integrated inductors enhances inductance and results in a higher quality factor, with frequencies exceeding 1GHz possible than is currently achievable with standard silicon processing. This makes it possible to use on-chip inductors for higher performance in RFICs such as cell phone RF transceivers that may otherwise require off-chip discrete inductors. Fabricating integrated inductors provides major advantages in that they would reduce component area and power consumptions of RFICs. In this work, integrated inductors are fabricated using a silicon-based integrated passive device technology that increases the copper interconnect thickness thereby dramatically reducing the parasitic resistance losses experienced when making inductors using semiconductor microfabrication processes. The inductor is formed by using multilayered thick resist patterned by ultraviolet light to form a plating mold. The mold is filled via copper electroplating and intentionally overplated beyond the top of the mold. Excess copper is then polished back. This process yields very low surface roughness of the copper and maintains the critical dimensions of the electrical traces, both of which are critical to RF circuit performance.  Additional process work involves electroplating thin film permalloy and evaluating its impact on alloy composition and RF circuit performance. To overcome eddy current losses and the skin depth effect, permalloy will be patterned in strips and dots with varying thicknesses. Dynamic testing with poled and unpoled electroplated permalloy will also be conducted to determine if these inductors can be integrated with complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) compatible circuits and maintain RFIC performance.

Onchocerciasis, or river blindness, is a neglected infectious disease caused by the parasitic nematode Onchocerca volvulus. The World Health Organization reports that onchocerciasis infects around 18 million people worldwide with 120 million more people at risk of infection. There is consequently great need for an onchocerciasis vaccine that can provide protective immunity to the 120 million individuals at risk of infection. The focus of this research has been the development of a plant-based vaccine against river blindness. The plant-based vaccine system involves molecular cloning the antigenic sequence of interest to the Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) coat protein and infecting Nicotiana benthamiana plants with the recombinant virus, resulting in viral replication of the vaccine protein. Because vaccine development using the plant-based vaccine system requires far less funding and resources relative to traditional methods of vaccine production, this system is a realistic model for the wide scale production and administration of vaccines. This research looked into the potential use of the large extracellular loop region of a tetraspanin protein (TSP LEL) and a region of an ALT-1 Onchocerca protein for use in a plant-based vaccine, as these proteins have been found to be abundantly expressed by the pathogenic agent. Bioinformatics databases (namely those on ExPASy) were utilized to catalog sequence-specific information on these proteins including structural characteristics, isoelectric points, regions of conservation, and post-translational modifications. Workable PCR primers for the molecular cloning of the sequences into the TMV CP were also developed. The long-term goal of this work is to use this information to express the TSP-9 LEL and ALT-1 epitope within the coat protein of a mock TMV virus for expression and expansion within N. benthamiana. In doing so, we hope to develop a cost-efficient vaccine for the prevention of river blindness.

Facioscapulohumeral dystrophy (FSHD) is a heritable neuromuscular disease characterized by muscle weakness and atrophy beginning in the face (“facio”), shoulder blades (“scapulo"), and upper arms (“humeral”). In healthy individuals, expression of the pathogenic Double Homeobox Domain-Containing Protein 4 (DUX4) is repressed. However, in individuals with FSHD, mutations result in de-repression of this gene in skeletal muscle cells. Consequently, the DUX4 protein is synthesized and able to activate its target genes, triggering the onset of muscle cell death. Previously, DUX4 expression could only be detected in fixed, antibody-stained FSHD muscle cells. In addition, because differentiated muscle cells contain many nuclei, it is difficult to observe which nuclei have been exposed to the DUX4 protein. We have cloned and tested three unique and previously described nuclear localization signals (NLSs), each bound to a DUX4-activated green fluorescent protein (GFP), in order to identify an optimized nuclear DUX4-activated reporter. In live FSHD cells, the DUX4 protein will activate the fluorescent reporter, allowing us to observe and study cells in which DUX4 is expressed. We used Polymerase Chain Reactions (PCRs) to amplify the three experimental NLS-GFP sequences, cloned each into an intermediary plasmid for sequencing, and then cloned each into a DUX4-activated lentiviral plasmid. We evaluated reporter brightness in transfected fibroblasts using flow cytometry, and analyzed the effectiveness of each NLS by comparing nuclear:cytoplasmic brightness ratios using fluorescence microscopy. Our findings identify an optimized nuclear GFP reporter, which will allow real-time detection of DUX4 expression in living cells. Use of this reporter will increase our understanding of the molecular mechanisms that result in FSHD by enabling the study of the consequences of DUX4 expression. Furthermore, this reporter will streamline approaches toward developing treatments in the future by indicating whether a pharmaceutical drug successfully prevented the DUX4 protein from altering the transcription of its target genes.

Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death worldwide. If the genes that regulate the heart are better understood, new therapies for congenital heart defects and for the repopulation of injured hearts with new tissue can be designed. Elastic microfibril interface located protein 2 (EMILIN2) is one potential gene involved in heart development. EMILIN2 was identified through genome-wide microarray (RNA expression), chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by deep sequencing (ChIP-Seq), and quantitative proteomics analysis over the course of human pluripotent stem cell differentiation into cardiomyocytes. Despite EMILIN2’s association with the heart, there is little research on its dynamic expression in early heart development. By using a CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing system to create emilin2 zebrafish mutants and observing how those zebrafish hearts develop, the role of EMILIN2 can be determined. CRISPR/Cas9 is an evolutionarily conserved genome editing system that can create frame shift mutations in a gene of interest. There are two components to this system (1) a guide RNA (gRNA) and (2) Cas9 endonuclease. Emilin2 gRNA recognizes the target DNA sequence via complimentary base pairing. The Cas9 endonuclease then cleaves the target sequence, resulting in a double stranded break, which is then repaired by non-homologous end joining. The emilin2 gRNA used here targeted the 5’ untranslated region in order to ensure complete knockout. In emilin2 mutants, there was an observed phenotypic difference when compared to wild type zebrafish. The emilin2 mutants showed cardiac defects with pericardial effusion in addition to hemorrhaging ventral to the common cardinal vein. Recovery of a phenotype will be possible once the F₁ generation has matured.

Studying how past environmental changes affected species on a geological time scale is crucial for understanding current environmental changes and their impacts on biodiversity. One such time period of change occurred during the Oligocene in North America when a forested environment gave way to a more open one. I aim to investigate how the onset of this environmental change affected mammal communities. I am focusing on two rock horizons of the lower Cabbage Patch beds of western Montana (ca. 29-27 Ma) that preserve rich mammalian assemblages. The two assemblages I am studying are geographically close and were deposited under similar conditions; the preservation of the fossils is identical across the two. To further account for possible biases in my analyses, specifically the difference in sample size (218 versus 80 specimens identified to the species level), I used rarefaction analysis. The results support a 35% increase in species diversity through time. Though the majority of species that go extinct between the two horizons have closed environment affinities, the younger assemblage is not composed of more open-habitat taxa. The species composition of the mammalian assemblages does not reflect the environmental changes; however, the relative abundance of species within the assemblages does. The ratio of the relative abundance of species with open habitat (e.g., the mouse Plesiosminthus) versus closed habitat affinities (e.g., the mouse-deer Pronodens) is seven times greater in the younger locality. The increase in the relative abundance of species with open habitat affinities (and the correlative decrease in closed-habitat species) thus precedes their taxonomic diversification (and the loss of forest dwellers). Future investigation of the ecology and taxonomic diversity of select species will help understand the initial steps of the faunal revolution in the Cabbage Patch beds and thus, more broadly, the rise of the modern mammalian fauna of North America. 

Robots are increasingly becoming an integral part of our society. We interact with robots everyday without realizing it. Robots are beginning to emerge for use in health care, home, and retail settings around the world. However, human-robot interactions remain largely superficial. Robotics engineers are assessing how humans will perceive emotive robots that appear to possess emotions. Robots vary widely in appearance from less human-like to more human-like. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine preferences for the design of emotive robots and attitudes towards robots in the U.S. to report on aesthetic preferences. A cross-sectional survey was conducted from a purposive sample (N = 502) of adults (age range 18-98 years). Using data from this cross-sectional survey study we will analyze information collected on variables related to the appearance of health care robots and measures of positive versus negative attitudes towards robots to better understand the readiness of U.S. adults to accept emotive and human-like robots in our society. 

  The Antarctic Ice Sheet has been undergoing rapid changes in the past few decades, triggered by rapid thinning of its ice shelves. This thinning is caused primarily by enhanced basal melting by warm ocean water. However, recent studies have found that melting rates are not spatially uniform, but rather are strongly controlled by the topography of the base of the ice shelf. The topography of the ice-shelf base can often be inferred from the ice-shelf surface, because the ice is floating close to hydrostatic equilibrium. I identified, characterized and categorized surface morphological features of the ice shelves in Dronning Maud Land (DML) using RADARSAT-2 satellite imagery. DML has many loosely connected small ice shelves. Due to their sizes and complicated shapes, simple glaciological algorithms that are widely used in continent-wide work cannot be applied to these ice shelves. I have processed these new RADARASAT-2 images using speckle filtering and multi-looking methods to enhance image-brightness contrast associated with surface features. The surface features are highly variable between ice shelves, and related to ice-flow fields. These features are digitized and incorporated into the QGIS-operated program Quantarctica 2.0, which is a collection of Antarctic geographical datasets. This project was conducted in winter quarter 2015 as part of larger efforts led by the Norwegian Polar Institute to determine the current status of the DML coast (Ice Shelves, Ice Rises, Outlet Glaciers etc.) in greater detail.

Aging increases susceptibility to numerous diseases associated with aging such as cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disorders, and neurodegenerative disorders.  The mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway, which normally functions as a nutrient sensing pathway to control cell growth and the metabolism through protein synthesis, has been found to be a key regulator of rates of aging.  Decreasing the signaling of this pathway leads to increased lifespan, but the mechanisms behind this are still not well understood.  A recent study from our laboratory has shown that caloric restriction (CR), a dietary intervention known to increase lifespan, and rapamycin, a CR mimetic that inhibits mTOR, both reverse cardiac aging in mice, together with proteomic and metabolic remodeling towards a more youthful state.  To investigate if the proteomic changes are the results of altered protein translation via mTOR regulation, we looked at the effects that CR and rapamycin have on mRNA translation.  We performed translation state analysis, which involves separating polysomes into fractions based on ribosomes loaded, and RNA sequencing of those transcripts attached to the polysomes.  Bacterial spike-ins were added to the polysome fractions prior to RNA sequencing for normalization.  However, normalization of the target genes using the bacterial genes yielded large differences between replicates, suggesting that the bacterial genes amplified differently than the mouse genes during RNA sequencing.  To solve this problem, qPCR was used to determine abundance of the bacterial genes.  The qPCR data is now being used to normalize the RNAseq data and determine if and how the changes in mRNA translation contribute to the improvement in cardiac aging.

HIV-2 is an endemic strain of HIV in West Africa where antiretroviral (ARV) treatment regimens are determined by programmatic regimens due to cost and accessibility rather than individual patient needs. No genotypic resistance testing and few data exist to guide second-line therapy for HIV-2, and the effects of newer drugs on ARV-treated patients are not entirely known. This project aims to address these issues by developing a novel HIV-2 genotypic resistance testing methodology and examining the utility and potential resistance mutations to integrase inhibitor ARV agents. We are developing a rapid and inexpensive HIV-2 resistance testing by utilizing dried blood spots (DBS), which are easy to prepare and require no specialized shipping precautions. Using uninfected whole blood spiked with purified virus or plasmid DNA, we have optimized the Qiagen DNA Blood Mini extraction protocol and amplification procedures. We are able to obtain sequence-ready PCR products from as few as 2000 copies/ml. Next, we will test and further optimize this protocol using DBS from HIV-2 infected patients. In addition, though new ARV are becoming available in resource-limited settings, the utility of these against HIV-2 are poorly understood. We are studying the effects of a new drug, dolutegravir, on HIV-1 and HIV-2 integrase, the enzyme responsible for DNA integration into the host cell. We have built structural models with known drug-resistant mutations with proximity to the active site and catalytic domain. This analysis provides novel insight into the spatial relationships among mutations, active site residues, and areas that are believed to be important for drug binding and activity, and helps predict areas of integrase that are at increased risk of mutation. The results of this study will determine the sensitivity of DBS for resistance genotypic testing and examine novel resistance mutations that arise due to exposure to dolutegravir.

One of the goals of modern longevity research is to find pharmacological means to increase lifespan and/or healthspan without deleterious physiological effects. Yeast are used as a model organism for this research due to the ease of quantifying results of aging studies, their short chronological and replicative lifespans and a well understood genome. Berberine is a yellow, bitter-tasting natural alkaloid with a long history in Eastern Asian medicine. Berberine is used to treat a variety of age-associated diseases and infections such as cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Here we use the budding yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, to investigate the effects of berberine on healthspan and lifespan. To do this, haploid and diploid yeast maximal growth rates, as well as chronological (a measure of population viability through time) and replicative (a measure of mitotic potential) lifespans were determined. These were assayed in the presence of concentrations of berberine ranging from 0.1-100 ng/µL. Additionally, we assayed various mitochondrial mutant yeast to see if berberine could suppress growth defects created by mitochondrial dysfunction. Concentrations of berberine greater than 10 ng/µL in haploids inhibit cell growth and lower concentrations (0.1-10 ng/µL) result in increased yeast chronological lifespan when shifted to respiratory metabolism, which is a means of extending lifespan in yeast. In diploid yeast, concentrations of berberine between 0.1 and 50 ng/µL extend lifespan in chronological lifespan studies. Our experiments provide valuable insights into the role of this long-used medicinal compound on cell aging and health using two important longevity models.

Methane gas can be converted into liquid diesel by microbial cells and enzymes that work as catalysts. Methylotrophic bacteria, which use methane as the carbon source and generate lipids as inner cell membranes, seem to be a promising candidate. However, the production of fuels with the methane-based bioprocess has not yet proven successful at the commercial level. In this study, the metabolic pathways of a robust and rapidly growing strain of methylotrophic bacteria, 5GB1 (Methylomicrobium buryatense 5G), are investigated, which can be used later to guide the genetic engineering techniques performed on the strain, for the purpose of optimizing the yield of diesel products. To understand the central carbon metabolic pathways of 5GB1, experiments are performed on liquid cultures of the bacteria under various environmental conditions and with different genetic modifications. Subsequently, the metabolite molecules are extracted from the cells, and the data of each metabolite level is quantified. The differences of metabolite levels will reveal the correlations between the components of central carbon metabolism and the conditions mentioned above.

