Throughout the United States, children and adults are forced to engage in sexual acts and use illicit drugs against their will, in what many would call modern day slavery, commercial sexual exploitation, or sex trafficking. Victims are controlled through coercion, force, fraud, physical and sexual violence and they endure many emotional and physical consequences. Approximately 80% of victims access healthcare during their time of exploitation for health reasons such as acute injuries, sexually transmitted infections, and mental illnesses, such as depression, anxiety, trauma, and suicidal ideation. The emergency department (ED) is the frontline to these patients. To date, little is known about nurses' confidence or competence in identifying or caring for this vulnerable population in Seattle, WA. The aim of this study is to examine what current practices exist at emergency departments in three, large referral hospitals in Seattle to identify victims, and to assess facility and nurse readiness for improved identification. Nine ED nurses in Seattle were interviewed to gain insight into how they currently identify trafficking victims, their opinion of the acceptability of existing screening questions (compiled from nationwide piloted studies) in their ED setting, and whether they felt such a standardized screening tool may be effective in identifying victims and improving subsequent care. Through transcription of audio interviews, nurses’ responses were analyzed and coded for common themes. Improved identification of trafficking victims by nurses and other frontline health workers in emergency settings may lead to more efficient and effective linking with vital support services and resources to assist them in safely exiting the sex trafficking industry. Results from this study will be shared with the participating hospitals, as well as public health officials and stakeholder organizations in order to improve awareness of sex trafficking, victims, and provision of necessary care and resources to support this vulnerable population.

Many plant species are known to undergo masting, where individuals within a species all produce a large amount of seed in a single year, with a sharp drop off in reproduction in the following years. Masting may be beneficial to plants by suppressing seed predator populations in low seed production years, allowing for seeds to escape predation in high seed production years. Masting is likely associated with climate, although this is poorly understood. In this study, I will use herbarium specimens to tackle questions related to masting in five plant species: Tsuga heterophylla, Pseudotsuga menziesii, Thuja plicata, Rubus spectabilis, and Rubus parviflorus. Specifically, I will note the number of cones, seeds or berries on herbarium specimens, as well as specimen size and the year it was collected. I will use these data to 1) examine patterns of masting in focal species as compared to field data from Mount Rainier. I hypothesize that herbarium specimens will show a similar pattern of masting as field data, with trees showing stronger patterns than shrubs. Next, I will use these data to 2) compare masting patterns to annual climate. I hypothesize that warm temperatures lead to masting the following year, and that masting has increased in frequency. Finally, I will 3) assess the relationship between masting and bird species that eat seeds and berries (e.g. grouse, jays), to determine whether masting influences population dynamics of higher trophic levels. I will do so by comparing masting patterns with bird count data from the Audobon Society. I hypothesize that population sizes of birds that rely on seeds and berries will be greater in mast years. This study provides additional information for how we might expect entire ecosystems to be affected by climate change, including resource distribution and population health.

Nowadays teamwork is becoming more and more important in business, and we may need to work together to fulfil projects’ goals. However, we still cannot find the exact reasons why some teams collapse. However, we think referent power and trust, in part, be likely culprits because it affects the way teams communicate to share knowledge about the project. Referent power is a form of reverence gained by a leader who has strong interpersonal relationship skills. Trust refers to a strong belief in the honesty and goodness of someone. Past research suggest that if the referent and trust are relatively low, it will affect the effectiveness and efficiency of communication or even no communication at all. Without communication, the team work will likely collapse. To test this contention without negatively affecting real-world teams, we used an agent-based modeling and simulation approach. Agent-based models are an impactful tool to study team phenomena because it can model the complex behaviors and probability of interactions and effects in a closed environment. So in our research, we analyzed the referent power and trust of a team by using agent-based models. We created a model for our research with two components “referent power and trust”. We 1) tested a mix of referent power and compared high referent power with low member trust, versus low referent power with high member trust to see what is the best scenario and 2) the results showed the scenarios when a team had higher effectiveness and efficiency in team work. Also, we share our NetLogo agent-based model code for other researchers to leverage.

Pulmonary fibrosis is a disease marked by irreversible scarring and thickening of the lung tissue causing significant decline in lung function. Individuals afflicted will struggle to perform simple physical activities and often require mechanical assistance at some point in their lives. Currently, there are no permanent solutions for those with pulmonary fibrosis as most treatments only aim to slow down the progression of the disease. In these studies, we developed a novel therapeutic that could stop the progression through DNA modification of fibrotic gene targets using exosomes as a delivery vehicle. Additionally, regeneration of lung tissue is imperative for reinstating lung function and by using similar technologies we aim to target and overexpress critical regenerative genes. Using CRISPR Cas9 gene editing technology, we were able to knockdown key cytokine specific genes responsible for the development of fibrosis. We specifically targeted TGFß (Transforming Growth Factor ß) and Interleuken-6 (IL-6), both known to play a significant role in pro-inflammatory responses and fibrosis through exosome-mediated delivery mechanisms. CRISPR Cas9 vectors were designed to contain unique guide RNAs that could effectively target specific genes that the Cas9 complex could use to repress TGFß and IL-6. Cell lines were treated with the modified CRISPR Cas9 vectors and assessed for gene and protein expression. This study provides key insight into a novel therapeutic platform using a new delivery mechanism that mitigates and reduces fibrosis and promotes recovery of pulmonary function.

Multiple studies have demonstrated an association between a long-term exposure to air pollutants and health outcomes in area of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. However, there is suggestive, but insufficient, evidence linking the association between long-term exposure to air pollution and mental health outcomes, such as depression. In South Korea, a nationwide population-based, cross-sectional study investigated the relationship between long-term exposure to ambient air pollutants and mental health status. The study of 124,205 participants found a positive associations between Particulate Matter (PM10 and PM2.5 ), Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2), and Carbon Monoxide (CO) exposures and mental health status. The goal of this study is to determine whether the air pollution-depression relationship holds true in the ACT (Adult Changes in Thought) cohort by conducting a similar study to the cross-sectional study conducted in South Korea. In this study, I will consider air pollutants (PM2.5 and PM10) as exposure and depression as a measure of health outcome. The central working hypothesis of this study is that higher levels of PM2.5 and PM10 will be associated with an increase in CES-D (Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression) score. Participants from the ACT cohort (members of the Kaiser Permanente in Seattle, Washington) who had an ACT study visit between 11/1/2000-4/1/2003 will be the study population. The primary analysis aims to evaluate the association between PM (PM2.5 and PM10) and CES-D scores using linear regression model after adjusting for age, sex, smoking, income, education, cardiovascular disease, and cerebrovascular disease. The secondary analysis aims to evaluate the effect modification of age, alcohol history and early vs. late onset of depression has on this association. It is hoped that the results from this study will expand our understanding of the relationship between air pollution and depression.

There has been significant concern regarding the global effects of climate change, especially on plant communities, which are influenced by individual plant species responses. Warming temperatures are having large repercussions for plant biodiversity, with rapidly changing environmental conditions causing shifts in species ranges and phenology. To better understand the implications of this phenomenon on plants, many studies have investigated responses of individual species to climate change. One approach that has grown in recent decades is the use of functional leaf traits, which are indicators of plant performance and reproductive capacity. Specific leaf area (SLA), the ratio of fresh leaf area to dry leaf mass, is one such trait that is attributed to plant growth and photosynthetic capacity, and found to be correlated with climate. We assessed the relationship between climate and SLA for Vaccinium ovalifoilum, a shrub that is prevalent in the montane ecosystems of Mt. Rainier. To accomplish this, we gathered SLA using samples from the Burke Museum’s herbarium collection whose distribution will be delineated across three elevational bands. Altitude was used as a proxy for climate due to variable environmental conditions found across elevation—namely temperature and precipitation—and the collection location of specimens allowed us to obtain temperature and snow accumulation data. With this information, we compared the variation between the three established elevational bands in which the specimens fell under. We hypothesized that as elevation increases, SLA will decrease, attributing this trend to a limited growing window to support high photosynthetic capacity as a result of later snowmelt and lower temperatures. Our results offered insight to understand how climate change may potentially affect plant functionality and guide future research to analyze how changes in individual species may influence community coexistence in the upcoming years.

Despite the yearly development of a vaccine, influenza (flu) still causes annual epidemics and is responsible for tens of thousands of deaths in the United States. Current flu vaccines are not fully effective in preventing viral infection because they protect people against a finite number of flu strains, which people may or may not be exposed to during a particular flu season. To address this challenge, we are engineering new protein therapeutics to increase the efficacy of flu vaccines. The two major proteins that flu viruses use to infect host cells, hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA), structurally parallel the two proteins that constitute a de novo designed nanocage. De novo protein design allows researchers to create proteins that are more stable than those produced in biological systems via evolution. The focus of this project is to use this designed nanocage to scaffold a more potent flu vaccine through a process called pseudo-symmetrization, which will allow the cage to display many different strains of HA and NA. To pseudo-symmetrize proteins, we used a modelling software to determine which protein components to modify to build a pseudo-symmetric protein. Then, we use molecular biology techniques to make modifications to regions of the protein that interact with other proteins when it self-assembles. As a result, the pseudo-symmetric protein is composed of building blocks that are all slightly different from one another, but can still assemble to create a nanocage with the same structure. So far, we have identified several variants of the modified cage component that can self-assemble, and we are continuing to test more interaction sites that make pseudo-symmetric proteins. These results, and continued experiments, will help us create new vaccines capable of displaying more flu virus antigens, thus protecting people from the flu using a single universal flu vaccine.