Nonnative English speakers are among the lowest academic performing group in the U.S. According to Slama (2014), “Improving academic outcomes for English learners (ELs)… is a top education policy priority because they are one of the fastest growing lowest performing student populations in the nation.” In her research, Slama critiques the various ELL programs employed in grade-levels, through a longitudinal study. Her work explores the number of program’s effort to close the gap between Nonnative English Speakers (NNES) and Native English Speakers (NES). However, they have not been enough to close the academic gap between NES and NNES once they are reclassified into mainstream classrooms. I hypothesize that there is a positive correlation between teacher’s perception of EL students and EL student’s academic success—positive perceptions will result in an increase in academic success, while negative perceptions will decrease the likelihood of academic success. In order to explore this phenomenon, multiligual students from the Univeristy of Washington, who will be recruited through a breif class presentation, will fill out a Likert scale survey that was adapted and accommodated from “A study of Arizona’s Teachers of English Language Learners” by Cecilia Rio-Aguilar, Manuel Gonzalez-Canche, and Luis C. Moll from the University of Arizona (2012). This survey will measure student and teacher perceptions and will give insight on the correlation between perception and academic success. The research will be completed by first, emailing multilingual professors and asking them if they are interested in participating in the research--through completing a catalyst survey and by allowing me to present a brief presentation in their class to recurit multilingual students--who will also fill out a survey. If perception influences academic success, it would be worthwhile to employ teacher-training that will aim to reduce the incidents of academic lag due to the influence of perceptions. 

The "Bracero Program," a series of bi-lateral agreements enacted between the Republic of Mexico and the United States of America beginning in 1942, changed how the United States interacts with what falls under the scope of the word, Chicano. “Chicano” meaning Mexican-American, defines not only a person and group of people, but also a dialect of Spanish, a culture, a set of politics, and specific ideas about labor, while “bracero” loosely translates to “one who works with their hands”. Braceros changed American agriculture; to what degree this labor and political exchange changed American business and defined a group of people has yet to be defined. No common experience lies within the scope of the agricultural laborers in the California Valleys- working, social, and living conditions differ vastly from farm to farm, family to family, and person to person. The Bracero Program does not represent a common experience between workers, but rather, the building of common definitions of environment, race, and immigration between the United States and Mexico- definitions that change the way these policies and relations are currently instituted. Through comparison of California State Senate Committee records and the personal accounts of the workers themselves, the origins of the word Chicano and the development of a dynamic identity are better understood. By understanding the experiences of braceros through the point of view of the workers as compared to the point of view of the state, the transforming Chicano identity is evident; continuing effects of the Bracero Program define modern ideas of Chicano, redefining language, education, religion, and politics in the California Valleys and nationally. The word bracero developed ideas of Chicano, setting precedents for labor and demographics of California and United States Agriculture that continue in 2015.

College students are prone to alcohol use, especially for those with symptoms of depression. It is construed that both depressed mood and alcohol use are related to coping skills, including negative coping skills (e.g., denial) and positive coping skills (e.g., meditation). Positive coping skills deal with depressed mood in a healthy manner, whereas negative coping skills may harm one’s wellbeing. Alcohol use, as a negative coping skill, may help cope, but excessive use may damage one both physically and psychologically. In order to better understand alcohol use in depressed college students, it is important to know if and what kind of coping skills predict future alcohol use. Participants included 284 students at a university in the Pacific Northwest who scored high on measures of depression symptoms and alcohol use. Alcohol Use Disorder identification Test, Beck Depression Inventory, and the Brief COPE scale were used. Data analysis revealed a correlation between negative coping and positive coping (p=.031). Multiple regression analysis showed that, after controlling for demographic variables (gender, ethnicity, and age) and baseline alcohol use severity, baseline negative coping significantly predicted follow-up alcohol use severity (p<.001). Surprisingly, baseline depression score and positive coping did not significantly predict follow-up alcohol use. Taken together, these results suggest that a college student who tends to cope negatively is more prone to future alcohol use. With depression level having no predictive power of future alcohol use, future interventions could treat alcohol use and depression separately. With positive coping skills having only insignificant predictive power of future alcohol use, future interventions should not only focus on teaching positive coping skills, but also aim at reducing negative coping.

Voice is an essential and important method for communication and emotional expression. Voice is especially important for robotic pets, who have more limited venues of communication than humans and may rely on voice to establish relationships with their owners. We are interested in understanding how the voices of robotic pets affect older adults’ attitudes towards and relationships with robotic pets. To investigate this question, we held focus groups with older adults at senior centers and senior housing to explore their perceptions of robotic pets. During focus groups, we showed older adults examples of commercially available pets with different voices. Preliminary findings include that the voice of the robotic pet greatly impacted older adults’ attitude towards robotic pets. They placed importance on robotic pets sounding realistic yet not having annoying attributes of live pets (such as barking excessively). Additionally, older adults were interested in the pets being able to signal for help in the event of an emergency or home invasion through barking or speaking loudly. We suggest that designers of robotic pets attempt to make voices as realistic as possible, while allowing for voices to change in response to emergencies.

A changing climate and widespread bee declines may alter competition among plants for pollinator services. If ranges or phenologies of plants and their pollinators do not change concurrently, fewer visits by pollinators could reduce fitness, leading to a plant species either shifting its reproductive strategy or becoming extirpated in part of its range. I studied pollinator competition between two closely related species of yellow monkeyflowers, Mimulus guttatus and M. tilingii. The flowers of both species appear virtually identical to humans (though the flower of M. guttatus is slightly larger), both are primarily pollinated by bumblebees, and their elevation ranges overlap throughout the West. Studies were conducted to test 1) whether captive Bombus impatiens distinguish between the wildflower species, and 2) whether the density and relative frequency of inflorescences have an influence on pollinator visitation and seed set. In study one I used a forked stick holding a flower of each species to interview bumblebees while B. impatiens foraged on an array of single-species flowers. I expect my results to show that B. impatiens prefer M. guttatus, representing a preference for flower size independent of density or frequency. In study two I manipulated the composition of both Mimulus spp. flower arrays to test if altering the frequency and density of the two species has an effect on monkeyflower seed set. I expect that B. impatiens will have a higher fidelity towards M. guttatus, meaning the seed set of M. tilingii will decrease when M. guttatus frequency increases either due to fewer B. impatiens visits or greater deposition of M. guttatus heterospecific pollen. If study results show M. guttatus is able to recruit more pollinators than M. tilingii, then there is an increased potential for M. guttatus to invade the elevation range of M. tilingii as the climate changes.

Falls are the primary cause of traumatic injury in older adults, especially those with mild cognitive impairment. It can lead to high medical costs, disability, and death. There is a great demand to develop a validated and more effective intervention to protect this vulnerable population from falling. However, recruiting elderly, especially frail older adults, has always been a challenge. The purpose of this study is to understand reasons why older adults choose to respond to recruitment materials and if there are any perceived barriers to research participation. Interview data will be obtained from older adults at the time of consent to participate in a cognitive training intervention program. Older adults will be asked the following two questions: 1) “What drew you to wanting to participate in this research project?”, and 2) “Can you identify any barriers that might impact your participation in the project?” Responses of participants will be recorded and analyzed using simple descriptive coding in order to analyze common factors that attract and discourage older adults to participate in the program. Anticipated study results: 1) older adults with more family support, higher education level, and interest in financial rewards are more willing to participate in research studies; and 2) factors such as time conflict and worries of physical injury are potential barriers to study completion. The result will guide us to understand potential issues and identify strategies to recruit older adults into future research activity, improving the generalizability of findings.

When two species evolve together, we discovered there are loss of certain traits due to the symbiotic nature of coevolution. By artificially pairing and culturing Methanoccocus maripaludis and Desulfavibrio vulgaris in a laboratory environment, we have found D. vulgaris loses its ability to reduce sulfate on a genetic level, a key part of its “sulfate reducer” identity. These species are not found together in the wild, but the model can be replicated by observing a more complex and less controlled environment. The inner workings of anaerobic digesters are an ideal place to start. By isolating and studying these species in a natural environment we can observe if there are loss-of-function mutations of sulfate reduction. To first determine LOF genes, we looked into two anaerobic digestors, the University of Washington Seattle and Brightwater Municipal Waste Water Treatment Center. Digesters have similar conditions as our laboratory models, anaerobic with low levels of sulfate. We can analyze the interactions of various species of sulfate reducers like D. vulgaris and methanogens M. maripaludis. We have perfected the DNA extraction protocol and are now using the polymerase chain reaction to amplify genes of acquired loss-of-function mutations: the sat, apsA and apsB genes. After isolating the genes, we will sequence the amplicons using Illumina to see if any part of the population has the same or similar mutations to those we found in the original experiment. In addition, we have created enrichments with sulfite to favor the growth of these species and looked under the microscope to analyze morphology these species. The identification of these loss-of-function mutations will help us to validate mutualism being the cause of genetic variation within communities of digesters and insight to greater implications on human health by studying mutualistic microbial interactions during water treatment. 

Hegemony refers to the idea of a state having the ability to dominate the political and economic agenda on an international front. Is the United Nations considered the international agency in which today’s hegemon, the United States, exercises its dominance? Using survey data from Pew Research Center, I investigate the attitudes of the public towards the United States and the United Nations. Current research from Pew indicates that younger, more educated, and higher income individuals are more supportive of the United Nations. Additionally, Pew recognizes regional patterns of support towards the United Nations. However, Pew does not attempt to explain the formation of these differences in attitudes. I hypothesize that the United Nations support is correlated to support for the United States government, because the United Nations is seen as a primary vehicle through which the United States exercises its hegemony. I test this hypothesis statistically by asking whether respondents’ attitudes towards the role of the United States in the world predict their support for the United Nations in the Pew survey.

In order to communicate, patients with total loss of muscle control including eye movement can rely on brain computer interfaces (BCI). BCIs utilize the P300 response, an evoked-event related potential of the brain recorded using EEG. Typically, P300 spellers rely on visual input. However, due to the auditory system's unique ability of spatial selective attention of an auditory stream in what is known as the "cocktail party effect", new auditory speller paradigms that can aid a listener's ability to selectively attend may increase the bit rate of communication over the current standard or be more user friendly. Various strategies for improving auditory P300-based speller designs rely on multiple factors, e.g., effectiveness of spatial selective attention. These cues are incorporated into modern auditory BCI systems with an understanding of the effect on bit rate but without a heuristic for understanding the effect on usability. This study takes three sample auditory paradigms of varying presumed difficulty and examines their relative cognitive load via pupillometry and the subjective survey of the NASA Task Load Index. If subject's perception of difficulty corroborates with their pupil responses, then this strategy outlines a general method for assessing task difficulty.  By combining objective and subjective measures of usability, this project offers a strategy for comparing cognitive load for not only the end user community of individuals who rely on speller systems, but in other areas for the BCI community as a whole.

Previous research demonstrates that adolescents who have experienced paternal incarceration at some point in their lives are themselves more likely to engage in delinquent behaviors and make contact with the criminal justice system. The contextual factors that may influence the strength of this association, however, are not well understood. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), a nationally representative sample of adolescents in the United States, this study assesses the moderating role of neighborhood social capital in the relationship between paternal incarceration and adolescent propensity for delinquent behavior. In order to analyze this relationship, logistic regression models will be used while controlling for a variety of neighborhood, family, and individual characteristics. Results from this study will demonstrate the potential ability of social capital to mitigate or exacerbate the link between paternal imprisonment and adolescent delinquency. On a broader level, this will also provide insight into how features of the larger community can act as an important buffer against the wide array of negative effects that incarceration wields. By understanding the influence of contextual factors such as neighborhood social capital, more effective policies can be implemented to help minimize the adverse behavioral outcomes of adolescents who have had a father in prison.

In resorcinol-formaldehyde sol-gel synthesis, nanoscale carbon spheres polymerize and subsequently gel in a porous structure. After pyrolysis, a porous, carbon-based aerogel is formed. This material shows a high absorptivity and very low thermal conductivity. Because of these properties, it has been observed to heat significantly in focused light. When coupled to a material possessing a higher thermal conductivity and infiltrated with a liquid, this composite has the potential to superheat water due to its high curvature. This efficient concentration of heat can also facilitate the renewable generation of electricity though thermoelectric or mechanical means. This forms the basis for a cheap material that can easily provide clean water or renewable energy to underdeveloped communities around the world. Despite these promising applications with UV-visible light, the absorption properties of carbon aerogel have not been thoroughly investigated for wavelengths below 2 um, due to challenges in film processing. We synthesized colloidal aerogel microspheres for robust film processing, allowing us to characterize aerogel absorption and show preliminary device measurements.

Cancer survivors with cognitive impairment concerns frequently report difficulty with attention. However, the role that attentional abilities play in overall cognitive impairment as well as how these abilities respond to a cognitive training intervention is unknown. This study examined both self-report Attention Function Index (AFI) and objective Continuous Performance Test (CPT) measures of attention prior to (pre) and following (post) a cognitive training intervention. Participants were cancer survivors with cognitive symptoms who completed treatment at least six months in the past. Participants were randomized to treatment (tx) or control (ctl) and completed the AFI, CPT and other measures pre and post a cognitive training intervention. Participants (N= 51) with a mean age of 59.2 (SD = 10.3) years, 16.5 (SD = 2.4) years of education, and 4.6 (SD = 5.6) years since treatment completed all study procedures. At baseline, groups (tx, ctl) did not differ on AFI and did not evidence impairments on CPT. Post intervention, the tx group improved on the AFI subscale of interpersonal effectiveness compared to baseline (p = .011) and compared to ctl, F(1, 49) = 5.3, p = 0.25. No significant changes were observed on CPT or other AFI subscales. Cancer survivors reporting attention difficulties as measured by the AFI did not demonstrate impaired performance on the CPT at baseline. However, selective aspects of the AFI did improve in response to a cognitive training intervention, suggesting that cognitive training may provide symptomatic relief for select attention symptoms in cancer survivors.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an important human pathogen able to cause chronic infections in many disease settings such as in the lungs of people with the genetic disorder cystic fibrosis (CF). In chronically infected tissues, P. aeruginosa forms biofilms, aggregates of bacteria encased in a polymer rich matrix. Biofilms are difficult to eradicate from infected tissue, in part, because they become inherently resistant to antibiotics. As P. aeruginosa biofilms develop, many laboratories, including our own, observe the production of the filamentous bacteriophage, Pf4. However, a specific role for increased phage production in P. aeruginosa biofilms has not been established, thus leading us to hypothesize that Pf4 produced by P. aeruginosa biofilms could contribute to biofilm formation and antibiotic tolerance. Using a custom-built polarizing microscope, we find that P. aeruginosa biofilms producing Pf4 are spontaneously organized into a highly ordered liquid crystalline (LC) structure. Biofilms organized into LCs by Pf4 are more resistant to positively charged antibiotics than biofilms lacking LC order. Using an assay developed in our laboratory, we find that LCs formed from Pf4 and DNA, a polymer abundant in P. aeruginosa biofilms, bind more antibiotic than non-LC solutions of Pf4 and DNA. Further, we detected abundant Pf-like phage in sputum collected from CF patients infected with P. aeruginosa suggesting that these findings have clinical relevance. Overall, our data suggest that the highly ordered LC biofilm matrix more efficiently binds positively charged antibiotics, sequestering them away from the bacteria. This novel mechanism of biofilm assembly could be a therapeutic target. For example, strategies aimed at disrupting LC formation or ionic interactions between antibiotics and polymers within the biofilm matrix could be used to treat or prevent chronic P. aeruginosa infections.