Increasingly, over the past half century, antibiotic resistant plasmids have spread to a large range of bacteria increasing the demand of new antibiotics. On average, once an antibiotic has been released into the public market, a strain that is antibiotic resistant evolves within a few years. Even though the constant production of new drugs and treatments provides some temporary solutions, a better solution would be to investigate and understand bacterial plasmid mechanisms. Through my research in the UW Biology Kerr Lab, I have been exploring how bacteria maintain plasmids that contain genes encoding for antibiotic resistance. Plasmids are extra-chromosomal pieces of DNA that require the host cell to allocate energy for their general maintenance. Prior theoretical research suggests that, to avoid this allocation of resources, the host should lose antibiotic resistant plasmids over time when the plasmid is no longer beneficial to the host’s fitness, for example when the antibiotic is no longer present. We found that many plasmids across multiple bacterial species persist in their hosts, even in the absence of selection for the plasmid. Currently, I am testing whether changing the environmental conditions experienced by the host/plasmid pairs, specifically from a nutrient-rich to minimal media, will affect the persistence of antibiotic resistant plasmids. This research provides important data that will allow us to have an easier time combating antibiotic resistance.  

The blood brain barrier (BBB) is an almost impenetrable obstacle for therapeutic delivery, hampering the treatment of many neurological diseases. By exploiting natural transport mechanisms utilized by the brain such as iron import via transferrin receptor (TfR), researchers have been able to transport therapeutic molecules into the brain, albeit with a low efficiency. TfR is a transmembrane protein that is highly expressed on the BBB where it binds its ligand, Transferrin. Transferrin-bound iron binds on the blood side of the BBB, is subsequently endocytosed and trafficked through the cell before being exocytosed on the brain side. We have computationally designed a protein that, like the transferrin ligand, can bind TfR and pass the BBB in in vitro BBB models. The goal of my project is to attach existing protein nanocages to this binder which have previously been shown to package therapeutic molecules. I have generated constructs by fusing the binder to these cages, purifying the cages, analyzing their stability, and testing their binding affinity to transferrin receptor. We currently have one cage fusion that successfully binds the transferrin receptor and is being tested for BBB traversal. We are continuing our work to create more variants that can successfully cross this barrier. Using computationally designed de novo proteins has many advantages over traditional protein engineering approaches such as hyperstability and a high degree of customizability. In the future, this project could provide new opportunities for treatment of many neurological diseases.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder in which individuals experience challenges with their behavior, social skills, and communication. There is a significant disparity between the numbers of males and females diagnosed with ASD; males are 4x more likely to receive a diagnosis, and it has been suggested that females with ASD are less likely to receive a diagnosis because they may “mask” their symptoms. Females with equally-high levels of autistic traits are less likely than males to be diagnosed with ASD, and females with ASD demonstrate enhanced social skills and higher levels of social motivation compared to males. Additionally, research by Parish-Morris shows that school-aged ASD females had stronger pragmatic language ability than ASD males. Pragmatic language is an individual’s ability to communicate verbally and nonverbally, understand and reciprocate social cues, and express appropriate social behavior. If females with ASD have stronger pragmatic language skills, it may serve as a linguistic camouflage and contribute to their ability to conform. The goal of this project is to examine sex differences in pragmatic language in children with ASD and explore what factors are related social communication differences between males and females with ASD. 15 male and 15 female participants with a confirmed diagnosis of ASD between the ages of 8 and 17 participated in this study. All participants completed a recorded conversational interview with a clinician. Videotapes were then rated by coders using the Pragmatic Rating Scale-Modified (PRS-M). First, we evaluated sex differences in PRS-M scores. We predicted that females with ASD will be rated as having better pragmatic language than males with ASD. Second, we investigated whether IQ, Age, and Autism Severity predicts PRS scores, and if Sex moderates these relationships. The results of this study shed light on sex differences in social communication in autistic children.

In neurons, microtubules are critical for cellular and developmental functions including neurite outgrowth and maintaining stable wiring of the nervous system. Tau, an intrinsically disordered protein, plays important roles in microtubule assembly and stabilization. However, tau can dissociate from microtubules and form amyloid fibrils in a set of neurodegenerative diseases termed tauopathies, which includes Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal dementia. Mutations in the tau sequence cause the disease FTDP-17T, providing evidence that alterations in tau alone can cause tauopathies. Most mutations occur in or near the microtubule-binding domain of tau, which suggests that mutant protein may be deficient in its capacity to stabilize neuronal microtubules, more prone to aggregate, or both. In particular, the disease-associated mutation P301L appears to enhance tau’s propensity to aggregate into fibers and alter its pathological activity. Molecular chaperones are responsible for maintaining protein solubility, promoting proper folding, and preventing atypical aggregation. The chaperone HspB1 delays wild-type tau fibril formation by weakly interacting with early species in the aggregation process. It is able to recognize aggregation-prone motifs within the microtubule binding repeat region of wild-type tau. Therefore, we used fluorescence spectroscopy to test the affinity and activity of HspB1 against wild-type and mutant models of the tau microtubule binding region, to see whether changes in the tau sequence alter interaction with the chaperone. In addition, tau oligomers are known to disturb lipid bilayers, a harmful interaction that could lead to potential cell death. Using a vesicle permeabilization assay, we tested the interactions between artificial lipid membrane with our tau constructs, and whether HspB1 can counteract these harmful interactions. This will extend our understanding of the characteristics and behaviors of disease-associated mutations of tau and the ways in which chaperone target aggregation-prone tau species.

Recent studies like the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5, or CMIP5, have sought to quantify how atmospheric variables will change due to climate change. Even from decades of rigorous study, it is still uncertain how cloud feedbacks will respond to a warming climate. However, it is possible to try and minimize this uncertainty in part by examining deep convection, and specifically anvil clouds, in the Tropical Pacific. Anvil clouds are not simulated well by the current generation of climate models, but by studying both large scale motions and small scale, local cloud structural evolution, Professor Hartmann and I seek in this study to determine the underlying mechanisms of the differences in vertical cloud structure in the Eastern and Western Pacific. I use the ERA-Interim, CloudSat, Calipso, and CMIP5 datasets in addition to climate model output from the Community Earth System Model (CESM) to analyze differences in cloud structure and model output. This is important work, because reducing uncertainty in an era of global warming can mean better advanced warning systems and more informed, ethical policy decisions moving forward.

During embryonic development, a dormancy-like state known as diapause arises during the transition from pre to post implantation. This state of suspended development is a reproductive strategy which favors newborn survival in mammals during nutritional deprivation or stress. Studies from the Ruohola-Baker lab found potential candidate regulators of diapause by establishing an in-vitro diapause model using pluripotent mouse embryonic stem cells (mESC). One of the genes is Activating Transcription Factor 5 (ATF5) which encodes a protein capable of survival-mediated functions such as maintaining mitochondrial activity during stress, modulating cell differentiation, preventing apoptosis and regulating cancer pathway. ATF5 has been known to transcriptionally target mTOR, a mechanistic target of rapamycin. Energy stress in the form of starvation and pharmacological inhibition of mTOR has shown to induce diapause-like state in mESCs in vitro. Our hypothesis is that upregulation of ATF5 under energy stress will reestablish diapause-like state in naïve mouse embryonic stem cells in vitro. We will test our hypothesis by loss-of-function and overexpression experiments. We test if ATF5 gene knockout using CRISPR-Cas9 prevents the mutant lines from entering diapause-like state from energy stress. Using western blots, we will quantify phospho-mTOR levels and its downstream targets in the ATF5 KO lines and compare them with the wildtype lines. For the overexpression of ATF5, we will make rescue lines for the ATF5 KO cells. We predict that overexpressed ATF5 in rescue lines will enter diapause-like state, and have reduced mTOR and its downstream target signals compared to KO lines. Our discoveries of ATF5 function in diapause can be useful in understanding how early-staged cancer stem cells enter a diapause-like state or quiescent state which enables them to escape chemotherapy detection. We can potentially contribute to the development of therapies to target ATF5 mechanism so that these undetected cancer stem cells can be detected.

Recent studies have shown just how important microbiomes are for individual health, population health, and environmental health. Unfortunately, these studies are often limited by the costs of meta-Genomics. Furthermore, meta-Genomic data itself is limiting by only providing information on population characteristics, but not the functional contributions of members within the population. Single cell transcriptomic sequencing aims to lessen the latter issue by providing information on the gene expression of each individual cell within a sample. Even so, current single cell sequencing technologies are costly and require specialized equipment. SPLiT-seq is a single cell transcriptomic technology developed by the Seelig lab at the University of Washington that uses split-pool ligation to create uniquely barcoded cDNA for each cell using every-day laboratory bench tools and techniques and costs only one cent per cell. Currently, SPLiT-seq is well-optimized for mammalian cells. However, using this method on bacteria requires its own set of optimized procedures given the morphological and biochemical differences between eukaryotes and prokaryotes. The aims of this project are to deal with these biological differences to increase the information obtained from messenger RNA and decrease the amount received from ribosomal RNA, as well as reduce the amount of cells that get the same cDNA barcodes. By optimizing this single-cell transcriptomic technique for bacteria, future studies involving microbial communities will be able to obtain more robust information on the individuals within those populations.

Team leaders occasionally find themselves managing teams that have a member set on under-performing in the social group, or "social loafing." Many team leaders have difficulty managing this social loafer effectively. In our research, we focus on helping leaders identify social loafers on their team. Our goal is to create guidelines and strategies on how to work with social loafers after they have been identified. We use communication transcripts and performance data, gathered by social behavioral researchers, that conducted a hidden profile experimental simulation with rotating leadership and hidden social loafers amongst project members. This was done over time, as project requirements escalated. By applying recurrence quantification analysis, we gathered metrics on the development of communication patterns across time in terms of: being recurrent, deterministic, and chaotic. Statistical modeling was used with the intention of revealing the types of relationships between the ability to identify social loafers and project success. By providing a way to quantify the properties of dynamic systems, recurrence analysis offers group researchers a new approach for empirically studying group dynamics. Rather than presuming that such systems are linear, researchers can use recurrence analysis to assess the degree to which a system is stable, predictable, and complex. This work will provide value to researchers in demonstrating the application of the recurrence analysis method, and will help team leaders by exemplifying how they can manage tough situations where social loafers exist on a team.

Mathematical knots are non-intersecting closed loops which may be tangled; links are knots that are possibly intertwined. These 3-dimensional paths often resist description, so mathematicians choose nice ways to describe them. One such way is to project them onto a plane. Even more, it is interesting to build knots in discrete ways such as placing them on tiles in a plane. In this poster we are considering hexagonal mosaic knots, knots that are projected on a plane tiled by the honeycomb hexagonal tessellation. In this way, knots can be built from a small collection of hexagonal tiles with loops. We create an interactive tool which presents hexagonal tile types, a grid on which to lay them, and options for analysis. The researcher uses a point-and-click tool to lay down a mosaic grid, and in so doing, creates an underlying data structure representing the segments contained in the mosaic. When requested, the software traverses this data structure like a linked list. In this manner, one may determine if the data structure represents a suitably connected hexagonal mosaic knot or if it contains dead ends or stray segments; that is, determine if a data structure represents a knot/link or not. This process helpfully assigns segments to their respective knots, distinguishing not only ‘over’ and ‘under’ but also ‘self’ and ‘other’. We hope to continue exploring automatic generation of information about knots from their tiled representations. Once more developed, we hope to be able to answer more questions about the knot or link represented by the data structure. We also hope to continue exploring the use of rapid, flexible feedback from prototypes in aiding exploratory research.

This presentation seeks to summarize a solution to helping the visually-impaired navigate new areas. While previous solutions have been relatively successful, many lacked two key features that we hope our solution addresses: being affordable and allowing customization towards those with compounding disabilities. Our solution consists of two main parts: (1) a user-interface created for Fusion 360, a popular 3D-modeling application, that is built upon an existing framework detailed in Hofmann (2018) called PARTs (Parameterized Abstractions of Reusable Things), and (2) an optimization algorithm to generate maps that are tailored for its users. Through PARTs, we developed different variations of modular pieces of map (e.g., roads, buildings, and sidewalks), which increases ease of customization. After the user specifies personal information and preferences through the PARTs UI—such as the width of their finger, their physical limitations, their understanding of braille, and their desired map features—the optimization algorithm will select the best combination of features from the PARTs database for that specific user. At the end of the process, users have a model of a tactile map in Fusion 360 which can be printed out with commercially-available 3D-printers. With 3D-printers becoming more affordable, this solution is significantly less cost prohibitive than other means of generating tactile maps, which required an initial investment upwards of a thousand dollars. Through user studies, we also test how blind users interpret these maps, which helps us guide design improvements in the future. In this presentation, we discuss the efficacy of our solution by comparing it to previous works and detail our plans to improve the system by making the PARTs user-interface more accessible and incorporating user feedback about the map itself. 

Growing reliance on antibiotics in livestock production, commercial agriculture, and human healthcare has created evolutionary pressures on bacteria. These pressures have given rise to a new threat to public health, drug-resistant microbes. In addition, antibiotics eliminate all microbes, including the beneficial ones, and are not advisable for long-term use. Recent advances in the understanding of bacterial virulence via quorum-sensing (QS) has presented the scientific community with a promising new approach for alleviating the ongoing overuse of broad-spectrum antibiotics. Quorum-sensing is a form of coordinated gene expression mediated through detection of specific population density. Bacteria use QS as a way to regulate behaviors including biofilm formation, virulence, and motility. Quorum-sensing inhibition (QSI), is the ability to prevent QS and is used by organisms across kingdoms. This prevalence suggests that disrupting prokaryotic communication is either a common defense tactic against infection or acts as a competitive advantage in resource acquisition. Fungi, a kingdom in direct competition with prokaryotes are prime candidates for broadening our understanding of the mechanisms behind quorum-sensing. With its abundance of endemic fungi, the Puget Sound region provides a unique opportunity to screen species for QSI compounds. In this study, fungi representing diverse ecological niches were collected from local forests around the Puget Sound and isolated on potato dextrose agar plates. To screen fungal isolates we used C. violaceum, a bacterium that forms purple colonies when able to quorum-sense and changes to white when a QSI is present. Our results suggest fungi are an underexploited and unexplored source of novel bioactive molecules that could provide a method to inhibit virulent effects of bacteria without damaging an organism’s microbiome.

In the US more than 100 million people are living with diabetes or pre-diabetes. The economic burden caused by these conditions, including medical costs, is approximately $327 billion annually. Conventionally, transgenic Escherichia coli has been the primary source of commercial insulin production, a process that requires extensive purification to ensure shelf stability and complete removal of contaminants. This study seeks to establish an alternative mode of insulin production using polyethelyne glycol (PEG) and agrobacterium to transform the oyster mushroom, Pleurotus ostreatus, with the human insulin gene. P. ostreatus is a valuable target for genetic transformation due to its lack of endotoxins, rapid growth, and fully sequenced genome. P. ostreatus was transformed using PEG and agrobacterium with a plasmid containing the human insulin gene and a carboxin resistance gene. Transformed cells were selected using carboxin, extracted, and regenerated on plates composed of yeast extract, malt extract, and glucose (YMG). Integration of the human insulin gene in to the mushroom genome was confirmed through PCR analysis of the transformants. Successful transformation of P.ostreatus offers a new avenue for insulin production, potentially diversifying the market and treatment options for diabetics.

For many Somali refugees in Italy, the journey from Somalia to Italian land is fueled by an overwhelming desire to seek better opportunities in education, employment, health, and lifestyle. As a country previously known for its luxurious beach resorts and affectionately named “the nation of poets,” Somalia has since dramatically shifted to a land inflicted with ongoing violence, terror, and instability. In this research, we will be exposing how the legacy of Italian colonial power has led to numerous detrimental effects on both the people and the government in Somalia. Furthermore, we will be investigating the ongoing refugee crisis in Somalia, focusing specifically on political and colonial history. Using an ethnographic approach, our research project provides insight into the harsh realities that face Somali refugee immigrant populations in Italy. Over the course of six weeks in Rome, Italy, our team has engaged in qualitative research methods in which we collected personal testimonies from current Somali refugees living in Rome through observations, interviews, and daily interactions. The results of our research will uncover the role Italy has had on the ongoing humanitarian crisis affecting the Somali diaspora.

Business intelligence (BI) utilizes data analytics to strategize decision-making for businesses to improve performance and sustain competitive advantage. Our goal in this research is applying machine learning and data science to predict customer purchase behaviors in order to illuminate the value of BI. We collected and compiled 3 million daily transaction-level data from a popular online grocery in 2017. The dataset details items purchased and items reordered for each transaction, as well as the time when the customer last ordered. We proposed multiple predictive models where key variables are determined through a feature selection. The estimation of our models enabled us to predict when a customer makes their next purchase, to suggest complementary products for customers, and to calculate the probability of an item being reordered. These results provide important managerial insights into improving the key performance indicators (KPI) of the online grocery business. Our BI research framework is applicable to other businesses with large volume of customer transaction data, where machine learning and data science is useful to identify growth opportunities and prescribe competitive strategies for the business.

The impacts of war can include political gains, emotional turmoil of those in a warzone, destruction of land, and loss of money and resources. Belligerent occupation has very similar effects, but can last for a longer duration of time and be life altering for those living in the occupied land. Since 1967 Palestine has been occupied by Israel, during which there has been active conflict, construction of military bases and Israeli settlements, and loss of land and cherished spaces. This thesis focuses on the destruction of Palestinian buildings and cities that has occurred throughout the duration of the occupation. Many of these destroyed spaces remain as ruins in Palestine that have not been reconstructed, removed, or repurposed. This paper will begin by establishing an understanding of the extent, including duration and frequency, to which Palestinians are exposed to wreckage. It will then convey the reasons behind this rubble’s repetitive and prolonged presence in the country, exposing the debilitating permitting process that Palestinians face. Once this context has been established, the results of this rubble will be explored in terms of the health effects of prolonged exposure to rubble, the psychological aspects of losing property, and the impact on communities involved in this devastating destruction. Various villages and cities in the region of West Bank, Palestine will serve as illustrations of these effects as the West Bank has experienced intense and well-documented destruction throughout the occupation. This paper will ultimately develop a unique understanding as to why these ruins must no longer be permitted to remain in Palestine and ultimately propose solutions to removing the rubble and/or lessening its negative effects.

Neonatal mammalian heart tissues possess regenerative capabilities after injuries like myocardial infarctions that are mostly lost in adult mammalian tissues but conserved through adulthood in other vertebrates like zebrafish. Previous studies have shown that regeneration in ventricular cardiomyocytes (CM) occurs through de-differentiation and proliferation, but the underlying mechanisms that cause cardiomyocytes to enter the primed cell-cycle are unknown. Here we show that amino acid and metabolite levels in injured cardiomyocytes result in a primed state for regenerating cells. In chemically ablated zebrafish, it is shown that the amino acid profile activates the mTOR pathway to drive regeneration. Amino acid activation of mTOR is a result of high glutamine and leucine levels post-injury and in early heart regeneration in adult zebrafish, which is lost in adut mammals. Inhibition of the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway upstream of mTOR shows down regulation of mTORC1, showing that mTOR is necessary for CM proliferation in regenerating heart tissue. How Wnt signaling gets activated upon injury is unknown, and this study aims to understand the pathways upstream of Wnt signaling for activation. It is known that scarring needs to occur before regeneration occurs in heart tissue. This study also investigates why macrophages are essential for scar formation in ablated heart tissue and its underlying mechanisms. Further, single cell RNA sequencing one-week post injury is used to determine cell fates of the heart tissue. Cardiac cell types like CMs, endocardial and epicardial cells, and bulbus arteriosus (BA) cells were activated post-injury, with epicaridal cells promoting CM regeneration and BA cells activating signaling pathways during heart regeneration. This study demonstrates the signaling and metabolic pathways that activate cardiomyocyte regeneration in zebrafish hearts.