Population surveys and isolated clinical studies have associated attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and its severity with lower socioeconomic status (SES). However, clinical samples have been very small and typically used outdated measures of SES; population surveys are known to over-identify ADHD compared to clinical or research diagnostic criteria. As a result, clinical covariates, including parental ADHD and the possibility of gene-environment correlation as the explanation for this apparent association, are not well studied. In turn, controversy remains over whether SES effects are explainable by ADHD inheritance and downward drift. This putative association, if confirmed and not explained by other parent or child psychopathology, would be extremely important to emerging models of plasticity and allostatic load in mental disorders and would inform growing interest in epigenetic models of developmental psychopathology. The present study will clarify this question. The present study provides the largest case-control study to date (with n>1000 children) of this question. Children and parents are carefully characterized by extensive research clinical evaluation including structured clinical interviews, parent-teacher standardized ratings, and clinical observation. SES is measured via a composite of parent education, family income, and an updated occupational code (Nam-Powers-Boyd). SES coding was confirmed with two independent raters with acceptable agreement (Intra-class correlation >.90). This archival data set is in hand and coded, and data analysis is currently underway. SEM models will be used to evaluate the specific association of family SES with ADHD, ADHD severity, and comorbid conditions, controlling for parental ADHD and other parent psychopathology. We anticipate that SES will be associated with ADHD independently of parental ADHD, but if it is not this will be a critical new discovery as this has not been examined before to our knowledge. Secondary analysis will consider IQ as a mediator of effects, because association of SES and IQ is well known.

New developments in distribution and technology have led to an availability of electromagnetic materials that were previously not easily available for research or casual experimentation. They can now be easily made in a lab setting with modest equipment and material investment. These seemingly exotic liquids have new and exciting properties that can be harnessed in unique ways such as printable ink circuits, speaker design, electronic sensing, and biomedical applications. We focused our research on the creation and testing of a single conductive compound. For this research study we created a liquid Gallium Indium alloy (GaIn) for use in comparison testing with a common Copper (Cu) wire of similar gauge. Along with documenting our manufacturing, and variables that impact the electromagnetic behavior, we used finite element modeling software (FEMM) to create models of expected behavior to compare with our actual measured results. Once created, we placed the alloy in a thin flexible tube simulating a “liquid wire” and ran comparison tests using the copper wire, the GaIn wire, and the FEMM software. The comparison tests consisted of: inductance, conductivity, resistivity, and magnetic field generation at various voltages. Their unique liquid state means these materials can be used in new and novel ways to help augment roles currently played by solids with similar properties. They may have more extreme performance under more extreme circumstances. We hope that by sharing their creation techniques and general properties, it sparks further experimentation with these exciting, versatile materials.

Substance use in pregnancy is a significant public health problem in the United States with serious consequences for the health of children. The consequences for the almost 6% of women who use illicit drugs during pregnancy include preterm birth, low birth weight, and long-term changes in childhood behavior and development. Many women want to reduce their substance use in pregnancy, but find it difficult to talk about substance use with family, friends, and health care providers because of the stigma. In the face of such stigma, women may turn to the Internet for information sharing and social support. Marijuana has received increased attention in the media because of the increasing ease of access as some states legalize the drug for medical and recreational use. The purpose of this study is to explore how women communicate about marijuana use in pregnancy on an online forum. We will select posts and responses to a public online question and answer forum using the keywords “marijuana” and “pregnancy”. Qualitative analysis of the data set will progress in three stages: 1) content analysis to describe the questions that participants post to the forum, the types and medical accuracy of answers given by responders; 2) examination of language use focusing on stigma, shame, and judgment; and 3) discourse analysis to determine participants’ underlying beliefs and values about substance use in pregnancy. Analysis will be accomplished using a team approach to iteratively develop interpretations of the data. Our findings will help us understand how women communicate online about substance use in pregnancy with implications for effective research and health care for this population.

In vivo chemical screens represent a powerful strategy for bone pathway discovery. This project seeks to utilize the regenerating zebrafish tail fin, a rapid model of bone redevelopment, in such screens. Unlike embryonic zebrafish, adult zebrafish require a relatively large water volume for housing. This makes adult zebrafish costly for large-scale screens due to the large compound quantities necessary to achieve an active concentration in the water. To overcome this hurdle, the objective of this study was twofold: 1) develop a 3D printed screening system that enables rapid, efficient, and cost-effective chemical administration in adult zebrafish, and 2) validate its potential to detect a clinically-relevant osteoactive compound during fin regeneration. In this study, we developed a novel 3D printed screening system made up of dual-compartment mesh-bottom inserts for housing individual fish. The inserts consist of a large volume upper
 compartment that tapers into a low volume lower compartment. The inserts nest in 6 liter tanks, allowing the fish to swim freely in the 
upper compartment. During dosing, the inserts are placed into custom 9-well screening plates for chemical
 administration (via immersion). For fin regeneration studies, adult zebrafish were anesthetized in MS-222 and subjected to 50% tail fin amputation using a straight razor blade. The fish were dosed for one hour per day beginning the first day post-amputation. After 8 days the fish underwent microscope imaging in order to determine bone regrowth. Cyclopamine was administered and resulted in dose dependent inhibition of regrowth, validating the systems ability to detect a known inhibitor of fin regeneration. Administration of Dorsomorphin, an inhibitor of mammalian bone development with unknown effects on fin regeneration also inhibited regrowth. Collectively, this study develops a novel screening system in adult zebrafish and validates its ability to detect clinically relevant compounds, opening the door to large-scale screening efforts.

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide, and current treatments for heart failure are limited to slowing the disease progression or transplanting a donor heart. One potential approach to restore heart function is to transplant human pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hPSC-CMs). Anti-arrhythmic peptides such as rotigaptide are a promising strategy for electromechanical coupling as grafts can be functionally blocked from the host by uncoupled gap junctions. However, rotigaptide may also modulate other parameters such as graft cell viability and proliferation, so my research goal is to screen for such “off-target” effects through in vitro studies. We hypothesize that rotigaptide treatment will not affect proliferation or maturation of early stage hPSC-CMs. To test this hypothesis, immature hPSC-CMs will be treated with either rotigaptide or a scrambled control peptide. To compare proliferation in rotigaptide-treated versus controls, cultures will be pulsed with the thymidine analogue BrdU and detected by immunocytochemistry. Rotigaptide might cause deleterious effects by opening unjunctioned connexons that could lead to cell death through ATP loss or calcium overload. A live/dead assay has been shown to identify apoptotic cells to quantify cell viability and correlate this with connexin expression and phosphorylation status. This investigation will provide a basis for identifying modulation of parameters such as graft cell viability, maturation, and proliferation due to long term rotigaptide treatment.

Infertility is one of the major economic issues challenging the dairy industry today. Currently in the United States, expenses stemming from dairy cow infertility are estimated to exceed $350M per year. Several factors contribute to this problem, including the inability of the cow to ovulate a fertilizable egg, or “anovulation”. Acknowledging that the occurrence of ovulation is facilitated by the actions of immune cells and the immune system, we began to investigate whether immune cell accumulation within the ovary plays an important role in ovulation, and thus fertility. OmniGen AF, a dietary supplement produced and distributed by the Phibro Animal Health Corporation is reported to enhance immune cell activity in animals. In the current study, we investigated the effects of feeding female rats OmniGen AF by measuring immune cell accumulation within the ovary and ovulation rate. Preliminary results showed that the average number of macrophages within the ovary of control vs. OmniGen AF fed rats (n=2) was 292 (± 5.75) and 616 (± 258) respectively. The average number of leukocytes in the blood of control vs. OmniGen AF fed rats was 265 (± 66) and 455 (± 140) respectively. This work is ongoing to assess the effect of OmniGen feeding on ovulation rate and fertility. The findings will be used to assess whether translational studies of OmniGen AF supplementation in cows are warranted. This project is supported by the McNair Scholars Program and the Phibro Animal Health Corporation.

It is well-known that increased mindfulness is associated with less stress and greater well-being (Chiesa & Serretti, 2009). It is also clear that smartphone addiction poses a risk to the public and the individual whether driving or attending classes. Since addictive behavior is regarded as a maladaptive response to stress (Kottler & Chen, 2011), there may exist a connection between mindfulness, well-being, and smartphone addiction. The purpose of this study was to investigate relationships between mindfulness, well-being, and the degree of smartphone addiction. A battery of 5 questionnaires were administered to 159 undergraduate student volunteers (55% female; 65% senior class; mean age = 22.3 ± 4.0 years) in a 20-minute session, including:(1) demographic survey, (2) the Stanford Use of Mental Stress Management/Relaxation Techniques instrument (3) The Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS), (4) the Smartphone Addiction Scale – Short Version (SAS-SV), and (5) The Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale (WEMWBS). Linear regression analyses showed that mindfulness was inversely associated with smartphone addiction (β = -.398; p<.001) and accounted for 20.1% of the variance in the regression equation (r2 = .201, p<.001).These findings suggest mindfulness practice may be a helpful strategy in addressing smart phone addiction among students.

To believe that women have achieved equality is simply an illusion. My research will focus on the following question: Why are women all over the world still struggling with inequality? Rape, sexism, human trafficking, and domestic abuse are just the tip of the iceberg of some of the atrocities targeted towards women. The United States, one of the most powerful countries in the world, struggles with some of the same issues present in countries like Darfur, where countless women are raped mercilessly. Where do the beliefs come about which allow men to accept the subjugation of women? Is this a belief or an opinion perpetuated from generation to generation among male oppressors? Using practical philosophy, more specifically, epistemology, which analyzes the nature of knowledge and its relation to truth, belief, and justification, as a powerful tool, I can employ examples of oppression towards women throughout history through specific case studies from different times in history and different areas of the world. Not only does my research focus on the ugly truth of women inequality, I also acknowledge the success of women in various fields such as politics, medicine, and the military. Some women chose to live in the illusion of a wholesome world in which men and women are equal, when in reality, despite the progress towards equality, we are still far from it. It is my hope that from understanding the utilization of practical philosophy that more people can see the persistence of sexism towards women.

Gap junctions are intercellular structures that allow neighboring cells to communicate and interact with each other. Gap junctions are dynamically regulated and coordinate a variety of important bodily functions, including heartbeat, lactation and childbirth, as well as playing a role in cell growth and tumor inhibition. Connexins are a family of proteins that compose gap junctions and the most abundant and ubiquitously expressed is Connexin 43 (Cx43). I am working to define the spatiotemporal interaction of multiple kinases with Cx43, specifically to test a model of gap junction disassembly. Using western blotting, ELISA plate assays, and immunofluorescence, we are able to compare phosphorylation activity of specific regulatory sites on Cx43 after treatment with kinase inhibitors. This data will help establish a more complete understanding of gap junction degradation by learning what occurs when each kinase is inhibited, because we know that certain phosphorylation sites are phosphorylated by certain kinases. Western blotting and ELISA plate assays combined with phosphospecific antibodies allow me to quantify the changes in phosphorylation activity at specific sites. Immunofluorescence then helps me to visualize where the activity and the Cx43 are in the cells. Preliminary results somewhat support the model, showing that certain steps always hold true and other steps seem to vary temporally depending on system or technique used. Repetition and troubleshooting will soon help sort out these issues to produce a more cohesive body of data to analyze. On a larger scale, our goal is to fully understand the process of Cx43 modulation of gap junction disassembly so that we can regulate that process to improve bodily functions that are coordinated by gap junctions.

When the topic of diversity is raised within the farming community, the discussion typically revolves around plant/crop diversity rather than ethnic diversity of the farmers themselves. However, Washington state has a remarkably ethnically diverse population of farmers compared to the population of the state, and to the farming population in the rest of the US. Further, while there are large farms (particularly in Eastern Washington), a surprisingly high fraction of Washington farmers operate small farms. In my research, I systematically examine the networks and community integration of white and non-white farmers in order to better understand the factors that sustain such a diverse farming population in the state. In particular, I am interested in comparing the extent to which minority farmers and first generation farmers have diverse or restricted networks, aid one another with farming activities, offer advice, and interact in social and civic settings. I hypothesize that both minority farmers and first generation farmers will rely heavily on their network for farming assistance and that extensive and multi-generational networks will be particularly beneficial for new farmers. My analyses rely on data from a survey of farmers that I designed and administered with the assistance of several local agricultural organizations. Though the sociology of farming is seeing a bit of resurgence, few have explored the contemporary racial dynamics in this most American field of work.