The concept of a laboratory often conjures up an image of an isolated and sterile room tucked away in the core of a building, inherently creating a physical and social barrier between the sciences and humanities. For centuries, this view was largely appropriate as many laboratories were designed in this way for privacy and security. However, 20th century research laboratories have begun to challenge this notion as an architectural building typology. As laboratories began to populate cities and academic institutions, especially after WWII, it became increasingly important to consider the perception of these spaces and their impacts on the built environment and the expanding scientific research workforce. I will be analyzing laboratory design guides and recommendations from both architects and scientists as well as examining a selection of laboratories with notable architectural qualities, focusing on key changes and trends in lab design. The literature and architecture help demonstrate the evolution of the laboratory. Rapidly changing digital technologies and methods of experimentation have led to a more collaborative research environment and a more business-oriented mindset. In addition, scientific research companies have redirected focus to the scientists to maximize efficiency and profitability and have placed greater emphasis on the physical building and the image it conveys. Sustainability has also become a key issue as laboratories are increasingly evaluated by their impacts on human and ecological well-being, resulting in a shift towards occupant-based design. Through these factors as well as a growing knowledge of the physical work environment and its link to human health, I will establish the importance of the qualitative role of architecture in creating positive and healthful impacts on its users and the environment in a traditionally utilitarian building typology.

When seeking to better understand specific bedrock river erosional processes due to flooding, numerical modeling can help answer many questions, specifically the extent to which floods contribute to setting the landscape. The eastern Himalaya experiences multiple flooding events of different magnitude: annual monsoon floods (10³m³/s) and centennial outburst floods (10⁵ m³/s). This region also experienced at least two ancient megafloods during the Holocene (10⁶ m³/s). Previous studies of flooding in the region have assessed the potential geomorphic role of the outburst floods and megafloods; however, the relative geomorphic impact of annual monsoon flooding remains unknown. To fully understand the relative erosive power of these eastern Himalayan floods, it is necessary to compare the hydraulics of outburst dam-break floods to the hydraulics of seasonal monsoon flow. To do this, we use the program GeoClaw to numerically simulate monsoon flood flow in this region. GeoClaw, which uses the 2D shallow water equations, has accurately been used to model outburst flooding events, including the centennial outburst floods and the ancient megafloods. By modifying the program to simulate constant monsoon discharge, we can analyze patterns of flow velocity and depth (GeoClaw outputs) to understand the spatial pattern of shear stress during monsoon floods. We expect to find that monsoon flow will yield lower magnitudes of shear stress and more homogeneous patterns of potential erosion compared to those observed for the outburst floods and megafloods. Understanding these erosional spatial patterns will help us better recognize the relative contributions of various magnitude floods and the extent to which each can set the landscape.

The sensory mechanisms by which organisms orient towards potential food prior to initiating movement are well-researched. However, behavioral mechanisms in stimulus-poor environments which determine foraging through seemingly stochastic movement variability or random-walk models remain poorly understood. Existing literature describe analyses of a variety of single-organism emergent movement patterns but do not appear to offer comparative analysis between single- and multi-individual environments nor within degrees of resource availability. We introduce a new analysis of observed fluctuations in spontaneous movement by Caenorhabditis elegans exposed to diverse conditions of competition and resource abundance. We describe a sequence of experiments which quantify the movement patterns of C. elegans through video imaging pattern recognition codified by run-length-time and turn-angle-time in comparison to recursively updating algorithmic position estimation. We expect to observe movement patterned on optimized explore-exploit strategies—such as simple random walk or Lévy flight—with frequency of implementation influenced by both population and resource density.

Methylmercury (MeHg) is a bioaccumulative neurotoxin, dangerous to human health even at trace levels. In inundated soils, MeHg is formed from inorganic mercury by mercury-methylating microorganisms; a process termed methylation. Demethylation, by contrast, converts MeHg into less-dangerous inorganic mercury, and also occurs via microbial activity throughout the aquatic soil profile. Rice grains can be contaminated with MeHg when grown in soils where methylation rates are high; human exposure to MeHg is thus a serious public health concern in places where rice cultivation, high rates of consumption, and soil mercury (Hg) contamination overlap. Our research aims to better understand the soil conditions that favor demethylation over methylation – this information can then be used to reduce rice grain contamination through agricultural practices or rice breeding programs. Specifically, our research focuses on the role of oxygenation and carbon root exudates on the net MeHg accumulation throughout the soil profile. Rice plants grow in flooded, oxygen-free (anoxic) soils, but their roots can leak oxygen (making the rice rhizosphere oxygenated in varying degrees), as well as carbon root exudates. Our project simulated both fully oxic and transiently-oxic (transition) zones, with two different levels of root exudates; we use isotopic tracers to assess respective methylation and demethylation rates in all four treatments in both the vegetated (rhizosphere) and non-vegetated (bulk) soil. Carbon root exudates have been collected from hydroponically-grown rice variety M-206, and can be applied to different soil zones via tubules. Oxygenation of the soil can be measured with mm-scale optode imagery, which allows delicate testing of various oxygen-introduction designs. My role in this interdisciplinary project has been to develop, scale-up, automate, and verify the accuracy and dependability of root-oxygenation and root-exudate introduction systems to be used in upcoming experiments.

If Timothy Egan, author of The Good Rain, or any other local were to describe the Pacific Northwest in words it would only take three, "drip, drip, drip". Rain is a common visitor to the mountains and valleys of the Pacific Northwest region, created millions of years ago by glacial melt. This system of weather which both keeps the forests evergreen, the skin moisturized, and air clean... and it is also something that defines the culture of this area. Other cultures like Japan or Denmark have chosen to design for their climates in order to live in better harmony with their climate. The Japanese design for their climate by creating atmospheric rain gardens and use materials that change over time with the weather. They challenge the idea of negative associations with rain by creating a more harmonious relationship. Denmark ranks consistently among the happiest nations on the planet, yet they have some of the harshest winters. What is their approach? The Danish term, "Hygge" refers to a feeling of coziness and happiness. Instead of dreading the winter, Danes accept it by coming together with their community around hearths, lighting candles, and eating comfort food. Our region too has a symbiotic relationship with our weather. This research shows how rain is beautiful and experienced by every sense in the Pacific Northwest... sight, smell, sound, touch, and taste. By designing for the climate by engaging the senses we can create calming aesthetics, improved mental heatlh, and a stronger community. This project will show the ways in which this region we call home is atmospheric, beautiful, and unique. Rain is not just a pattern of weather; Egan shows that rain is an essential element woven deep within this region's history. In fact, rain is still formative here, a part of the regional DNA. 

The Bonneville Landslide dam, also known as the Bridge of the Gods, blocked the Columbia River about 550 years ago at the site of the modern Bonneville Dam, on the Washington-Oregon border. According to Klickitat lore, the Bridge of the Gods was created by the chief of all gods to join the lands north and south of the river. The dam’s failure, thought to be a result of the violent dispute between the chief’s sons, led to an outburst flood that drowned a forest and carved the Cascade Rapids. Sedimentary deposits from this dam break flood have been observed downstream, but the flood behavior and inundation pattern remains unknown. In this study, we created a paleo-digital elevation model (DEM) of the Columbia Valley Gorge landscape before the flood, which will serve as the basemap for numerical models of the flood. The paleo-DEM combines three data sets: 1) topographic data derived from the 1868 and 1901 U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey historic topographic survey maps and bathymetric depth values from hydrographic sheets; 2) bathymetry of the Lower Columbia River with removed modern structures in Portland, validated by tide records from 1853 to 1876; and 3) bathymetry upstream from the Bonneville Dam, merged with adjacent topography and derived from NOAA data. In ArcGIS, we filled in data holes and modern channels and subtracted modern structures in an attempt to accurately represent the paleo-environment. Because the Columbia estuary is heavily influenced by tides, we used historic tide observations to create a low and high tide paleo-DEM to make preliminary analyses of how the tide might have influenced this flood. Once we know the paleo-topography of the Columbia Gorge, Portland basin, and Columbia Estuary, we can begin to numerically model this flood and explore its geomorphic impact.

Hawaii is situated at the crossroads of the Pacific, and remains a unique place where people of different cultures and ideas mix. This project focuses on the development and identity of Honolulu in the decade after statehood. On August 21, 1959 Hawaii was officially recognized as the 50th state to enter the Union. By this time, the character of Honolulu's built environment reflected a 'Territorial Style,' which proliferated in the early-twentieth century. In addition, Hawaii's earlier progress towards a 'modern architecture' was interrupted with the abrupt changes caused by the Depression and World War II. In the years following statehood, Honolulu had developed into a hotbed of unchecked economic, social and political wealth. As a result, the character and identity of Honolulu's 1960s built environment was seen as a hodgepodge collection of buildings and projects reflecting various practices and themes in architecture. At the same time, visiting US mainland architects and firms were given opportune chance to participate in the development and growth of Honolulu's future. As the state capital of Hawaii, Honolulu has developed into a city onto itself. Honolulu's rapid post-statehood growth now poses new questions regarding its future, today. This project explores the early phase of statehood in order to understand how Honolulu's new identity as a state capital was established architecturally amidst the growth of commercial development. This project characterizes the ecological, cultural and technical dimensions of Honolulu's built environment in the 1960s, and explores the tensions between Western modernization and the natural and historical contexts of its Pacific Island location. 

As our society moves into the future, queerness is becoming more mainstream and acknowledged by heteronormative institutions, like the government, and popular culture. Same-sex marriage is now legal in 30 countries and some, like Chile, are taking measures to ensure that trans-kids are protected. But as queerness becomes more accepted by society today, queer spaces are adapting from their artificial birthplace—the dark and hidden interiors of the 19th C middle class. Now as queer space transitions from its past private realm and into the public eye, so does its definition and past implications: "Queer space is not one place: it is an act of appropriating the modern world for the continual act of self-construction. It is obscene and artificial by its very nature. It creates its own beauty. It allows us to be alive in a world of technology. There we can continually search within ourselves as we mirror ourselves in the world for that self that has a body, a desire, a life. Queer space queers reality to produce a space to live." Queer spaces were born out of a need to be hidden from the society that has ignored queers and their needs, but as times change and the world becomes more accepting of queerness, what happens to these queer spaces? I will be investigating queer spaces today as they have moved from the private realm to the public realm and looking at the architecture of two gay neighborhoods, Seattle’s Captiol Hill and Chicago’s Boystown for case studies of what queer space is, in our modern world.