Dementia is a devastating disease that affects the lives of many. Majority of people who have dementia live at home and receive care from family member or friend caregivers. African Americans and Hispanics suffer from dementia at higher rates than Whites. Religiosity is an example of a protective factor for caregivers, which enhances caregivers’ ability to cope, understand, and appraise caregiving of loved ones with dementia. It has shown to have a positive effect on alleviating caregiver burden, stress and depression. The purpose of this study is to better understand the perceptions of African American and Hispanic dementia caregivers about the influence of religiosity on caregiving. Our goal for gaining this understanding is to improve patient care through teaching health care providers how to support caregivers by discussing and encouraging caregiver religious practices. We hypothesize that African American and Hispanic caregivers with high religious motivation for providing care will have reduced stress, higher cultural reasons for providing care, and a greater willingness to partner with clinicians. This study will utilize interviews previously conducted and recorded for research on a cultural validation of a dementia assessment tool, Partnering for Better Health—Living with Chronic Illness, by Dr. Tatiana Sadak, Department of Psychosocial and Community Health Nursing in the University of Washington School of Nursing. We will do secondary thematic analysis of the interviews (N=20) in order to identify themes surrounding religiosity and the role it plays in caregiving. We will use quantitative data to explore if higher religiosity is associated with lower caregiver stress and higher caregiver activation. We will also interview African American and Hispanic cultural liaisons to gain insight about the role of religiosity in dementia care. These findings will highlight the importance of accurately assessing and incorporating discussions about religiosity into comprehensive culturally sensitive dementia interventions.

Evolution occurs, in part, through natural selection, in which the most well-adapted individuals survive and reproduce. What happens when a species that has adapted to living in a community must suddenly survive alone? We used a model microbial system composed of the bacteria Desulfovibrio vulgaris and the archaea Methanococcus maripaludis to test whether adaptation to a mutualistic interaction affected its survival alone. In this experiment, M. maripaludis, a methanogen that produces methane from hydrogen and carbon dioxide, was propagated for approximately 780 generations in liquid media either alone with hydrogen provided every few days, or with hydrogen supplied as a byproduct of metabolism by D. vulgaris. In each of these evolution experiments, half of the populations were shaken during growth to ensure uniform hydrogen dispersal, and the other half were held still, limiting the hydrogen available in liquid. We tested whether adaptation to hydrogen produced by D. vulgaris also improved the performance of M. maripaludis in the solitary conditions by measuring absolute fitness of all of the evolved communities in the solitary conditions. The optical density was measured over time to determine the growth rate and yield of M. maripaludis in the solitary conditions. We expect the populations that evolved with D. vulgaris as a hydrogen supplier to have lower fitness in the solitary environment because they adapted to the presence of another species. Our results should shed light on how adaptations may be useful or detrimental when applied to multiple environments, as well as how the sudden appearance or disappearance of a second species to an environment affects the species already present.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a pervasive developmental disorder characterized by deficits in communication, social skills, and repetitive behaviors. Statistics show that one in every 42 boys are diagnosed with autism while only one in 189 girls are diagnosed with the disorder. Research has shown that puberty is an important part of development, and may impact boys and girls in different ways. Typically developing, post-pubertal girls score higher than boys on prosocial behaviors and are better empathizers. This comparison has not been investigated in adolescents with ASD. In this study, participants included children with ASD (n = 10) and children with neurotypical development (n = 10). Participant age ranged from 8 to 17. Parents of participants completed questionnaires including the Pubertal Development Scale (PDS), a questionnaire with gender-specific questions marking the progress of puberty, and the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS), a 65-item questionnaire assessing a participant’s social responsiveness in five sub-scales including social motivation. We compared social motivation by diagnosis, sex, and pubertal status. We hypothesized that there would be a main effect of: (1) Diagnosis, with Neurotypical children scoring higher than ASD children; (2) Sex, with girls scoring higher than boys; and (3) Puberty, with post-pubertal children scoring higher than pre-pubertal children. We expect an interaction between sex and pubertal status, with greatest differences between post-pubertal girls and post-pubertal boys. Given the impairment in social motivation in ASD, we expect that effects of sex and pubertal status will be reduced in the ASD group. This study will contribute to a better understanding of the trajectory of social ability and motivation in adolescents with ASD and how motivation is impacted by the child’s sex and pubertal status. Understanding the variables that impact social responsiveness in adolescents with ASD may effect how interventions are designed for adolescents with ASD.

The ability to adapt to changing osmotic conditions is critical for cellular and organismal survival. Though many of the pathways and mechanisms that define these induced effects are unknown, conserved determinants can be observed. Prior studies in the budding yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, have shown that inducing hyperosmotic conditions through addition of sorbitol to the growth medium is sufficient to increase both chronological and replicative lifespans. Our group has found that the addition of either peptone or sorbitol to the growth medium of the nematode, Caenorhabditis elegans can induce a similar longevity effect, resulting in an increase in lifespan of approximately 35% in both wild type (N2) and several mutant backgrounds. We hypothesize that this effect on lifespan results from an adaptive response to the hyperosmotic conditions. One conserved response to hyperosmolarity is increased biosynthesis of intracellular glycerol. To determine whether glycerol synthesis is required for lifespan extension, we examined the effect of sorbitol addition on lifespan in gpdh-1(ok1558); gpdh-2(kb33) double-mutant animals. These genes encode the enzyme glycerol 3-phosphate dehydrogenase and are required for elevation of glycerol levels under hyperosmotic conditions. We found that addition of sorbitol was no longer able to extend the lifespan of gpdh-1(ok1558); gpdh-2(kb33) animals, supporting the hypothesis that glycerol accumulation plays a necessary role in the longevity response to hyperosmotic stress in C. elegans. Next, we plan to determine whether increased glycerol biosynthesis through overexpression of glycerol 3-phosphate dehydrogenase is sufficient to extend lifespan in the absence of osmotic stress. These studies will provide further understanding of the mechanisms that control aging and the interaction between longevity and osmotic changes in the environment.

Health promotion activities are important interventions for elders to maintain or improve physical and mental well-being and functional independence. The purpose of this study was to evaluate experiences of residents in an independent/assisted living retirement community who were participating in a holistic wellness program. My focus was on gender-based similarities and disparities in participant responses to structured interview questions. Twenty-three residents were interviewed for 20-40 minutes ten times over six months. Question subjects included what wellness classes residents attended, motivation for participation, perceived benefits, notable experiences, connection to residents, connection to staff, level of pain, and quality of life. The mean age of informants was 87.9 years old with ages ranging from 75 to 100; 15 women and 8 men were included. Preliminary findings that measured correlations of interval ratings found a strong negative relationship between pain and quality of life for men but not women. Responses from women showed a moderate positive relationship between connection to residents and connection to staff while men displayed a strong negative relationship between the same ratings. Several themes in the qualitative findings suggested community interactions, significant others, staying busy/active, medical issues, and having help and resources are important considerations in evaluations of quality of life by both genders and that women experience more joint pain, stiffness, and soreness with exercise or movement. The results of this work could be used to improve future wellness program designs and to optimize recruitment for and engagement in gender-specific programming.

Actinomyces bacteria, such as those of the genus Streptomyces, produce around 70% of all known antibiotics isolated from bacteria. These antibiotics have wide applications in the field of agriculture by guarding against damaging plant pathogens, especially bacteria. This study seeks to find (in Pacific Northwest soil) species of Streptomyces that inhibit plant pathogens and thus may be useful in crop production. Samples were collected from wetland habitats on the North Seattle College campus. Soil samples were enriched with CaCO₃, put on selective agar, and incubated. Likely Streptomyces were identified and subcultured. These were then tested for antibacterial properties by exposure to an antibiotic resistant strain of a prominent bacterial plant pathogen, Agrobacterium tumefaciens. A Streptomyces strain that produces antibiotics against a prominent plant pathogen could be added to agricultural soil to protect plants against disease.

Greater Sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus; hereafter, sage-grouse) select sagebrush plants for food that are high in protein. However, sagebrush produce toxins called monoterpenes that can inhibit enzymatic reactions and interrupt cellular processes and therefore result in decreased intake by sage-grouse. Moreover, species, subspecies, populations, and morphotypes of sagebrush can vary in the concentration of toxins produced. Preliminary analysis has shown that different morphotypes of sagebrush have different chemical profiles, and this may influence selection at a scale below species. Our research aims to determine whether sage-grouse select specific morphotypes of sagebrush to maximize biomass consumed per bite or minimize toxin consumed per bite and, how that selection changes with plant density or abundance. We flushed radio-marked sage-grouse and identified their foraging site using tracks and fresh pellets. At each used patch, we performed density counts for each morphotype of sagebrush along a transect, and recorded the volume and number of bite marks for each plant. We will evaluate if sage-grouse browse certain morphotypes in proportion to their availability, or if they differentially select morphotypes to browse based on biomass per bite or toxin concentration per bite. This research contributes to a growing understanding of how sage-grouse select and use habitats throughout the year, which is increasingly important as habitat availability decreases, the distribution of specific morphotypes change and remaining landscapes are degraded. Additionally, this research provides insight about plant-herbivore interactions and how herbivores select plants to consume, based on biomass intake rates, toxin concentration, or availability of plants.

In an effort to increase nursing contribution in key global and public health efforts, priorities, treatments, and preventions the Global Health Nursing Interest Group is currently being formed at the University of Washington. The purpose of this research is to employ Tuckman’s Group Development Theory to describe the process of development of the Global Health Nursing Interest Group. Tuckman’s Theory states a group will progress through four distinct stages as it develops - forming, storming, norming, and performing. Data will originate from the meeting agendas and minutes, project records, focus groups, and individual interviews transcripts conducted with group members. All documents and transcripts will be analyzed using Tuckman’s definition of the four stages. Definitions employed in coding of the data will include Tuckman’s four stages: forming, storming, norming, and performing and key words found in each stage. I would anticipate the group members identify group actions which follow the four stages of Tuckman’s Theory. I hypothesize the group will go through each distinct stage, but unlike Tuckman’s Model the stages will be overlapping and continuous, rather than occurring in a linear fashion. As the the Global Health Nursing Interest Group’s lifespan lengthens, the stages may reoccur over time as responsibilities, relationships, and group members evolve. This pioneering groups seeks to progress nursing leadership, hoping to set a precedent propelling other nurses into advocating for positions of leadership in global health. The information from this study can aid fresh endeavors and spark new interest in studies which will launch other nurses into key global health leadership positions, thereby, improving population health worldwide.

Mutualism, a beneficial relationship between species, causes coevolution. Coevolution is a reciprocal adaptation that can cause local adaptation where a population has better relative fitness when paired with species from its local environment. Examples of mutualism are known, however a time-shift approach during the early phases of a novel mutualism creates opportunity to better understand evolutionary forces and species interactions. An obligate mutualism, between the sulfate-reducing bacteria Desulfovibrio vulgaris and the methanogen Methanococcus maripaludis, was established in the lab for rigorous and controlled testing. An example of obligate mutualism is that in order to grow, D. vulgaris ferments lactate, to produce acetate and H₂ as a byproduct, and M. maripaludis consumes that hydrogen to product methane. We will assay relative abundancy by using the FREQ-Seq procedure, which amplifies loci targets that are different amongst D. vulgaris populations, to test if mutualism facilitated significant contrast in variations of fitness between a locally adapted pair and a D. vulgaris that evolved in another pair. Also, FREQ-Seq uses Illumina sequencing, which records real-time frequencies of allele targets throughout the population over time. We grew 6 co-cultures that have potential for local adaption, and then determined initial ratios by cell count samples from those co-cultures. We then grew three ratios of each competition environment containing one adapted pairing with a D. vulgaris, which is from different co-cultures. To minimize non-genetic effects, we transferred cultures twice in the same environment before transferring the cultures into the next environment. Our prediction followed the logic that the fitness of the D. vulgaris in the locally adapted pairing should be higher than the fitness of a D. vulgaris from another evolved pairing. Evidence of local adaptation in a syntrophic mutualism may provide insight towards microbial communities, which yield methane, of the human body and waste treatment facilities.

The aim of this study was to examine calcium ion (Ca(II)) release from monosodium titanate (MST) calcium complexes. Ca(II) release is central to possible therapeutic dental applications of these complexes. Stock solutions, 8000 mg/L, of native MST(control) and MST complexed with calcium ions (MST-Ca(II)) were prepared using sterile water (pH 7 or pH 5). Samples were incubated at 37°C, 5% CO2, 100% humidity for 0 h to 8 wk. At specified times, 3 aliquots were collected for each sample, vortexed, and centrifuged. The top 50 μL of supernatant were then removed. Both the supernatant and the remaining particulates were analyzed for Ca(II) using the QuantiChromTM Calcium Assay Kit (612 nm optical density, SpectraMax M2 Plate Reader). Differences in Ca(II) release between controls and experimental samples were identified with two-sided Student's t-tests, with a p-value < 0.05 considered significant. Ca(II) was not detected in native MST (control) supernatant samples. Ca(II) release was detected from MST- Ca(II) into supernatants. At pH 7, the supernatant Ca(II) concentration increased over 3 d, from 0 to 2.75 mg/dL (p < 0.05 compared to MST control) after which it remained constant to 8 weeks. A large reservoir of Ca(II), 45 mg/dL, remained on the MST-Ca(II) particles (compared to 0 mg/dL measured on particulate native MST (control); p < 0.05). At pH 5, 15 mg/dL of Ca(II) was immediately released into the supernatant with no further release over 7 d, and 35 mg/dL Ca(II) remained on the particles. Finally, when the supernatant was partially replenished every 24 h with sterile water (pH 7), Ca(II) release from MST-Ca(II) was ongoing, reaching a cumulative total of 4.7 mg/dL over 4 d. Calcium was released from MST-Ca(II) into water; release was affected by pH and Ca(II) concentration in the solute.

The steep rise in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) diagnosis over the past decade has left researchers and parents questioning the validity of the diagnosis. While extensive research has been done on the psychological implications of diagnosis and psychostimulant treatment, little research has been conducted regarding the social construction surrounding diagnosis practice in the United States. Since 2003, ADHD diagnosis has increased by 42% (CDC). Have the subjective methods of diagnosis based on parent/ teacher reports and visual examination by a psychiatrist improved over the past decade to account for the sharp rise in diagnosis? Or is ADHD diagnosis a simple and convenient social construction of childhood illnesses; a category to place children with specific unwanted behaviors in society, making an convenient treatment to shape these children as socially and culturally fit? My research utilizes national level data from the US Census and National Survey of Children’s Health (NCHS) and Ordinary Least Squares regression analysis to examine the association between state-level ADHD prevalence and social characteristics of states that could impact diagnosis patterns, such as political affiliation, socioeconomics of state, ratio of rural to urban population, and school funding. I also examine qualitative evidence to help account for the immeasurable aspects of cultural ideology that contribute to variation in ADHD diagnosis across states through articles and blog posts in popular media that discuss the issue of rising rates in diagnosis. My work contributes to the growing body of research on ADHD in medical sociology and helps begin to uncover the social and cultural factors that contribute to the growing number of diagnosed children.

How can can electricity be generated from the ambient motion experienced by a motorized vehicle during its operation? Combustion and electric vehicles have a natural loss of power when encountering bumps and pot holes. The linear displacement undergone during such encounters is available as kinetic energy which, through an induction system, can be converted into electrical energy. If systems that harness those disturbances are installed on vehicles, they can be used to offset and extend the duration of battery operations. In particular, spring systems that utilize inductance can lead to an efficient translation of kinetic energy back into electrical energy where it is now available to be reused by the vehicle. By analyzing and altering existing methods we aim to identify areas of improvement. By measuring the device's displacement, energy generation, and speed, we can determine the efficiency the system regenerates its electical energy. It is anticipated that the insights gained from the analysis will lead to a handful of improvements that will increase the ability for the kinetic energy returned.  Analyzing and sharing existing methods, along with our own improvements, allows us to broaden future exploration of the topic such as new investigations, materials, research methods, or general design improvements.

Hypothermia in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) is associated with adverse consequences in neonatal development and increases in morbidity and mortality rates. This study is researching the impacts of clinical and environmental factors on thermoregulation of premature and high-risk neonates. We are examining the effects of delayed cord clamping (DCC) on admission temperature as well as the environmental thermal challenges that neonates encounter in the NICU. Within the last year, the DCC practice has been implemented at the University of Washington Medical Center (UWMC). This practice may increase the time from birth to the infant’s transfer to the NICU and may be associated with increases in hypothermic admission temperatures. The study population is NICU admissions at UWMC. We will be collecting data on the axillary temperatures on neonates with DCC and comparing it to data collected on neonates without DCC. Additionally, we will be comparing the contemporary data to data collected in a similar fashion in the same time frame last year, prior to the implementation of DCC. We anticipate that the neonates who had DCC will be more hypothermic than the temperatures of neonates who did not have this intervention. Determining if DCC is related to increased hypothermic admission temperatures will allow staff to utilize contemporary evidenced-based practice research to make clinical decisions. Additionally, we will be creating a thermal map of the NICU by measuring ambient, humidification and radiant temperatures in patient rooms on the unit. The thermal map will allow staff to appreciate the thermal environment that may challenge the neonate. Determining the impacts of clinical and environmental factors will allow us to make best-practice decisions in order to decrease morbidity and mortality rates associated with hypothermic NICU admission temperatures.

The roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans has been a crucial model organism for defining the processes and conditions that influence longevity. It is known that longevity in poikilotherms such as C. elegans varies inversely with temperature; at lower temperatures, worms are longer-lived. While this result may seem intuitive based on thermodynamic principles (i.e. the rate of biochemical processes being decreased at lower temperatures), we have found that there is also a genetic role in this temperature-dependent longevity. At both high and low temperatures, there is variation in lifespan of different strains of C. elegans with single gene mutations, indicating that genetics play a role in this longevity. Our data lead us to hypothesize that improved proteostasis is crucial for longevity at high temperatures, while resistance to xenobiotic toxicity is more important at lower temperatures. It is also known that proliferation of intestinal bacteria can negatively impact C. elegans’ longevity, and that the intestine is a key locus for effectors of longevity. We hypothesize that the ability of certain genes to impact intestinal bacterial colonization at low temperatures also facilitates the control of toxic compounds produced by intestinal bacteria, thus allowing the observed increase in lifespan at low temperatures. My project tests this hypothesis by isolating bacteria growing from the intestines of different C. elegans strains grown at different temperatures, and quantifying the bacterial load in order to assess how it changes over time. By determining how different genes impact the control of intestinal bacterial load at different temperatures, we seek to better understand the mechanisms of temperature-dependent longevity in C. elegans, contributing to our understanding of how the mechanisms of aging may be conserved.

What is the role of the government in economy? When the 2008 recession hit the US economy, the newly elected president Barack Obama responded with the largest stimulus in US history. An $831 billion stimulus package was intended to save and create jobs and provide temporary reliefs to those affected. Six years down the road, studies have found that the stimulus has largely succeeded in achieving those objectives. But how has it impacted the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the very measure that signaled the beginning of the Great Recession? In my research, I study the impact of the stimulus on state level GDP. Preliminary results suggest that there is a positive correlation between the stimulus and states' GDP. Controlling for the pre-recesssion GDP and other economic factors, I study the impact of the stimulus on the post recession GDP. Often GDP is looked at as the overall health of the economy and my research can help determine the role of the government in fostering it.

Chitin, the second most abundant polysaccharide after cellulose, exists in crustaceans’ shells, cuticles of insects and squid pens. Chitin is biocompatible, biodegradable, and responsible for mechanical integrity in structural materials in nature. Gelatin, an inexpensive compound derived from collagen, is biocompatible, able to mimic the 3D extra cellular matrix (ECM), and exhibits remarkable flexibility. Here, we investigate properties of chitin gelatin biocomposites. Combining the outstanding biocompatability, structural, and mechanical properties of chitin and gelatin can create a novel biocomposite material suitable for cardiac tissue engineering. We mix chitin and gelatin in hexafluoroisopropanol solvent in different ratios to develop the self-assembled chitin nanofibers in the matrix of gelatin. Tensile test verifies the mechanical properties of these biocomposites to see if they meet the expected requirements of cardiac tissue. The atomic force microscope characterizes the biocomposites topography to observe the existence and pattern of the chitin nanofibers. Self-assembled chitin nanofibers successfully form and assemble into the gelatin matrix, forming a biocomposites possessing promising mechanical properties. A biomimetic chitin gelatin nanocomposite would form a promising cardiac tissue engineering material possessing chitin’s nanofiber structure and superior mechanical strength with gelatin’s 3D ECM structure and superior flexibility to support the cardiac contractions.

Flax (Linum usitatissimum) is grown widely in Canada and northern America as a source of food (oil) and fiber. Nutritionally, flaxseed oil is superior to fish oil in omega-3-oils. Flax’s meal limitation when used as a protein source for animal farming is the presence of toxic glucosinolates (GLS). GLS and the enzyme myrosinase are compartmentally stored separately in the plant. Upon disruption of plant tissues, myrosinase cleaves glucose from GLS and releases toxic compounds such as nitriles, thiocyanates, and isothiocyanates to defend the plant. The ultimate goal is to replace unsustainable fish meal with protein-enriched flax meal. The project objectives included a microbial process to metabolize GLS, retain omega-3-oils, and boost protein levels. Cold pressed flax meals were subjected to several metabolically diverse fungal cultures. Six species of fungi were grown in submerged and solid state culture at 10% and 50% solid loading rate, respectively. Data Samples were produced for protein analysis, Flax meal metabolization, GLS and residual sugars. These results showed that Fusarium Venenatum achieved greater protein percentages (37.39%) and metabolizing activities. It was also seen that Pichia was the least fungus in metabolizing flax meal and protein percentages (34.24%). The hypothesis was not achieved (about 37% protein flax meal compared to 60% protein fish meal. Future research will optimize the conversion process to achieve greater protein percentages.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is becoming one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Although previously studied in the context of athletes and soldiers, TBIs have not been explored in the general population. Identifying neurodegenerative phenotypes of TBI allows us to further investigate its long-term pathological consequences. Utilizing multiplexed Luminex and ELISA assays, we can simultaneously quantify changes due to TBI in several neurotoxins. These molecular protein assays were administered on multiple frozen tissues from over 60 human TBI and control cases. We focused on quantifying tau, phosopho-tau, amyloid beta 40, and amyloid beta 42 species in TBI and control cases. Tau is a main component of neurofibrillary tangles that aggregates and causes neuronal death. Amyloid beta peptides are main components of plaque that aggregates, also causing neuronal death. Our results will allow us to establish a relationship between TBI related neuropathology and other chronic neurodegenerative diseases. By doing so, we can begin to investigate developing diagnostic strategies and remedies for TBI related neurodegenerative disease.

A community of human gut microbes is responsible for converting dietary plant lignans into enterolactone (ENL), a biochemical compound associated with lowering the risk of breast cancer and colorectal cancer. This study aims to characterize the species of bacteria involved in the conversion of enterodiol (END), a precursory enterolignan, to ENL. Microbes that convert END to ENL are enriched via in vitro incubation of fresh stool samples with END. Following incubation, microbial DNA is extracted from the END-to-ENL-converting microbes. The V4-V6 regions of the 16S ribosomal RNA are amplified and sequenced. These sequences are imported into the ARB phylogenetic analysis tool, where they are identified and aligned onto an existing phylogenetic tree of known lignan-converting microbial species. A comparative analysis using the ARB phylogenetic tree tool allows us to observe an increase in species identified as END-ENL converters in comparison to samples incubated without END enrichment, supporting the conclusion that species diversity is associated with increased human exposure to ENL. This investigation will provide a deeper understanding of the relationship between diversity of the microbial species in the human gut to human health and illness prevention.

The production of cells capable of remembering previously encountered pathogens and effectively eliminating those pathogens is an important part of higher organisms’ immune systems known as immunological memory. During infection, infected cells break down pathogen peptides and present them on their membranes. Next, naïve T lymphocytes with receptors that recognize those peptide sequences (antigens) will proliferate and clear the pathogen. Some of these T lymphocytes undergo conversion into memory cells. Memory T lymphocytes were commonly believed to be reactivated when they re-encountered specific antigens; however, another pathway in which they are activated by inflammation was recently described. This discovery of T lymphocytes capable of antigen non-specific activation, termed bystander-activated cytotoxic T lymphocytes (BA-CTLs), has raised questions concerning BA-CTLs’ contribution to the immune response during infection. Our question pertains to the impact of BA-CTLs on the primary immune response. We postulate that BA-CTLs have the potential to kill antigen presenting cells (APCs), and that blocking the mechanism used by BA-CTLs to identify infected cells may affect the outcome of an infection by altering the amount of antigen available to activate antigen-specific T cells, thus affecting the production of a robust antigen-specific memory population. Using mouse models, I induced a systemic infection with wild-type (copious antigen availability) and attenuated strains of Listeria monocytogenes (limited antigen availability) and measured the response of BA-CTLs with flow cytometry; this established the presence of BA-CTLs in both types of infection. The next step will be to repeat the experiment while inhibiting BA-CTL killing. From this, I can measure the effect of BA-CTLs on the naïve T cell response. I expect to see significant increase in the production of memory cells during attenuated infection when inhibiting BA-CTLs, which would suggest that BA-CTLs have a significant impact on the size of the ensuing antigen-specific T cell response.

We present our work on the design and engineering of a wireless robotic hand which will mimic the movements of a remote user’s hand while simultaneously providing the user with realistic mechanical, tactile feedback. Applications range from allowing remote users to work in unreachable places or unstable zones, such as hazardous chemical or sterile environments, to performing minor surgeries, administering first aid, or defusing explosives. The core support structure of the remote hand itself is created with a 3D printer. Force-feedback articulated joints are controlled by internal servo motors, pressure and thermal sensors located at the fingertips. The remote user interface consists of a paired exoskeleton with external servo motors and tactile sources for mechanical, pressure, and thermal feedback to the user. The remote hand and user exoskeleton together form a wireless, bi-directional networked feedback system.

An understanding of electric discharge in gases is of fundamental importance in fields ranging from consumer product manufacturing to global weather modeling. Unfortunately, there is wide disagreement in the literature about the specific values of certain physical quantities, so-called Townsend coefficients, which are necessary for predictive modeling of electric discharge in gases. I discuss here my research towards theoretical modeling and experimental verification of the effects of geometrical shape factors on the Townsend coefficients in cylindrical containment vessels over pressure-length 0.1 < pL < 10 Torr•cm and cylindrical geometric length/radius 0.1 < L/R < 12 domains.

Empowering a human brain to control prosthetic limbs, motor devices, and even remote robots sounds like science fiction, but is a topic of active scientific research. To do this we must be able to identify reliable brain signals that can control such devices. Normally, such signals are limited to specific cortical regions. However, there is a growing understanding that the brain is organized into multiple intrinsic systems that coordinate to perform an action. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a technique for measuring brain activity, allows us to obtain a detailed view of intrinsic network activity. The purpose of this study is to determine whether networks can provide more reliable systems-level brain signals for brain-computer interaction. Ten subjects completed five sessions of an fMRI task that involved pressing a button with either the left or the right hand. In the first two sessions, subjects selected what hand to use and in the last three sessions they were cued to use the left or the right hand. fMRI time courses from motor-related and default mode networks from the cued trials were extracted and used as input to a classifier to learn whether a subject intends to use the left or the right hand. Signals from these networks are recognized when subjects intend to move. We tested the classifier using the uncued trials. If a classifier can be trained to identify a subject’s intent to move the left or the right hand with high sensitivity and specificity, then we will know that motor and default network mode systems convey information related to cognitive and motor functions that can be used as external control signals. This will enable us to develop non-fMRI based technologies to use these signals to control artificial prosthetics, for robotic control, and a variety of other applications.

The surge in populist radical right parties in Europe since the 1980s, most notably the National Front in France, has been investigated in a breadth of political science and sociological research. As such, I am investigating the social characteristics of self-identified voters for the populist radical right party Popular Orthdox Rally (LAOS) in Greece. Traditionally, prominent perspectives on the emergence of populist radical right parties are framed through a supply-demand model. Utilizing data from the European Social Survey, I investigate the demand trhough researching voter characteristics from Greece. Likewise, I investigate the supply requirements through researching socio-structural changes, such as immigration patterns and unemployment trends. My hypothesis is borrowed from Hans-Georg Betz's "Loser of Modernity" thesis, which identifies those drastically impacted by the switch from the industrial to the service sector as the most prone to supporting populist radical right parties. With growing support in populist radical right parties in Europe, my work contributes to public policy by identifying which segments of the population need to be focused on in order to prevent the growth of radical right extremism.