Spatial variation in soil abiotic conditions at plant range limits may be important in determining how plant range limits will respond to climate change. One reason for this is that plants are known to change many characteristics of the soil around their roots in ways that influence the growth of other plants.The range limit of subalpine fir is expected to shift into subalpine meadows as the climate warms. Our goal for this project is to describe the abiotic soil qualities of a subalpine forest habitat and a subalpine meadow habitat on Mount Rainier to explore how these characteristics may affect the predicted range shift. We hypothesize that soils from subalpine meadows will have less organic matter and therefore less phosphorus, a lower carbon to nitrogen ratio, and less water holding capacity than soils from the subalpine forest. We will develop a protocol for measuring water availability and implement it on soil samples obtained from around the roots of subalpine fir trees in both the forest and meadow sites on Mount Rainier. We will use standardized tests to obtain the organic matter and phosphorus measurements. If our hypothesis of lower nutrient availability and water retention in meadow soils is supported, this may suggest that subalpine fir growing in the meadows have a greater dependency on fungal symbionts for obtaining soil resources. This would have important management implications given that suitable fungal symbionts are expected to be rare or absent at range limits.

Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) refers to a biologic process that allows a polarized epithelial cell, which normally functions in the basement membrane of a cell, to undergo biochemical changes that makes it express as a mesenchymal cell phenotype. This mesenchymal phenotype allows the cell to have enhanced migratory capacity, invasiveness, elevated resistance to apoptosis, and increased production of extracellular matrix (ECM) elements. The process of EMT is considered completed once the underlying basement membrane breaks down, and the mesenchymal cell becomes migratory. Another component that proves EMT is the loss of e-cadherin. E-cadherin refers to cell-to-cell adhesion and the degradation of e-cadherin levels are a hallmark of EMT happening. There are three distinct types of EMTs; I will be focusing on type II EMT. Type II EMTs are associated with inflammation/wound repair but usually stops once inflammation subsides. However, in the context of organ fibrosis, type II EMTs can continue to over-respond to a persisting inflammation and can lead to organ death. In my experiment, I hypothesize that in HEK 293 human cells, SNAP -Δ1-91 alpha-1D adrenergic receptors undergo type II EMT. SNAP -Δ1-91 alpha-1D adrenergic receptors are a truncation of the extracellular portion of the receptor. Certain receptors undergo this truncation to increase its expression. It is shown that in SNAP – Full Length alpha-1D adrenergic receptors  (wild type receptors) do not undergo EMT. I will be able to observe the process of type II EMT through imaging the breakdown of the cell membrane in SNAP- Δ1-91 alpha-1D adrenergic receptors and the measuring of e-cadherin levels. The purpose of this research would be to potentially influence future therapeutic interventions that target wild type receptors to induce would repair. 

Larval tadpoles of the frog Xenopus tropicalis exhibit a natural ability to regenerate multiple tissue types in response to injury. Unlike tadpoles, humans are incapable of regenerating a majority of their major organs and tissues following traumatic injury, often resulting in an irreversible loss of function of the affected tissues. While both non-regenerative and regenerative organisms undergo a period of wound healing in response to injury, the former then undergo scarring, whereas regenerative systems forgo scarring and ultimately regenerate the lost or damaged tissue. After tail amputation, reactivation of the cell cycle in the remaining tissue is required to promote cell proliferation in order to create the cells that will populate the regenerated tail. However, the molecular mechanisms that enable naturally occurring regeneration are not entirely understood. In order to better understand how wound healing promotes regeneration in tadpoles, I used immunofluorescent microscopy of Phospho-histone 3 (PH3) to assess the mitotic activity of Xenopus tropicalis tails during early regeneration. Over the first two hours post tail amputation, image analysis of PH3-positive cells shows that the amount and localization of mitotic activity varies greatly in the remaining tail tissue. Specifically, tissues adjacent to the amputation site transiently experience a dramatic decrease in mitotic activity beginning at 45 minutes post amputation (mpa), followed by the return of mitotic activity to these areas after 75mpa. I hypothesize that cell cycle inhibition during this 30 minute window is an important point of regulation during the regenerative process and may be a critical component of setting up a regenerative response to traumatic injury. Identifying mechanisms that enable regeneration will be critical for the development of clinical therapies that promote regeneration in humans

The nineteenth century saw the British empire rapidly expand around the globe, with the British military facing conflicts in Spain, Crimea, India, Central Asia, and across the African continent. This rapid expansion culminated in the largest of Britain’s many nineteenth century colonial conflicts: the South African War (1899-1902), otherwise referred to as the Second Anglo-Boer War. While Britain had been engaging in military conflicts nearly continuously throughout much of the nineteenth century around the globe, its intelligence apparatus was, at both the strategic and the tactical levels, largely ad hoc and underfunded. Because of this, those in the British military tasked with gathering intelligence regularly relied upon nonmilitary people for intelligence. My research seeks to analyze the structure of British tactical intelligence networks during the South African War, focusing specifically on the British military’s often unacknowledged reliance on people it deemed outside of itself, such as volunteers, prisoners, journalists, and black South Africans to gather and communicate military intelligence. Drawing on primary sources such as newspapers, diaries, parliamentary testimony, and memoirs, I have crafted a view of British tactical intelligence networks during the conflict which focuses on the biases and prejudices which influenced their development and structure, as they simultaneously reified and questioned the dominant racist and sexist hierarchies of the time. I argue that the diverse composition of British tactical intelligence networks in South Africa demonstrates that these networks were intersectional spaces, where politics of race, sex, and knowledge determined the methods by which intelligence was gathered, communicated, and analyzed throughout the war. In contextualizing the tactical intelligence networks of the South African War as intersectional spaces, I seek to demonstrate that the study of intelligence networks in wars of imperial expansion affords a unique opportunity to analyze the relationship between colonial armies and the peoples they fight amongst.

Beginning in the 1880s, tens of thousands of impoverished Italians immigrated to Buenos Aires, Argentina to create a better life. Upon arrival, they found themselves freshly socially alienated. Hybridity theory helps us understand this phenomenon demonstrated through cocoliche, the contact language spoken by the new arrivals. The period of mass migration lasted until the 1930s when Italy’s political turmoil calmed and struggling economy began to recover. The combination of southern Italian culture and Argentina’s produced lasting cultural changes and a transitory dialect that I classify as a contact language. Hybridity theory, which hinges on representing the voices of the subaltern, allows a reinterpretation of power that helps us understand the migrants’ unusual position in history as low class, white Europeans whose migration to the Global South ended not only in social stigma and continued poverty but also the dialect-speaking, comical, Southern Italian character Cocoliche. Cocoliche as a language has been studied by linguists in both Italy and Latin American southern cone countries. Cocoliche as a character has been analyzed as an element of Argentine theater. But despite these focuses little research has been done on the social and economic statuses of the Europeans who uniquely migrated to the Southern Cone and how their dialect reveals the oxymoron of their identity- that they held simultaneous and contradictory positions as privileged and yet destitute people.

I am studying the connection between the criminal justice system and public school education system in America. As our current system stands, students are being punished so severely through punishment and explosion that it leads to their lack of success in completing education which leads to their involvement in the criminal justice system. My research focuses on how black students are punished disproportionately greater than their white counterparts which directly correlates to the huge population of black people making up the population of prison cells in America. This is known as the school to prison pipeline, a cycle which limits a students ability to get out the system resulting them to be incarcerated. Through my research, I am looking at disciplinary methods in public school systems and how their ineffectiveness leads to more people of color, specifically black students to eventually be removed from the school system. As of today, many of these practices have led to the continuous erasure of black students from the education system by placing them in the prison system.

Dynamic-contrast enhanced (DCE) MRI has a very high sensitivity for breast cancer detection. However, the high costs, long scan-times and safety issues associated with injecting gadolinium-based contrast agents prompt the need to explore non-invasive, non-contrast-based diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) as a possible alternative. DWI reflects the microscopic cellular environment and at high sensitizations (b-values), DWI can highlight malignant breast tissues without the aid of gadolinium. Acquiring images at high b-values increases image distortions and lengthens scan times. By simulating these high b-value images, lesion conspicuity can be increased while minimizing scan time and maintaining image quality. The purpose of this study was to compare lesion conspicuity across b-values and between acquired (aDWI) and computed (cDWI) DWI. Twenty women with invasive breast cancer were enrolled to undergo a research DWI scan. aDWI was acquired at multiple b-values of b=0/100/800/1500/2500 s/mm². Apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) maps were generated and cDWI images were then computed for b-values ranging from b=200-2500s/mm² using: S_b = S₁₀₀ e^-Δb*ADC. Lesion contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) was calculated for both aDWI and cDWI at each b-value. CNR measures across b-values from cDWI and aDWI were compared by Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Lesion conspicuity, as measured by CNR, increased with increasing b-value, with no significant difference between aDWI and cDWI. Our findings show the maxium lesion conspicuity on DWI is achieved at b=1100-1500s/mm², which is higher than typical diagnostic breast DWI protocols. However, lesion conspicuity likely varies with breast density and other patient and tumor characteristics. Potential advantages of cDWI include shorter scan times and flexibility to retrospectively generate images at any b-value for optimal interpretation, warranting further exploration of the value of this technique for breast imaging.

Race is a social construct that was originally developed to differentiate between superior and inferior human beings. Race has been primarily studied from a monoracial perspective, which prohibits multiracial individuals to express themselves because their racial identity does not fit into the neatly, pre-established monoracial categories. Multiracial is used as an umbrella term to describe an individual whose identity is comprised of multiple races or ethnicities (multi-ethnic). Previous research has found that multiracial students experience life in ways that are unique compared to their monoracial peers. Multiracial students are often required to conform to socially constructed monoracial boxes, and often have negative experiences from microaggressions, monoracial family member comments, and lack of demographic categorization. Additional studies have found that the denial of multiracial identities have the potential to cause lower levels of self-esteem along with decreased motivation. The multiracial population in America is steadily growing and, if current trends continue, will only continue to do so. As a result, an increased number of multiracial students on college campuses are expected. This paper explores multiracial student identities within higher education at a public university in the Pacific Northwest and aims to learn about racial identity beyond a monoracial paradigm. The knowledge gained from this research will contribute to higher education administration, faculty, and staff to inform them of the ways in which they can validate multiracial students’ identities on their college campuses.