There is a strong disconnect between the popular belief that immigrants are disadvantaged and at high risk for failure and empirical research. The “second generation advantage hypothesis” proposes that children of immigrants have above average educational achievements, net of their socioeconomic origins. The question I want to ask is why are children of immigrants outperforming their peers? Some researchers propose that it may be a psychological phenomenon that leads the children of immigrants to work harder in school. One hypothesis is that immigrant parents maybe socializing their children to create active actors that seize control over their lives. This sense of control over one’s life (internal), rather than leaving it up to fate or chance (external) is commonly referred to as locus of control (LOC). Is it because children of immigrants have high internal LOC the reason why they excel in so many aspects? To answer this question I used the University of Washington’s “Beyond High School Survey” of seniors from 12 high schools in Washington State. I used six questions in the survey that measured the qualities of LOC such as perceived luck, value of planning, control, and barriers. These questions used a Likert scale distribution of 1 (strongly agree) to 4 (strongly disagree) which created a scale for locus of control. The lower the value, the higher external locus of control. Then I used statistical models to test the impact of immigrant generation on LOC with each model controlling for different factors such as race, socioeconomic status, and gender. I expect to see second generation immigrants with a higher internal LOC compared to their first generation and native counterparts.

Education is a human right, yet countries all around the world have developed very different education systems to varying degrees of academic success to provide students this right. In 2014, the country with the number one ranking for their education system in the world is South Korea. However, South Korea also has one of the highest rates of students committing suicide. The problem is the lack of a criterion for ranking education systems around the world that not only takes into account a country’s access to education or the governments support for education, but also the health and well-being of those students as indicators of a successful education system. My research focuses on the correlation between human well-being and the current education systems in some of the top performing education systems in the world, namely South Korea, Finland, Japan, and the United Kingdom. Taking into account each respective countries’ cultural background, I consider whether education systems incorporate human well-being as a critical component to human rights for an education. I then present two conclusions. First, I believe that the definition of human rights to an education should be expanded to include this element of mental health and physical well-being. Second, a new system of ranking education systems is needed to allow for proposals of education reform to take into account students’ well-being as well as academic success.

Benthic foraminifera are microscopic protists that form calcareous or agglutinated shells, and can be abundant in some locations but not in others. Water quality fluctuations could be a factor responsible for the variability in their distribution across Puget Sound, as they are highly sensitive to chemical changes. This study attempts to correlate sediment and water quality indicators with foraminiferal abundance. Sediment samples were collected from three locations within Puget Sound: Elliott Bay, Possession Point, and near the mouth of the Snohomish River. Samples were collected during each season over the course of one year to determine seasonal foraminiferal abundance. After collection, sediments were dyed with Rose Bengal to stain any living cells at time of collection. The sediments were then sieved and examined under a light microscope. Specimens were counted and mounted on a micropalaeontological slide for further examination and taxonomic identification. Water quality measurements, including temperature, salinity, pH, dissolved oxygen, phosphate concentration, and nitrate concentration were also measured at each site. The data were then examined for correlations between foraminiferal abundances and water chemistry measurements. These results provide future studies with baseline data, which could aid in the understanding of the impact of water chemistry fluctuations in the Puget Sound.

The rotation rates of galaxies disagree with the Newtonian physics prediction based on the visible mass; dark matter - matter that does not interact at all with light - is believed to account for the significant discrepancy. Despite the universe being 26.8% dark matter (DM), its particle identity is unknown. This research aims to study some of the possible mechanisms for producing dark matter in proton-proton collisions, namely mono-W/Z processes. In these events, proton-proton collisions produce a DM particle-antiparticle pair, along with W/Z bosons. Since the DM does not interact with light, it must be observed by its absence - "missing energy" that is carried off by the DM - the detected boson recoils off this missing energy. Since DM is not part of the standard model of particle physics, we introduce the candidate DM particle χ and the two-Higgs doublet model (2HDM) to allow the necessary interactions. Since χ is hypothetical, we choose candidate values for its mass between 1 and 1300 GeV. Montecarlo simulations of particular mono-boson processes are run at 8 and 13 TeV using MadGraph; background processes are filtered out by applying momentum cuts. We determine the likelihood of the mono-boson processes via the resulting cross-section and by studying the plots of the missing energy and momentum. Although this research is currently conducted via simulations, the LHC is scheduled to begin Run II in April 2015 after upgrades to the proton beam energies. We wish to analyze this real data through similar studies of missing energy and momentum, and be at the forefront of this scientific event. This research will ultimately contribute to understanding the nature and production of dark matter, giving us a more complete description of our universe.

Human embryonic stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hESC-CMs) represent a potential source for future therapies that could restore contractile function to injured hearts. Working toward this end, our laboratory has been using hESC-CMs that express GCaMP3, a calcium-sensitive fluorescent protein. With each contraction cycle, GCaMP3+ hESC-CMs display fluorescent transients, which we have been tracking using optical methods to assess the electromechanical integration of hESC-CM grafts with host myocardium in injured and uninjured hearts. However, recurrent prolonged action potential durations (APDs) observed in transplanted GCaMP3-RUES2 grafts may indicate GCaMP3-mediated off-target effects on hESC-CM electrophysiology. To test the hypothesis that GCaMP3 expression prolongs APDs in hESC-CMs, we imaged clusters of wild type (WT) and GCaMP3+ hESC-CMs from two different cell lines (H7 and RUES2) after labeling them with di-2-ANEPEQ, a water-soluble voltage-sensitive dye. During the imaging process, we externally stimulated these hESC-CM clusters at 0.5 Hz and 1 Hz over a range of voltages until we achieved maximal cluster activation and coupling. I will analyze the resultant di-2-ANEPEQ voltage recordings, comparing the optical action potentials of WT and GCaMP3+ clusters from the two cell lines. We hypothesize that GCaMP3 expression will lead to increased hESC-CM APDs and the exacerbation of baseline differences in APDs between varying cell lines. If our hypothesis is correct, the findings from this study may indicate the need to develop new methods for hESC-CM activation analysis that do not modify baseline cell electrophysiology.

The goal of this project is to determine the characteristics of silicon dioxide thin films, deposited on silicon substrates using PECVD (plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition) techniques (a method used to deposit thin films onto the substrate), and to relate those characteristics to the deposition parameters and to the film's effectiveness as a dielectric in a metal-insulator-metal capacitor (MIMCAP) structure. MIMCAPs are an important electrical element for integrated circuits (IC), Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) (i.e. sensors), and high-performance circuit boards. Throughout the duration of the project, process parameters are varied and the effects of those changes on the resultant film properties are noted. By noticing the general thin film trends as a function of process parameter, thin film characteristics are tuned to the desired levels. A combination of ellipsometry and profilometry are used to characterize the deposited thin films. These techniques allow us to quantify a variety of process and resulting film properties, including deposition rate, internal stress, and thickness uniformity. The wet etch rate (the rate of film etching in a specified chemical solution) of our films is measured by observing the film thickness before and after immersion in a buffered oxide etchant bath for a fixed time period. The primary thin film recipes resulting from this project will include a low deposition rate and a high deposition rate oxide recipe for use at either 125°C or at 350°C. The recipes generated as a result of this project will be available to WNF users and will be utilized for projects and applications outside the scope of MIMCAP structures as well.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Parkinson’s disease (PD) are the two most common neurodegenerative disorders worldwide. These diseases develop with influence from both genetic and environmental variables. We do not understand the extent to which genes and the environment interact to affect the onset and pathogenesis of AD and PD. We are identifying genes that modify the risk of acquiring AD and PD, with a model of natural genetic variation in Drosophila melanogaster, the Drosophila Genetic Reference Panel (DGRP). The DGRP is a population of inbred lines with common polymorphisms affecting complex traits. We discern the genetic basis of susceptibility to neurodegeneration by analyzing differences across the DGRP. We study the environmental factors affecting neurodegeneration using two agricultural pesticides, DDT and rotenone. AD is modeled using mutant flies, but may be exacerbated by DDT, which increases the amyloid precursor protein levels that contribute to its pathogenesis. Using a GAL4/UAS system to drive the expression of the toxic human proteins β-amyloid and Tau in the flies' eyes, we are able to score neurodegeneration of the Alzheimer's-like flies in response to DDT. In our other model, rotenone causes the selective loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra, accurately replicating the pathology of PD. The changes in motor activity of the Parkinsonian flies are then measured using a Rapid Iterative Negative Geotaxis (RING) assay. Phenotypic variation in neurodegeneration across the DGRP will be investigated for differences in single nucleotide polymorphisms. The use of DDT and rotenone during the evolution of D. melanogaster has likely led to the dispersal of resistance gene variants. We are combining these environmental models of neurodegeneration with genetic screens of the DGRP to identify genes that confer resistance to AD and PD.

Desensitization of the mu opioid receptor (MOR) has been shown to require distinct intracellular pathways activated by distinct classes of opioid compounds. Morphine-like compounds activate c-Jun-N-terminal kinase 2 (JNK2), while fentanyl-like compounds activate G-protein-coupled receptor kinase 3 (GRK3). The resulting desensitization impairs the function of the receptor resulting in tolerance in vivo, where more drug is required for the same analgesic effect. Acute analgesic tolerance resulting from receptor desensitization produced by morphine and fentanyl is abolished in mice lacking JNK2 and GRK3, respectively. Despite the differences in the signaling pathways leading to desensitization, both morphine and fentanyl activate JNK2 in the spinal cord. There are three different isoforms of JNK (1-3) and ten splice variants of the kinase, but it is unknown whether each compound activates distinct JNK splice variants. We hypothesize that morphine and fentanyl activate distinct splice variants of JNK, and are using human embryonic kidney cells (HEK) to determine which isoforms are differentially activated by morphine and fentanyl. Activation of an isoform variant above basal levels suggests its involvement in the signal transduction pathways described above. Isoforms are experimentally isolated from the total pool of JNK through immunoprecipitation, a technique using antibodies to isolate a specific protein from the soluble portion of the cell. The amount of activation of an isoform is measured by quantifying the amount of phosphorylated JNK. Preliminary research suggests that the activation of JNK is splice variant specific but not isoform specific, however, more extensive data collection of splice variants is necessary for this to be confirmed. Identifying the involvement of JNK isoform activated by morphine and fentanyl-like compounds will clarify the role of JNK in these respective signaling cascades, and may provide insight toward relieving the effect of acute analgesic tolerance associated with desensitization of the MOR.

The goal of the Emma B. Andrews Diaries Project is to preserve and make accessible a story of the past. Emma B. Andrews is best remembered for her association with the millionaire lawyer turned archaeologist, art and antiquities collector, Theodore M. Davis. Traveling to Egypt with him between 1889 and 1912, Andrews kept detailed journals of these voyages along the Nile, including Davis’s important yet under-reported excavations of 20 significant tombs in the Valley of the Kings. The challenge facing modern historians is that the original hand-written travel journals are now lost; all that remains are two typewritten copies created around 1918. Emma’s valuable perspective has therefore been, for the most part, inaccessible to both scholars and enthusiasts for almost a century. The Emma B. Andrews Diaries Project intends to change that. Our research team is in the process of creating digital editions of her 19 diary volumes and other related contemporary writings. Students associated with the project work with the diaries in varying capacities. Some research, others transcribe, edit, tag and write code. Currently we have transcribed all 19 volumes of the journal and have converted them into an XML (Extensible Markup Language) format. Additionally, diary content has been ‘tagged’ to draw out further information relating to the people and places mentioned in the diaries. Research relating to these people and places has been aggregated and put into an online database which we are calling the ‘Emmapedia’. An online reader has been developed for not only viewing the diaries, but also to connect the rich textual information found in the diaries to the Emmapedia resource. Future iterations of this project will continue to transcribe, research, and even digitally publish these materials, while exploring alternate visualizations of the data, possibly integrating Emma’s perspective into other mapping or timeline applications.

To address the need for bone substitute materials, we fabricate 3D, porous chitosan-alginate (CA) scaffolds that are biocompatible and support mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) attachment and proliferation. We have recently added hydroxyapatite (HA) particles to the CA scaffolds. Hydroxyapatite is similar in chemical composition to the mineral present in bone and its incorporation into polymeric scaffolds is biomimetic for the composite nature of bone. We hypothesize that the presence of HA nanorods within the polymeric scaffold walls will increase the osteoconductivity of the scaffolds in terms of promoting osteoblastic differentiation of MSCs. Recent work in our lab used HA in the form of platelets as a component of CA scaffolds, but we did not observe a significant increase in bone regeneration compared with regular CA scaffolds when tested in vivo. The unfavorable results were likely due to the fact that HA found in biological systems is in the form of nanorods. Therefore, the goal of this work is to synthesize HA nanorods via re-precipitation from precursor HA powder, or alternatively, precipitation from calcium nitrate and ammonium phosphate solutions. Varying the pH, temperature, and aging time of the precipitating solutions yields nanorods with different dimensions, so we optimized these variables to generate nanorods with the appropriate dimensions. The resultant nanorods were characterized using light microscopy, x-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and dynamic light scattering (DLS). Future work will involve in vitro characterization of MSC differentiation on the composite CA/HA scaffolds.

 Basic life support (BLS) is a life-saving technique used in cardiac arrest when someone has ceased breathing and the heartbeat has stopped. All health care professionals (HCP) are trained in the process of BLS and must meet specific requirements in compression quality. Compression quality is defined by the American Heart Association (AHA) and includes rate of compression (100-120), depth of compression (50mm) and percent of time on the chest (compression fraction 80%). Each aspect of compression quality is an important determinant in better survival outcomes. The purpose of this quality improvement project is to determine if staff on various patient care units of the hospital are meeting these compression standards. Data was collected from simulation mannequins during mock codes (practice codes) that were randomly scheduled throughout the hospital over a three year period. Data were entered into a spreadsheet including variables of dates, units, compression quality numbers, and frequency. Data analysis is in process. We anticipate that percent on chest will be the component that is most inadequate during CPR. We will analyze results in aggregate as well as by unit to determine any differences in performance of CPR between the units. Once we determine where compression quality is insufficient, it will be possible to go back to the units to re-teach CPR with an emphasis on the specific component that needs improvement. In the future, the improved compression quality may lead to better outcomes of circulation in patients.

Pyrococcus furiosus is a hyperthermophile archaeon with optimum temperature for growth of 100°C. Archaea are closely related to eukarya at the level of their gene expression machinery. Gene expression starts when the enzyme RNA polymerase interacts with DNA and begins RNA synthesis. To find the start of a gene, archaeal RNA polymerase needs transcription factor TATA Binding Protein (TBP) and Transcription Factor B (TFB). P. furiosus has two types of TFB: TFB1 and TFB2. Both proteins are members of the TFIIB family of transcription factors, which are highly conserved from archaea to eukarya. Since the TFB1 amino acid sequence most closely resembles the consensus TFB sequence, we assume that it is the central TFB for the cell, and therefore essential for cell survival. On the other hand the TFB2 amino acid sequence is significantly different from the consensus TFB sequence, suggesting a specialized, and potentially dispensable function in the cell. The expression of TFB2 messenger RNA increases upon heat stress condition, but the actual role of the TFB2 polypeptide in physiology of living cells is unknown. As the first step in defining the role of TFB2, we deleted its gene from the genome of P. furiosus to see if it’s essential for survival. To accomplish this, recombinant DNA was made using Gibson Assembly technique. This DNA, which included a selection marker for ability to synthesize uracil, was used to transform P. furiosus strain ‘COM1’. Uracil prototrophs were selected on growth medium lacking uracil, and the deletion of the target gene was confirmed using PCR. This project showed that the TFB2 gene is not necessary for cell survival. Although this gene is not essential, we predict it is required under harsh conditions such as unusually high or low temperature, pH, or other conditions of stress. 

Mutualistic interactions between sulfate-reducers and fermenters are responsible for worldwide methane production and maintaining carbon flow in anaerobic communities. Some of these mutualistic relationships evolve to become obligate, where the presence of one species becomes dependent on the other for its survival. We study the evolution of this obligate relationship between a sulfate reducer, Desulfovibrio vulgaris, and a methanogen, Methanococcus maripaludis. After both of these organisms evolved in an environment that forced their mutualistic cooperation for 1000 generations, at least 13 out of 22 D. vulgaris populations had lost their ability to respire sulfate. To test whether these changes were beneficial in the evolution environment, we measured the fitness of mutants with deletions in sulfate-respiration genes relative to the wild type strain, with either an evolved or ancestral M. maripaludis partner. The population size of each D. vulgaris genotype was measured using FREQ-Seq, a technique that quantifies frequencies of various mutations in an amplicon. Initially, this experiment demonstrated that deletion of the sulfate-reduction genes had no discernable impact on relative fitness of D. vulgaris when it was paired with the ancestor M. maripaludis, and mutant fitness was lower in pairings with the evolved M. maripaludis. After repeating the experiment with a different sequencing method, we observed that the mutant D. vulgaris had higher relative fitness whether it was paired with evolved or ancestral M. maripaludis. Additionally, in this replication of the experiment, mutant fitness increased when the mutant was rarer in the initial culture mixture. Further experiments using alternative methods for quantifying populations will explore the discrepancy between these results. The data collected from these experiments will help us have a more complete understanding of the mechanisms of natural selection and its effect on sulfate reducing populations to become obligate mutualists.

The field of hospice care was originally envisioned as a framework for managing pain in patients with cancer and supporting their families, but has been expanded to include patients with a wide array of terminal diagnoses.  In 2010, roughly 10% of the 1.58 million patients enrolled in hospice worldwide had the primary diagnosis of dementia.  In the United States, 66.7% of hospice patients are cared for by informal caregivers.  Pain has been identified as a primary concern among these informal caregivers, but no studies have specifically examined pain management by caregivers of patients with dementia, even though patients with dementia have high levels of untreated pain.  Hospice patients with dementia are prescribed less analgesic medication and derive fewer benefits with greater adverse effects from pharmaceutical treatment than cancer patients.  In my study I describe the primary barriers to good pain management in hospice patients with dementia, as identified by informal caregivers. Using thematic coding to analyze interviews gathered from a randomized clinical trial of a Problem Solving Therapy (PST) intervention for informal hospice caregivers, I have identified four themes in the narratives of caregivers of dementia patients related to pain. Caregivers described uncertainty about the etiology of pain, difficulties in communicating with patients, lack of consistent guidance from healthcare professionals, and secondary suffering as the factors which prevented them from properly and effectively managing pain in their loved ones. These findings and the descriptions of individual caregiver experiences that accompany them could be integrated into the training and education of healthcare workers in order to provide better support for caregivers and patients. Future researchers may use these study findings to develop and test interventions for improved pain management of hospice patients with dementia.

During adolescence, a time when adequate rest is of utmost importance, many factors detract from the amount and quality of sleep in teenagers. Among the factors that can influence sleep is artificial light exposure, which has not been well studied in this age group. Lack of sleep may contribute to adolescent obesity, fatigue, depression, decreased physical inactivity, inattentiveness, and overall health and wellness. The aim of this study is to identify key factors detracting from sleep. With the increase and accessibility of electronics for adolescents, it is important to understand the effects of artificial and electric light exposure on sleep quality and duration. A sample of twenty teenagers ages 13-17, who are enrolled in a larger study exploring the relationships of sleep and adolescent obesity, will be the basis for this study. Subjects wear an actigraphy watch for eight days, which monitors activity, sleep and light exposure (measured in blue, yellow and red). Data from the watch, as well as a series of self-report questionnaires and a sleep diary, will be analyzed for sleep quality, duration, and disruptions. A preliminary review of actigraphy watch data shows a correlation between nighttime light exposure and increased awakenings. Further review of the data will analyze total light exposure in lux and photon measures, time above light threshold (TALT), total sleep time (TST), and nighttime awakenings. I anticipate a decrease in TST and quality and increase in nighttime awakenings as light exposure increases, especially in the sixty minutes before bedtime and during sleep time. The intent of this study is to explore relationships between artificial light exposure and sleep and emphasize the need for additional research in this area. This new information could lead to the development of innovative interventions tailored specifically to the adolescent population to improve sleep and overall health.

Colicins are a family of antimicrobial proteins that are produced by E. coli. The colicin gene is carried on a plasmid, along with a constitutive immunity gene. The immunity protein binds and neutralizes the antimicrobial colicin in a highly specific manner. If either the colicin or the immunity protein changes, they might no longer fit together, thus resulting in the death of the cell by its own colicin. This immutability creates a system that seems unable to evolve. However, at least thirty colicin/immunity proteins have been isolated so far and evidence shows that they share common ancestors, suggesting that diversification has occurred. So how is this diversity possible if the system appears to be evolutionarily trapped? How might new colicin/immunity pairs evolve? The colicin/immunity system is unusual because the immunity promoter is located within colicin coding sequence since most promoters are located upstream of a gene in a non-coding region. Preliminary work has shown that even if the binding affinity between an immunity and colicin protein is low, an overproduction of immunity proteins may increase inhibition of mismatched colicin because it could ensure that the colicin is mostly bound. We hypothesize that a single mutation in the region of the immunity promoter might modify the colicin’s structure, while simultaneously increasing immunity production to bind this new colicin effectively. Using error-prone PCR a large and diverse collection of colicin alleles were created with random mutations in this immunity promoter region. Over 6000 colonies with mutated colicin genes were stabbed into a lawn of bacteria producing the ancestral immunity protein at ancestral expression levels. One potential novel colicin protein was successfully isolated and sequenced the colicin gene. Through sequencing analysis, we know that there is one amino acid change in the area where the immunity protein binds.

iPSC (induced Pluripotent Stem Cell) derived neural networks provide a novel model for examining the effects of different genotypes. Here we examine the chemical and electrophysiological properties of these neural networks at the levels of individual cells and neural ensembles. Cell pairs were examined through dual whole-cell patch-clamp electrophysiology, with 5% of the tested pairs exhibiting chemical synaptic activity and 6% exhibiting electrical synapses. Of those exhibiting electrical synapses, a broad range of gap-junctional conductances (Gj) and coupling coeffcients (% CC) were observed. The measured values fell between 24 pS Gj, 0.25% CC and 80nS, 90% CC. The cells examined also showed  spontaneous, synchronized, and oscillatory activity including ESPs (electrical synapse plasticity), IPSPs, and sub-threshold oscillations. The observed synchronicity of these spontaneous events has been observed to vary with the CC % of the cells in question. Pharamcological tests also confirm that treatment of these cells with exogenous NMDA results in strengthening of ESP in weakly coupled pairs (<1.4% CC) and weakening of ESP in moderately coupled pairs (2-20% CC) in line with observations reported by Turcek et al (2014) and Mathy el al (2014). These experiments provide insight into the mechanisms underlying the function of electrical synapses in determining the properties and overall activity of iPSC derived neural networks.

As some of the world’s most predominant nitrifiers, archea of the phylum Thaumarchaeota contribute largely to the nitrogen cycle. Ammonia-oxidizing archaeon Nitrosopumilus maritimus strain SCM1 (SCM1) successfully oxidizes ammonia in concentrations that cannot sustain ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB). SCM1 has a surface layer that makes up the outermost layer of the cell envelope. We believe that this surface layer is adapted to concentrate ammonium on the cell surface more efficiently than the gram-negative AOBs. Therefore, we hypothesize that strain SCM1 concentrates more ammonium on the cell surface than AOB. To test our hypothesis, we compare the ability of SCM1 and two representative AOB (Nitrosomonas europaea and Nitrosococcus oceani) to concentrate ammonium on the cell their surfaces. If the data support our hypothesis, this cell surface adaptation may facilitate SCM1 to thrive in environments with low ammonia concentrations.

The development of materials that are able to resist failure is key to creating more durable products. Typically, when a brittle material like a ceramic or a glass experiences a load equal to its fracture strength, it will fail without deforming. For example, when struck by a rock, normal window glass will form cracks and those cracks will propagate and eventually shatter. However in nature there are biological ceramic composite materials that defy the conventional behavior of ceramics. This is due to very small amounts of adhesives such as proteins. The commonality between these adhesives is the formation of fibrils when subjected to an excessive load. This is a study of how fibrils form and their mechanical properties in biological and polymeric adhesives. Fibrils form by cavitation in energy-dissipating systems. Through literature reviews, I have found the mechanism and reasons for why biological adhesives and polymeric adhesives are able to resist failure. These biological adhesives are able to transfer the energy caused by the stress and dissipate it over a larger volume, therefore resisting failure. The mechanism of dissipation differs between each adhesive, but generally involve a long molecule that unfolds or modules that unravel as load is applied. Utilizing this knowledge, we are able to synthesize polymeric adhesives that demonstrate similar properties. Some examples of polymeric adhesives that I have found to display similar properties are pressure sensitive adhesives, fluorosilicone polymer gels, and polyurethane microfibers. Using these polymeric adhesives as building blocks we will be able to create materials that perform better and last longer, for applications such as improved safety glasses for use in automotive and other structural applications.

Self-assembled monolayer field-effect transistors (SAMFETs) are transistors with a semiconductor comprised of a single molecular monolayer. Recent progress has been made to increase the charge mobility of SAMFETs from 10^-6 cm² V^-1 s^-1 to 10^-2 cm² V^-1 s^-1. One of the primary limiting factors for SAMFETs is the fabrication time. Typically, the amount of time for SAM assembly is around 72 hours or more. In this study, we find that SAM assembly can be significantly reduced through the use of heated assembly. We find comparable performance for SAMs assembled at 1, 8, 24, and 72-hour device fabrication times. However, these devices require a 10-hour thermal annealing step after electrode deposition in order to achieve efficient contact between the gold electrode and the SAM semiconductor. In order to further reduce the processing time, we utilize a soft contact lamination method to fabricate devices with graphene electrodes. Devices with graphene electrodes do not require thermal annealing in order to get comparable performance. SAMFETs are investigated through comprehensive electrical characterization, atomic force microscopy, and contact angle goniometry.

As animals age, they experience a decline in organ and tissue functions, which increases the risk of death. Recently, rapamycin, a drug that is commonly used to treat some cancer patients, has been shown to increase lifespan of model organisms, especially mice. My project seeks to determine the dose at which the lifespan response to rapamycin is greatest across different wild-type lines of the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. We first collected flies and placed them on food containing varying concentrations of rapamycin for two weeks. Next, we switched them to food with paraquat, a redox compound that reduces Drosophila lifespan to less than a week. We then determined the concentration of rapamycin that gave the largest increase in lifespan in flies on paraquat. Our results show that rapamycin does have an effect on lifespan in Drosophila, and the effects vary between different lines of the species, suggesting a genetic basis to how the flies respond to the drug. With future experiments on more genotypes, we will have the ability to map the genes that are associated with these lifespan differences between lines.

In the field of immunology, Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T cell immunotherapy, where T cells are genetically engineered to recognize and attack tumor cells, is a promising route for cancer treatment. While other methods like radiation or chemotherapy harm healthy cells, CAR T cell immunotherapy can be tumor specific. Engineered CAR T cells recognize certain antigens on tumor cells. In this study, we utilize the current CD19 CAR T cell system in the clinical trial as a model system. When CD19-targeted CAR T cells encounter the CD19 expressing tumor cells, the T cells get activated to eliminate the tumor cells. However, in some cases tumor cells can escape from CAR T cells. To augment the CAR T cell antitumor effect, Interleukin-12 (IL12) can be inserted to the CAR T cell. IL12 is a cytokine that has cytotoxic activity and is naturally produced by macrophages and Dendritic cells. We propose that by inserting the IL12 gene under the control of T Cell activation via the inducible NFAT (Nuclear Factor of Activated T cells) promoter, the T cells’ anti-tumor activity get enhanced. To accomplish this, we created a new plasmid containing our IL12 transgene and a green fluorescence marker gene under the control of NFAT promoter using Gibson Cloning. In the future, in order to test the functionality of the plasmid, we will initially transiently transfect HEK 293 cells and assess the expression of the transgenes via FACS staining, ELISA and Western Blotting. Upon getting successful expression, we will generate replication defective lentivirus that will be used to transduce human T cells, and we will subsequently test these CAR T cells in a mouse tumor model in vivo.

Rapamycin is a natural macrolide antibiotic that can extend lifespan and delay aging in multiple organisms, including mice. Rapamycin targets and blocks the Target of Rapamycin (TOR), a protein involved in cell growth and proliferation. In this research, we investigated the effects of transient, high-dose rapamycin on lifespan and healthspan of C57BL/6 mice. Mice of 3 different age groups were injected daily with 8mg/kg rapamycin intra-peritoneally for 12 weeks. Baseline measurements of blood glucose, hemoglobin A1c, body composition, rotarod performance, forelimb grip strength, and voluntary running were collected before treatment initiation and compared to measurements collected at the end of the treatment period. At the end of the trial, the mice were sacrificed for post treatment histopathology and metabolomics. A second cohort of injected mice is being monitored for survival. Results showed that rapamycin extended survival only in male mice, and has no effects on motor activity, balance, and body composition in both genders, but prevents the loss of forelimb grip strength, especially in young mice. Histopathology analysis detected increased pathology in the spleen, heart, and gonads, but also a general reduction in inflammation markers and an enrichment of segmented filamentous bacteria in the intestine. In addition, there were increased free amino acids in the serum, which suggests a possible shift in metabolism toward amino acid catabolism and a fating-like response. Our current studies are investigating the effects of a lower dose (128ppm) administered in the chow for 3 months, which is showing a tendency to increased survival in both genders. 