The Svoboda Diaries Project works with personal diaries written at the turn of the 19th century, capturing over 40 years of the life, politics, and landscape of Ottoman Iraq. Written through the unique lens of a British steamship purser with a rich family history and connections in the area, these texts provide a unique insight into a locale on which there exists minimal literature for this time period. Undergraduate interns transcribe these diaries and develop open-source tools to make the texts available in a variety of formats. We are currently redesigning our website to better serve the needs of its various users, and our main question is: How do we realize the needs of prospective users when creating a digital platform for viewing historical manuscripts? Our current website is not sufficient in meeting the needs of the project’s diverse users: historians/researchers, contributors, and the general public. Therefore we intend to create an engaging and interactive user interface. At its core, the Svoboda Diaries comprise a personal narrative. We also intend to infuse a storytelling approach to present these unique documents in a larger political and historical context, and allow the user to explore them in different ways. We utilize a variety of user-centered research and design methods, such as conducting user interviews with domain experts and other interested individuals, creating prototypes, and conducting pilot usability sessions to refine the website.We anticipate that our website redesign will allow users greater access to explore the diaries. In addition, the redesign will draw attention to the most important aspect of the website: the diaries themselves, and the fascinating and valuable accounts within them.

Space travel and exploration provides a new perspective of the universe and our place within it. Private companies are taking the leading role in driving the aerospace industry. Many of these companies are looking for new technologies that will lower the cost of spacecraft production and operation. This goal could be achieved through the development of a multi-use modular launch vehicle. This project created a scaled modular rocket utilizing an adjustable ring fin design. The adjustable ring fin allows the user to easily and quickly change the aerodynamics of the rocket to compensate for a variety of payloads. Four test models were created using Callisto rocketry kits. Three of the Callistos were modified with a variety of ring fin diameters, and one was kept as an unmodified control. The live test parameters were based on rail velocity, visual stability, and altitude. After the baseline performance of each ring fin was established, the lengths of the rockets were adjusted to simulate different payloads. This work demonstrates that adjusting the ring fin allows the same base rocket to fly a variety of payloads without needing to construct a new rocket. Successful flights of the test vehicles, with improved performance based on our alterations, provide a new avenue of research into incorporating small modifications to garner a wide array of uses without extensive and costly modification. Further research will involve scaling up to rockets with motors with an impulse up to 10,000 newton seconds, as well as testing other innovative concepts related to modularity and revisions to the ring fin design. The ultimate goal is the design of a single rocket with a changeable ring fin that can be used in a wide variety of applications, saving money on research and development of new launch systems.

Antibiotics are an environmental contaminant increasingly found in aquatic ecosystems, adversely affecting wildlife and contributing to antibiotic drug resistance. Sources include untreated agricultural runoff entering rivers and estuaries, outdated or leaking septic systems in rural areas, and large urban populations excreting unmetabolized medications into sewage systems. Current wastewater treatment methods are unable to effectively mitigate the release of these environmental toxins, thus new approaches are needed. White-rot fungi produce lignin-modifying enzymes which can degrade persistent organic pollutants, including antibiotics. Previous studies have demonstrated that the mycelia of turkey tail (Trametes versicolor) and shiitake (Lentinula edodes) mushrooms can reduce concentrations of the common antibiotics erythromycin and cefuroxime, respectively. In this study, three species of fungus (turkey tail, shiitake, and oyster mushrooms/Pleurotus ostreatus) were combined to create a more dynamic and effective approach to removing antibiotics from wastewater, using commonly available equipment and low-maintenance growth conditions. The fungi were cultivated at room temperature in modular bins, connected in series with removable tubing. The mycelia of the fungi were exposed to antibiotic solutions (erythromycin and cefuroxime dissolved in water) and tested for rates of removal in two phases. The first phase established a baseline rate of removal for each single fungus/antibiotic pair; the second phase optimized the sequence of fungus species and method of exposure (continuous flow vs. batch mode) to improve filtration of a synthetic wastewater solution containing both antibiotics. Results suggest that combining fungal species may be a more efficient method of filtration compared to methods using a single species. This is a promising step towards advancing the practical technologies available for complex wastewater treatment in various settings.

Becoming a mother can be an incredibly beautiful process, but it can also become overwhelming and extremely stressful, especially when lacking support and resources. The chronic and significant stress that low-income, pregnant women experience put them at greater risk for adverse health outcomes and their infant at risk for poor developmental outcomes. At the University of Washington’s Center for Child and Family Well-Being, our research team has developed mindfulness-based interventions to help new moms adjust to their new life. Our goal is to examine the effects of stress on the mother-infant dyad and to evaluate whether these programs are beneficial for moms and their babies. Expecting mothers are randomly assigned to attend one mindfulness-based program that focuses on preparing for childbirth, reducing postpartum stress, or developing parenting skills. Administration of extensive questionnaires to the mother and recordings of the mother and baby completing various tasks, before and after the program, measure the pair’s socioemotional development. We also collect cortisol, a stress hormone, and measure heart rate and breathing during a stress-reactivity paradigm to inform us of the physiological effects of stress. We hypothesize that mothers who exhibit high levels of mindfulness are more likely to engage in consistent, warm, and responsive parenting skills. As a result, these mothers' infants will display better self-regulation and focus. We also predict that mothers and babies who participate in these mindfulness interventions are more likely to show a decrease in cortisol production and have controlled cardiovascular reactivity. Recommendations for future research include establishing a systematic way of identifying mothers at risk so that we may prevent further harms caused by stress. Implications of the findings can be used to advocate for equitable, accessible mental health programs and implementation of public health policy centered around protecting and empowering vulnerable women and children in our community.

Mercury (Hg) is widely known to be a neurotoxin. Mercury in our environment is found in many different forms, and the key difference between them is evident in the way they are absorbed by organisms. Hydrophobic methylmercury (Me-Hg) readily bioaccumulates in the tissues of all organisms, leading to Hg exposures involving higher doses. Recent research shows that sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRBs) play a role in methylating mercury only when they possess the hgcAB gene cluster. Gaining a more comprehensive understanding of the aqueous conditions required for SRBs to thrive and consequently methylate inorganic mercury is essential for addressing the ongoing problems associated with Hg toxicity. In the initial phase of this study, ion chromatography was used to quantify sulfate (SO42-) concentrations along an urban river in an industrial region of Seattle (the Duwamish/Green River Watershed). The measurements revealed that SO42- concentrations as high as 5300 ppm were present at several sites along the lower portion of the Duwamish River. A number of previous studies also showed significant amounts of mercury in this region’s sediments and fish tissues. The secondary phase of this study involved an investigation determining whether the measured high sulfate concentrations were related to the production of Me-Hg and additionally examined if SRBs likewise played a role. River sediment was analyzed for the presence of the hgcAB gene cluster. Ongoing studies are focused on quantifying Me-Hg at sites where SRBs were found and on the identification of key indicators for mercury methylation conditions along a watershed. This study provides further insight into the relationship between mercury, sulfates, and SRBs when found in combination in an aqueous environment.

Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) is the causative agent of Kaposi’s Sarcoma (KS), a highly vascularized tumor composed of cells of endothelial origin. KSHV, while possessing both lytic and latent replication programs, predominantly exists in the latent form during infection. While KSHV infects both blood (BECs) and lymphatic (LECs) endothelial cells, LECs are more susceptible to infection and express fewer antiviral genes during infection compared to BECs. Recent experiments have shown that LECs, but not BECs, have a defect in STING, a critical signaling protein that is activated during herpesvirus infections and results in the production of antiviral signaling molecules such as IFN-β. It remains unknown whether the defect in STING plays a direct role in increasing susceptibility to KSHV infection and if the defect impacts the ability of STING to suppress lytic reactivation in LECs. Accordingly, I propose to construct a constitutively active (CA)-STING and express it in LECs. Because CA-STING results in the continuous induction of IFN-β, I hypothesize that CA-STING-LECS will show decreased susceptibility to the establishment of latency by KSHV and have increased ability to suppress lytic reactivation compared to empty vector-expressing (EV)-LECs. First, I will infect EV-LECs and CA-STING-LECs with KSHV and measure the infection rates 48 hours post infection (hpi). I expect the number of infected cells in the CA-STING-LECs to be decreased relative to the EV-LECs. Next, I will infect EV-LECs and CA-STING-LECs with KSHV, and at 48 hpi, I will induce lytic reactivation in the two cell types and quantify the virus produced. If CA-STING suppresses lytic reactivation in LECs, I expect less virion production from CA-STING-LECs than from EV-LECs. The results from these experiments will further elucidate how KSHV exploits defects in innate-immunity to infect and transform host cells.

2D cell models have traditionally been used in labs to test the effects of new drugs on certain cell types due to the ease and convenience of use. While 2D methods are great, they often simplify the cell-to-cell interactions and may not accurately represent cell systems in humans. 3D methods show the complex cell communication systems and better simulate actual organ systems. Research comparing these two methods can inform scientists on the benefits of 3D models which can help efficiency in creating new drugs. Our lab looked into various 3D models to determine their effectiveness and reliability and looked into the differences in perceived cell mechanics and functionality between 2D and 3D methods. We tried Corning Matrigel and Corning 3D Spheroid microplates for 3D cell modeling using HEK293 cells, which are human embryonic kidney cells that were grown in lab. They are known for being easy to grow and transfect. We used SNAP-Gels, which are protein assays that show the protein levels in the cells, to ensure that the protein levels were similar between the 2D and 3D systems. We then did florescent imaging to determine cell localization and EPIC dynamic mass redistribution (DMR) to determine cell functionality. We found Matrigel to have inconsistent results, so we focused on using the spheroid microplates. Based on our initial results, we saw increased functionality and expression levels for full-length protein cells compared to cells with a truncated N-terminal protein in the 3D method. This increase in functionality and expression levels was not seen in the 2D method. Our results show that 3D modeling methods can be reliable, and do show results that differ from 2D models. This is important for future studies that require cell modeling because 3D models can provide a more accurate and reliable modeling system to create novel therapeutics.