Dissatisfied with the opacity of zirconia dioxide (ZR) restoration translucency, some dental technicians have attempted to increase translucency by increasing sintering temperatures above manufacturers’ recommendations. Zirconia is the current gold standard in dental restorations due to its favorable mechanical and esthetic properties. Restorations are milled from pre-packaged blanks, which are then sintered (a process similar to the firing of clay) allowing zirconia molecules undergo a phase change from monoclinic to tetrahedral structure. The rate and peak sintering temperature affect the distribution of the phase change in zirconia, with longer hold time at a sintering temperature ensuring homogeneous structure throughout the zirconia. This study evaluated the effect of increased sintering temperatures and hold times on the translucency and biaxial flexure strength (BFS). Biaxial test disks were milled from ZR blanks with a Roland DWX-50 and 4 sintering protocol groups (SPG) (n=10/group) created with maximum sintering temperature(oC) and hold times (hours): 1) 1530-2hrs (Control- manufacturer recommended); 2) 1530-4hrs; 3) 1570-2hrs; 4) 1570-4hrs to dimensions of 14mm diameter by 1.2mm thickness. Disks were ground, finished and polished to 1200 grit paper and 15um diamond paste polished. Contrast Ratio (CR) was measured with spectrophotometer and mean translucency calculated as 1 minus CR=Translucency(%). Specimen dimensions were measured and tested according to ISO 6872. Mean(sd) BFS(MPa), Weibull Characteristic Strength (WCS) and Weibull Modulus (WM) were calculated and statistics analyzed. ANOVA (p<0.001) showed significant differences between SPG for WCS and translucency. T-test (p< 0.05) showed WCS of SPG3 was significantly lower than control and for SPG2 and SPG4 with increased hold times translucency was significantly increased. A correlation was found between increased hold time and translucency R=0.976. Under conditions tested these results demonstrated: 1. Increased sintering temperature alone reduced BFS; 2. A correlation between increased hold time and increased translucency with minimal reduction in strength.

Health defects such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma can hinder quality of life. Ground level ozone (O₃), a leading contributor to these diseases, is an air pollutant responsible for an estimated 470,000 deaths worldwide annually. O₃ is just one of numerous outdoor air pollutants regularly monitored at stationary sites across the city of Seattle. Data recorded for these outdoor values, however, may not provide accurate estimates of personal exposure as they fail to account for both indoor and outdoor exposure. A comprehensive ambient air quality study focusing on NO_x, SO₂, NH₃, and O₃ compounds was conducted in Seattle, WA, using personal passive air samplers to measure outdoor, indoor, and personal exposure estimates of two North Seattle College (NSC) students. Sampling sites using passive air filters were set up in locations of high daily use of the testers: both indoor and outdoor on the NSC campus, at the testers’ places of residence, in their cars, and on their bodies. Filters collected from the passive samplers were analyzed using ion chromatography. Results of this analysis provide a better estimate of both the rate and source of exposure to a variety of airborne pollutants. Accurate estimates are critical to establishing exposure guidelines and mitigating the impact of these pollutants on public health.

A public art intervention that tells the history of a place and encourages social engagement will lead to a better connected community. By telling the story of a community’s past and sharing stories with its current population, people will identify with their place and therefore, their community. The Storytimeline aims to enhance people’s understanding of and relationship with their community. We have developed complementary physical and virtual platforms of a historical timeline for the community to engage with. The physical timeline is displayed on ten two-feet by two-feet decals along one block of a major pathway in the heart of the University District. The timeline activates the sidewalk by tangibly representing the community’s history via written and graphic information. The website allows users to share their experience of the place and read others’ stories. By combining literary research with social observations at the timeline, voluntary submissions on the web and in-person interviews, the Storytimeline documents a holistic understanding of the University District. Through these efforts, the Storytimeline is a catalyst for place attachment and social capital, where a shared understanding of place leads to a better connected community.

Recent research has shown the increase in the criminal justice system in the United States has misrepresented the true political, economic, and social conditions of individuals across the nation. This article argues that the massive increase in the penal population has skewed estimates of state wide poverty rates, as the criminal justice system widely conceals a part of the population who may be included in these estimates. As most national surveys do not account for prison inmates, this paper provides insights of how drastically poverty estimates vary when the incarcerated population is accounted for. This research uses data from the US Census Bureau and the Bureau of Justice Statistics to determine the interconnection between poverty and incarceration on a state level. While prior research has acknowledged misrepresentation in nation wide survey methodology exists, this paper seeks to estimate the degree to which it extends in state wide poverty rates; revealing the notion that poverty is more widespread than represented in conventional nationwide surveys.

Does a tradeoff between relative growth rates (competitive ability) and frost tolerance explain the distribution of tree species across a large temperature gradient at Mt. Rainier National Park? This is an important question, given the possibility of climate change. To address this question, we grew seedlings of seven tree species in a greenhouse, and quantified relative growth rates and frost tolerance. Specifically, we planted a hundred individuals of each species in the greenhouse, allowed them to grow for seven months, and quantified growth rates by measuring seedling height twice. We then quantified frost tolerance by measuring electrolyte leakage in two treatments with ten seedlings per species per treatment: samples at room temperature and samples subjected to frost (simulated by a freezer). Both samples were then autoclaved (to determine total electrolyte leakage). Control, treatment, autoclaved control and the autoclaved treatment an injury index was found giving the percentage of frost damage. We expected that lower elevation tree species would have higher growth rates but also lower frost tolerance (as indicated by higher electrolyte leakage); with higher elevation trees showing the opposite pattern (a lower growth rate but higher frost tolerances as indicated by lower electrolyte leakage). We will use the results from this experiment to speculate on the impacts of climate change (which will reduce the likelihood of damaging frosts) on species distributions. If a tradeoff between growth rates and frost tolerance does exist, climate change may cause lower elevation trees at Mt. Rainier to crowd out the higher elevation tree species.

Scholars have recently begun researching the rise of Ethnic Studies programs in colleges and universities during the civil rights era. Most studies have focused on African American, Asian American, and Chicano studies. Native American Studies, however, holds a distinct difference, given Native people's unique sovereignty and the relationship with the United States government. My research delves into the diverse agendas for which Native American Studies was founded, and explores whether the University of Washington's program was effective or ineffective in meeting the goals of those who founded it. My research examines several aspects in the evolution of Native American Studies: how different groups competing for Ethnic Studies programs influenced the structure of Native American Studies; how the Native American Studies program contrasted with programs devoted to other minority groups; conflicts between and within the opinons of the White authority and Natives, given polarized definitions of academic versus community focuses on both sides; and the target goals of legitimizing Native identity versus accruing diversity through cultural understanding.

Zebrafish (Danio rerio) represent a potentially powerful model for real time imaging of bone cell dynamics during development, regeneration, and disease. However, a central challenge to such efforts is the inability to apply established zebrafish imaging strategies to post-embryonic physiologies. Unlike embryonic zebrafish, whose skeletons are largely unossified, adult zebrafish are not able to be anesthetized for greater than 20-40 minutes, an insufficient window of time to observe many bone related physiologies. Thus, the goal of this project was to develop a dynamic anesthesia system for long-term imaging in adult zebrafish. The system consisted of a 3D-printed imaging chamber connected to a system of computer controlled peristaltic pumps. The pumps were programmed to periodically replenish the chamber with anesthetic and fresh water to maintain the fish in a dynamic anesthetic plane. Testing revealed an optimal dosing regimen of 15 minutes of anesthetic water (0.0035% benzocaine) followed by 5 minutes of fresh water. This combination enabled the fish to be kept continuously between stage two and stage three anesthesia, just prior to respiratory arrest. Under these parameters, we found that 6/8 adult zebrafish (75%) were able to be kept under anesthesia for up to 8 hours. This period of anesthesia is more than ten times longer than any other published study in adult zebrafish. By establishing a method for long term anesthesia in adult zebrafish, this study significantly broadens the utility of Danio rerio as a skeletal model as well as other post-embryonic physiologies.

During the Soeharto regime (1967-1998), President Soeharto pressured the Indonesian peoples only to act in the economic sphere, so that there was hardly any room for Chinese to pursue other interests or even to cultivate their identity as Chinese Indonesians. This meant that they could not express or teach their children about their traditional culture. However, after the New Order government fell in 1998, the New Citizen Bill came out which guaranteed that all ethnic groups, particularly those of Chinese identity, would be awarded equal citizenship. Moreover, the establishing of Cheng Hoo Mosque in Surabaya, and the founding of PITI (The Association of Chinese Muslims in Indonesia) were two major movements towards re-establishing Chinese Muslim identity in Indonesia. There were also rising numbers of Chinese Islamic preachers, who utilized social media to show their ethnicity and status as converts to Islam in order to attract other Indonesian people's attention and interest. My research is based on several books and articles, which offer different perspectives on this time period, such as the views from British observers, Chinese Indonesian observers, Christian Indonesian ones, and Chinese Muslim women’s views. These authors include Hew Wai-Wang, Haji Junus Jahja, Siew-Min Sai, Susanne Schroter, and Felix Heiduk. Two of the books I will write about are Religious Pluralism: State and Society in Asia, and Chinese Indonesia Reassessed: History, Religion, and Belonging by Hew Wai-Wang. My bibliographical resources were suggested by a professor of Southeast Asian History in the Jackson school, and through my own UW library research. Using particular and situated knowledge, my research examines different perspectives and moral viewpoints on this topic. I hope this project will educate more people on religious issues in Indonesia and advocate for religious diversity.

The standard laboratory food source for C. elegans is a non-pathogenic strain of E. coli bacteria. It has been found, however, that this E. coli is in fact pathogenic to worms as they age. To separate the effects of bacterial pathogenesis from natural worm aging, our lab uses UV radiation and antibiotics to prevent bacterial growth inside the worm. However, the UV radiation can only stop bacteria from replicating; the bacteria are still metabolically active and capable of damaging the worms by mechanisms that are unclear. Formaldehyde, unlike UV, is a chemical that permanently cross-links proteins and fully kills bacteria, metabolically and otherwise. My project is to develop formaldehyde-killed bacteria as a food source for aging studies in worms and to test whether fully killing bacteria improves health in C. elegans. This work is important because it will allow us to separate the effects of bacterial toxicity from aging and to improve metabolic studies in worms by removing the confounding effects of bacterial metabolism. The first phase of my project was to conduct concentration assays to determine the lowest dosage of formaldehyde able to fully kill a sufficient amount of bacteria for worm plates. The second phase of my project was to validate that eating formaldehyde-killed food is healthy and does not harm the worms. The third phase of this project involved conducting lifespan experiments on the worms. This project has the potential to advance lifespan experiments by providing a more controlled food source for experimentation and may impact the aging field as a whole. Not only will this technique produce results in the field of aging, but it could also apply to any scientific field using C. elegans as model organisms.

Serious mental illness has been stigmatized throughout history and today. While deinstitutionalization has been a step forward for treatment of mentally ill persons, it also places a number of social institutions in direct contact with people with serious mental illness and often leads to continued stigmatization and negative stereotyping of these individuals. Across the country, police officers are first responders to people with serious mental illnesses, and this setting encourages the mentally ill to be treated by the institution as criminals rather than treated for an illness. The police are unsupported by healthcare agencies, hospitals, and policy makers that hold the power to provide an alternative solution for people with mental illness in crisis. This study addresses the stigma held against people with serious mental illnesses by examining how the presence of a mental illness affects the likelihood of being arrested for social misconduct crimes. I expect that people with serious mental illnesses are arrested for small crimes labeled as social misconduct much more often than the general population. To quantify this differential treatment I have examined all the recorded police stops performed by the Seattle Police Department in 2012. I separated the criminal offenses by severity to analyze how often people with serious mental illnesses are stopped or arrested for minor crimes associated with their mental illness. Using a multiple logistic regression model and controlling for race, age, and gender, I will show the extent to which people with serious mental illnesses have differential patterns of interaction with the police. Quantifying the stigmatization of mentally ill persons in Seattle will provide evidence of the need to improve support for both police and this population. This knowledge will encourage better understanding of mental illness, generate potential policy change to improve treatment options, and, in general, decrease stigma for this group.

 We present our development of a real-time emergency vehicle identification and localization system meant to increase transportation safety by notifying potentially distracted drivers of oncoming emergency vehicles and thereby allowing emergency vehicles to respond more efficiently. The in-vehicle system is designed to constantly monitor exterior vehicle sounds with an array of directional microphones. Large-area environmental sounds are pre-processed by an ADC microcontroller and fed through a fast Fourier transform for acoustic spectral analysis by a neural network algorithm designed to identify a broad range of emergency vehicle sirens while at the same time minimizing false-positive triggers due to complicated background noises. High-probability triggers as determined by the neural network algorithm then initiate acoustic geolocation and motion sensing through hyperbolic intercepts determined by time delays taken from the quad-array microphones. In parallel, for comparison, we will be benchmarking the neural network against an implemented Goertzel algorithm. The results of the emergency vehicle's location will then be finalized by being output to the user.

The budding yeast S. cerevisiae is a powerful model for the study of aging. Traditionally, yeast lifespans are measured via labor-intensive dissection techniques to remove and count “daughter” cells from their aged “mother” cells until replicative senescence. Microfluidic devices offer the potential to automate yeast lifespan experiments by isolating individual mother cells in micron-scale cell “traps” and using fluid flow to remove newly mature daughter cells. We evaluated the ALCATRAS 2 microfluidic platform, which immobilizes an array of 1500 yeast cells using “v shaped" traps for continuous, whole-lifespan imaging. Moreover, we collected a variety of previously inaccessible phenotypic aging data including cell size, budding rates, and budding patterns. We expect the ALCATRAS 2 device to emerge as a strong high-throughput, “rich-data” partner to manual dissection.