In our study, we focus on sugar-sweetened beverage selection mediated by Compensatory Health Beliefs (CHB), participants’ justifications for unhealthy eating habits; Considerations of Future Consequences (CFC), participants’ risk perception; and, personal health perceptions, participants' beliefs about their own general health. Additionally, we look at three Implicit Association Tests (IAT) to see if implicit preferences also mediate sugar-sweetened beverage consumption; Greenwald and colleagues’ (1998) original Traditional IAT (good/ bad), the Personalized IAT (“I like”/ “I don't like”), and our own adaptation, the Extended Personalized IAT (“I want”/ “I don't want”). We predict that 1) participants with higher personal health perception will be less likely to endorse CHB use, 2) participants with a higher regard for future consequences will be less likely to endorse CHB use, and 3) participants’ BMI and Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ; disinhibition, hunger, and restraint) scores will correlate with CHB use, but not their implicit preferences. Participants from the University of Washington, Tacoma campus will complete the study on campus and will receive course credit upon participation. Participants complete three IAT tasks, administered in counterbalanced order, then explicit self-report measures, such as demographical information (which include BMI), the TFEQ, self-reported liking of beverages, questions on personal health perception, and the CHB and CFC scales. Hypotheses 1 and 2 will be analyzed using a one-tailed t-test, which indicates a desired sample of 102 (based off a power analysis using p = 0.05, a power of 0.80, and an effect size of 0.50). Planned analysis for hypothesis 3 is a multiple regression to test the contribution of BMI, TFEQ, and implicit preferences on CHB use with a desired sample of 112 (p = 0.05, power level = 0.80, and and an effect size of 0.10).

This research focuses on using advanced surveying techniques as well as hand mapping to analyze force distribution during laboratory impacts of man-made projectiles into ice. This is done in the hopes of characterizing substrate damage surrounding an impact crater created by a proposed hard landing system. Knowing where these different deformation zones occur is useful in determining where the lander could sample. The landing system, the Subsurface Ice Plume Sampler (SIPS) utilizes ejecta (broken up debris thrown from the crater) to create a transient atmosphere - decelerating a secondary instrument package through momentum transfer. Small-scale experiments were done on one-ton buckets of ice using scale-sized projectiles. Between two hundred and five hundred images used to 3D models of the ice craters using the structure from motion imaging technique. Hand mapping of the deformation zones (areas of different types of fractures) was conducted to compare to the 3D model to help show the directionality of force distributions through the crater. Using both the 3D models and a hand mapping analysis of the craters, we were able to determine that the crater shapes were atypical. In a typical crater, the force disperses radially outward from the impactor; however, we determined that the majority of the force was focalized directly below the impactor. Future work includes using Rhinoceros 3D computer software to quantitatively analyze each crater’s individual morphology, curvature, and volume and compare them to traditional impact craters.

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most prevalent neurodevelopmental disorders to date, affecting 5-7% of school-age children. Characterized by inattention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity, those diagnosed with ADHD often have difficulty in navigating multiple tasks, sustaining attention, and inhibiting impulses. Although prior research suggests increased attention to sensory stimuli enhances task performance temporarily when the stimuli are task-related, little is known about the effect of irrelevant stimuli on task performance. The current study evaluates whether irrelevant stimuli decreases response accuracy and speed during computer tasks among children with ADHD. Children between the ages of seven and eleven, with (n=50) and without (n=30) ADHD, are recruited to participate in comprehensive neurocognitive phenotyping, including completion of two computer games varying in difficulty (i.e. easy and hard versions). The tasks involve ignoring irrelevant visual stimuli that are presented alternatively with task-related visual stimuli. Irrelevant stimuli consist of three stimulus types, including standard (60%; white bracket-shaped image), deviant (20%; white bracket in opposite orientation to standards), and novel (20%; white line drawings of animals and vehicles). The current study hypothesizes that compared to non-ADHD children, children with ADHD will have lower accuracy and slower reaction times in response to task stimuli that immediately follow novel irrelevant stimuli, as compared to standard irrelevant stimuli. Preliminary results (n = 23) support this hypothesis through a variance analysis, indicating children with ADHD show worse accuracy following novel, i.e. more distracting, stimuli than standard stimuli compared to typical, non-ADHD children, F(1, 19) = 5.028, p = .037. Through this study, we will gain a greater understanding of children’s needs of attention maintenance. Implications of this study include reduction in classroom distractions could improve task-related accuracy and processing speed among children with ADHD.

In humans, limb amputation and recovery post-amputation is characterized by inflammation and scarring that lead to poor clinical outcomes. In contrast, amphibians such as the frog Xenopus tropicalis are capable of healing scarlessly and can fully regenerate previously amputated appendages. Successful limb regeneration depends on precisely choreographed expression of genes, directed in part by the deposition and removal of epigenetic markers. The broad aim of this research is to identify the spatiotemporal dynamics of epigenetic modifications and how they play a role in regulating gene expression during regeneration. It is known that histone deacetylases (HDACs) and H3K27-specific methyltransferase EZH2 enzymes limit chromatin accessibility and are necessary for regeneration to occur properly. However, the precise mechanisms and genomic targets of these enzymes remain unknown. We hypothesize that inhibiting these enzymes will leave chromatin in a constitutively accessible state, disrupting the gene expression required for successful regeneration. I am utilizing the drugs Trichostatin A (TSA) and DZNep to inhibit HDACs and EZH2 respectively at differing sequential time points throughout tail regeneration. In addition to characterizing the morphological outcome of regenerating tails that have been treated with these drugs at varying intervals post-amputation, I  also use immunofluorescence to identify the targeted location relative to the injury site and tissue types as they are affected across time. For humans and other mammals with limited regenerative capability, studying these epigenetic changes and their impact on Xenopus tropicalis tadpole tail regeneration is especially significant: it has the potential to determine how changes in gene regulation may enable and facilitate a broader capacity for limb regeneration by informing future therapeutic possibilities.

Embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma (ERMS) is a devastating pediatric cancer that affects soft tissue such as skeletal muscle and connective tissue. Currently, there is no effective treatment for patients with ERMS. Mutations in the gene PTPN11 are found to have cancer-promoting roles in leukemia, lung, and breast cancers, but its role in ERMS is virtually unknown. PTPN11 codes for the SHP-2 protein, which is a component of the RAS/MAPK (mitogen-activated protein kinase) signaling pathway. Abnormalities in this pathway are known to transform normal cells into cancer cells when certain proteins are upregulated. My central hypothesis is that PTPN11 promotes RMS tumor growth by allowing cells to proliferate and differentiate out of control. To test the hypothesis, I used CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats)/Cas gene editing technology to disrupt PTPN11 gene function in two models. I designed constructs that express guide RNAs that target the PTPN11 locus in the zebrafish or human genome. If PTPN11 has a tumor-promoting role, I expect targeted disruption of zebrafish PTPN11, delivered via microinjection, to result in reduced RMS tumor formation and growth compared to zebrafish tumor with no PTPN11 gene disruption. In the human ERMS cell lines, I will use virus-mediated transfer to introduce the CRISPR DNA construct in vitro. My hypothesis will be supported if the cells harboring targeted disruption of PTPN11 have reduced growth and less self-renewal capacity compared to the control cells. My findings will elucidate the role of PTPN11 in RMS, which will allow further research into the potential therapeutic benefit of targeting PTPN11 in pre-clinical RMS models.

Nanoparticles have been touted to exhibit extraordinary properties, which could ultimately reverse environmental damage thought to be irreparable. However, is their synthesis process scalable? What are their macro-scale impacts? This life cycle analysis looks at the environmental impacts of producing iron-oxide nanoparticles used as an additive to help detect and track gastrointestinal gut bleeding to the microscale. It discusses the environmental impacts of using a nano-scale technology. An attributional life cycle inventory model with geographic specificity in Seattle, WA has been conducted. Data sources include the US GREET database and FineChem, along with the published results in "Synthesis of phase-pure and monodisperse iron oxide nanoparticles by thermal decomposition" in Kemp et al.

The impacts assessed include contribution to climate change, water consumption, resource consumption, and energy consumption. ReCiPe will be used for midpoint and endpoint charaterization. Preliminary results show that in this case, the uncertainty related with required dosage size of nanoparticles for this specific application yielded a large variance for potential impact. However, using the concept of disability-adjusted life years (DALY), it is shown that this technology provides a net benefit for human health.

Virtual reality augmentation of therapy has advanced a long way since its beginnings. Virtual reality technologies have been found effective for treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder and phobias as well as a potential aid as an in-treatment distraction for burn patients undergoing dressing changes. The advent of increasingly advanced displays, tracking, and comfort have transformed virtual reality from a novelty into a highly beneficial clinical device. The increasing presence of virtual reality devices in clinical settings necessitates additional investigation into sterilization techniques. The diversity of materials in the devices makes a single method of sterilization difficult. The device’s vulnerable surfaces can be separated into categories: lenses, casing, straps, and facial interface. The delicate electronics preclude the use of autoclave sterilization and the porous nature of the straps and cushioning preclude the use of surface wipes. Finally, the delicate lenses need special care to facilitate cleaning while retaining structure. In the present study UV, steam autoclave, and water-based benzalkonium chloride antibacterial foam were compared to standard procedures by Oculus, one of the leading commercial manufacturers of virtual reality devices. Oculus Go virtual reality headsets were disassembled for testing. After determining baseline presence of environmental bacteria, Staphylococcus Aureus was applied to the tested surfaces. The previously mentioned methods were applied to the newly contaminated surfaces and the surfaces were swabbed and cultured. Effectiveness of sterilization was determined through numerical analysis of colony forming units. While Oculus' standard procedures have adequately disinfected some of the diverse materials tested here, more rigorous methods are needed for complete sterilization. A hospital setting may benefit from a multifaceted and specialized approach that addresses the needs of different materials to prevent increases in resistant strains. Proper sterilization procedures for this rising technology will allow for safe widespread implementation as a medical device.

The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) implemented a fifteen-mile stretch of toll lanes between Bellevue and Lynnwood in 2015. The purpose of our research is to apply economic principles and data analysis to understand how commuters respond to toll fares and the effect of toll lanes on traffic trends on I-405. We obtained hourly individual transaction data in 2018 from WSDOT. The data shows when and where an individual vehicle entered and exited the tolls, the toll fare, billing type, and travel time between toll plazas. We visualized the demand for toll plazas using hourly and daily transactions and captured factors driving the demand. We incorporated these factors into a regression model, which accounts for the variation in the day of the week, time of day, toll plaza and toll fare. After estimating the model, we identified variables important to the demand of toll lanes and traffic congestion. Our findings provide insights into improving traffic efficiency on the toll lanes, especially the HOV (high-occupancy vehicle) lanes. Our research is applicable to other studies related to toll lanes design and traffic optimization.

Asteroid sample return has potential to impact research and how humans collect resources, but sample return missions remain prohibitively expensive and complex. We propose a device to retrieve a preexisting sample container from the surface of an asteroid or other extraterrestrial body, focusing on simplicity, repeatability, and reliability. Taking inspiration from a classical design, the bear trap, we created a functional 3D printed prototype, which is mechanical and capable of capturing a 1.5x15 in cylinder resting on a flat surface. Consideration was given to potential rocky terrain or an awkwardly positioned return container, and to sealing the sample container to prevent contamination upon return to earth. Future prototypes will be constructed from stronger, lighter weight materials and will be further developed during active field tests on debris at a penetrator impact site in Eastern Washington.

Our current research with the Kinematics and Impacts Lab at the University of Washington entails the design, buildup, and field testing of an asteroid sampling system. These field tests include the buildup of two stage closer rockets, which are highlighted in this presentation. This asteroid sampler field testing helps characterize the sampling process of impacting an asteroid at high speeds- necessitating our rocket system be capable of stable, high speed flight, even at an inverted trajectory. The booster stage, or primary stage, of the system consists of a single large motor to allow the system to reach between 3000-4000 feet above the ground. The sustainer, or second stage, consists of eight smaller motors clustered around a central body tube, allowing the second stage to be hollow. Finally, a hollow point steel nose cone caps the sustainer. Inside the nose come assembly a sample dive is attached, designed to eject during impact. Field testing of this system occurred in December 2018, with preliminary results being compiled.

This purpose of this project was to investigate the impact of a rocket penetrator for sample-return missions focused on Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa. In particular, primary analysis used the kinetic energy from the ejecta plume of the impact crater to halt the momentum of the primary payload to model the impact. To do so, steel alloy projectile impacts in a material with properties of ice (so as to simulate the surface of Europa) were simulated using ANSYS Autodyn computational dynamics software. ANSYS Autodyn makes use of both Lagrangian and Hamiltonian meshes, as well as smooth particle hydrodynamic mesh-less modeling with cross-coupling so as to best represent the impact of the projectile, the material deformation, and the projectile deformation. This analysis of elastic and plastic behavior, as well as bulk failure and separation, resulted in accurate depictions of deformation in both the projectile and target material, validating it as a model with the potential to simulate the impact of a Europa sample-return rocket penetrator. This analysis serves as a basis for future progress, and will soon be enhanced via further simulation in conjunction with ISAIL simulations so as to accurately depict the material deformation and ejecta plume. The data from these computer simulations can eventually be compared to physical experiments and field tests that are to be conducted under the University of Washington’s Kinematics and Impacts Laboratory (KILa).

Currently at the UW Molecular Hematopathology lab, peripheral blood and bone marrow samples stored at room temperature and at 4°C are used to perform molecular testing for clinical diagnoses. The current maximum storage length for both specimen types is established at 4 days, and samples received that are older than 4 days must have degradation and DNA quality assessed, a specimen redraw is requested, or the specimen is even rejected. To test the possibility of extending sample storage life by analyzing DNA quantity and quality of samples older than 4 days, I collected peripheral blood and bone marrow specimens and I stored them respectively at either room temperature or storage temperature conditions. I then extracted DNA from the samples on set days throughout a 14-day period, where I then quantified the DNA by spectrophotometry. Other technologists within the lab then qualitatively assessed the extracted DNA samples by fragment analysis. DNA concentrations appear stable through Day 14 and Day 11 for PB and BM, respectively, well beyond the current 4 day age limit for samples. Temperature did not seem to contribute to decline in DNA concentrations, though did seem to affect DNA quality. It would be beneficial to extend storage beyond 14 days to see when quantity and quality eventually do decline. There is good reason to believe sample holds and quality assessment can now be reliably deferred for samples older than 4 days, at least until the 14 day age mark for peripheral blood specimens and the 11 day age mark for bone marrow specimens. The quantity and quality of PB and BM samples did not decline significantly when held for longer than 4 days, nor did temperature or storage time up to 14 days significantly affect sample viability.

Social determinants of health (SDOH) are non-medical factors that contribute to a person’s health and well-being. The Centers for Medicare/Medicaid Services recently released a standardized 26-question survey designed to capture SDOH in the following 13 domains: living situation, food insecurity, transportation, utility help, personal safety, financial strain, employment, family and community support, education, physical activity, substance use, mental health, and disabilities. However, there is limited study using this survey tool in a safety-net institution. Harborview Medical Center (HMC) is the public hospital serving King County, WA and provides care to a wide variety of patients. This project was a prospective, observational study which aimed to investigate implementation of this survey tool and to measure relevant SDOH and other medical factors in this setting. My role included administering the survey to patients admitted to the HMC Hospital Medicine service from October to December, 2018. I collected data related to the duration of the survey and any challenges patients encountered responding to the survey, as well as review of patient charts for demographic information, medical system utilization, and medical history. In total, only 24 of 90 patients (27%) completed the survey. Major challenges included patient lack of interest, language barrier, ability to consent, and competing time demands. These results have implications for the generalizability of this tool and whether it comprehensively identifies SDOH needs.

In a majority of low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), resources for mental health care are extremely limited. For children and adolescents especially, there is little to no mental health care available. In a recent large randomized controlled trial, an evidence-based treatment (EBT) was delivered in two LMICs, Kenya and Tanzania, using trained lay counselors in a task-shifting/sharing model. Over a 12-week span consisting of weekly group meetings, this EBT, trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT), was delivered to orphaned children who had posttraumatic stress (PTS) and/or grief symptoms, along with their guardians. The effects sizes were large for child PTS/grief, but little is known about how to scale up and implement TF-CBT to benefit more children. The current study uses data from a large TF-CBT trial implemented in 10 schools and 10 communities in Kenya by existing staff who served as lay counselors (teachers in schools and community health volunteers [CHVs] in communities). After the delivery of the treatment, qualitative interviews were conducted with the lay counselors from 6 of 10 sites in each to better identify efficient implementation practices and policies (IPPs) that supported TF-CBT delivery. The goal of studying the IPPs is to identify those that support the effective adoption and fidelity of TF-CBT. This study pinpoints which IPPs are most critical for the different settings, sectors, and populations that this study encompasses. We analyzed the IPP resource provision to be able to compare the difference in resource allocation in urban versus rural settings in regards to transportation, materials, etc. This study allows us to gain a better understanding of the necessary implementation strategies to better tailor to the needs of communities to support evidence-based mental health care in specific sectors and settings in LMICs.

G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) - characterized by seven transmembrane alpha helical domains - are the largest family of membrane proteins, constituting ~1% of the human genome. The α1D-adrenergic receptor (A1DAR) is a GPCR that regulates function of the cardiovascular, urinary, and central nervous systems. Dysfunction of this receptor can lead to various diseases including schizophrenia, benign prostate hypertrophy, hypertension, and PTSD. Prazosin, a non-specific α1-antagonist is the first line treatment for PTSD, however, chronic use has deleterious side effects including orthostatic hypotension and potentially fatal reflex tachycardia due to interactions with off-target related receptors. Thus, understanding how A1DARs are regulated will allow for the development of targeted therapeutics. To this end, the Hague Lab has previously discovered that A1DAR undergoes an endogenous cleavage of its extracellular N-terminal domain, affecting its membrane localization and response to agonist stimulation. Located within the N-terminal domain of A1DAR are two glycosylation sites at amino acids 65 and 82. Currently, how glycosylation of these sites regulates the cleavage event remains unknown. To characterize this phenomena, I used molecular cloning to mutate the glycosylation sites of A1DAR in the pSNAP vector for expression in Human Embryonic Kidney 293 (HEK293) cells. Near Infrared PAGE analysis revealed that glycosylation of both amino acids is required for cleavage and proper expression of A1DAR. Sucrose density gradient and dynamic mass redistribution further showed that glycosylation controls function and trafficking of A1DAR to the membrane. These results allow for the development of targeted medications specific to the N-terminal glycosylation sites of A1DAR, further reducing the potential side effects experienced by patients.

Sea ice, frozen ocean water, in the Arctic is declining due to climate change. This is getting more attention, since sea ice can substantially affect wildlife, ecosystems, and human society. Sea ice extent, a measure of the surface area of the ocean covered by sea ice, is used to monitor the environment. A good sea ice extent model can benefit not only studies of the Arctic but also the global economy, as many ships use the Arctic area as part of their route. There are various sea ice extent models in the science community that give good estimates of sea ice extent. However, there are instances where their predictions do not match observations. My research explores bias correction methods that help predictions to match observations and compares the performance of sea ice models after bias correction. In this analysis, I consider the performance of a sea ice model produced by the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory using boxplots and rank histograms. This work helps show the value of bias correction. I will compare the performence of the models to identify in what month and in what location models predict well. This information will support improved prediction of the Arctic going forward.