Memory has been widely studied for its crucial role in learning and its diverse range of expression. Although the means of acquisition differ, it is generally accepted that memory goes through three encoding stages: sensory, short-term and long-term memory. The retention of memory is important as it enables us to act with the wisdom of past experience. However, although one could not survive without memory, remembering everything is also devastating. In fact, forgetting is an important cognitive feature that allows us to adapt to the constantly changing environments. Despite its importance for cognition, little is known about the molecular nature of forgetting. Here, we investigated the genes behind forgetting by studying an olfactory memory in the nematode C. elegans. Like human, worms can modify their behavior upon acquiring unpleasant experience – their movement towards preferred odor is significantly reduced after prolonged exposure to the odor during starvation. Upon returning to food (e. coli OP50), the odor attraction slowly returns to the worms within 3-4 hours, indicating a diminishing impact of the starvation experience. By contrast, the forgetting process was significantly accelerated by 1-2 hours, when worms were cultivated on pathogenic bacteria, pseudomonas aeruginosa PA14. Our genetic studies showed that a null mutation to the daf-16 gene restored recovery time to 3-4 hours, despite of the exposure to PA14. These data indicate that daf-16 plays a positive role in accelerated memory loss upon pathogen ingestion. Because DAF-16 is involved in innate immunity and stress response, our results provide a potential connection that couples the memory to environmental stressors.

Learning and forgetting are two key processes that keep our memories in balance. In the past few decades, we have learned a great deal about mechanisms associated with memory formation and consolidation. However, little is known about the molecular mechanisms of forgetting, despite its importance in human health. Here, we take advantage of the nematode C. elegans – a living animal with a simple nervous system of 302 neurons – to explore the mechanisms behind forgetting. In particular, we focus on the decay of associative olfactory learning and the regulation of this decay after experience of pathogenic bacteria. Previous studies have shown that worms acquire an associative memory linking starvation experience and the olfactory response. After prolonged exposure to a preferred odor during starvation, worms exhibit a diminished response towards the preferred odor. However, upon returning to a food source, the attractive response toward the preferred odor recovers within 3-4 hours, indicating the loss of the associative olfactory memory. We found that the rate of memory loss, quantified by measuring the time course of recovery of the olfactory response, depends on the type of food source (bacterial strain) that worms experience. Specifically, exposing worms to pathogenic bacteria PA14, compared to the regular food source OP50, leads to a quicker loss of the associative olfactory memory. Our results further show that the acceleration of memory loss is mediated by a conserved transcription factor DAF-16/FOXO, as daf-16 mutants exhibited similar rates of memory loss regardless of OP50 or PA14 experience. Together, these findings demonstrate an unexpected role of DAF-16/FOXO in memory decay induced by exposure to pathogens. 

With growing concerns surrounding global warming, both pollution and alternative sources of energy have become the focus of intense research. These research efforts have addressed the need to power pollution sensors by alternative means. Harvesting energy from trees is both minimally invasive to the environment and eliminates harmful waste produced by non-green energy solutions like batteries. The intent of this research is to verify the possibility of developing an unconventional thermoelectric generator (TEG) in order to increase the energy obtained from trees. We believe that a comprehensive understanding of the temperature characteristics of trees improves the current thermoelectric harvester design. A more robust TEG produces the voltages necessary to power these IoT devices. The primary concerns in selecting materials for a specialized TEG are the thermal impedance, the dimensions and arrangement of semiconducting material, and the overall geometric composition of the TEG itself. The selection of these materials and the overall physical characteristics of the TEG depend on the analysis of the internal temperature of trees. We have developed and will soon deploy a system that captures this valuable data over time. Furthermore, we have established a theoretical TEG design tailored specifically to harvest energy from trees more effectively than previous implementations. The new harvester will be utilized to power LoRa wireless sensor networks capable of monitoring pollution and other environmental hazards. If successful, future research should be devoted to optimizing the TEG to minimize thermal resistances and parasitic heat losses, as well as efforts to maximize temperature differentials with the use of smart heat exchangers on the TEG’s ambient side. Electrical matching of the TEG and sensor node could be desirable too. Finally, integration of the TEG into other sensor applications such as wildfire monitoring is more than reasonable.

Blockchain is a distributed ledger technology that promises greater efficiency, security and transparency than traditional centralized ledger technologies through the use of consensus mechanisms, incentivized participation, and immutable smart contracts, among other features. For much of its history, Blockchain was predominantly divided into public, permissionless platforms and private, permissioned platforms, but in recent years these categories have expanded to include both consortium and hybrid blockchains. Hybrid blockchain in particular offers a unique solution for industries like supply chain management (SCM) and logistics which cannot operate on a strictly public or private basis, and struggle to establish trust between parties. Motivated by the current lack of research and example implementations of hybrid blockchain, especially in SCM and logistics contexts, the objective of this research is to contribute to the existing literature by designing and implementing a prototype hybrid blockchain-based dApp (decentralized app) focused on addressing issues within the supply chain management and logistics industry. Additionally, our secondary objective is to synthesize our review of the currently available literature on hybrid blockchain and its application in SCM and logistics into an easily digestible format, which will help outline the specific benefits hybrid blockchain provides in SCM use cases as compared to other forms of blockchain. Ultimately, our goal is to help fill the hybrid blockchain research gap by synthesizing the current literature, and providing an example hybrid blockchain implementation as reference for organizations considering implementing hybrid blockchain solutions, especially in SCM and logistics contexts. This presentation will include a brief introduction to hybrid blockchain and SCM use cases as well as an overview of our dApp design schema.

Supply chain consists of the networking between companies and suppliers to ensure the proper manufacturing of products to the consumer. A successful supply chain requires effective end-to-end traceability to ensure the authenticity and safety of the materials being processed and distributed. Challenges associated with increasing complexity, insufficient networking, and third-party trust issues have led to the search for new frameworks to satisfy supply chain management needs. Blockchain, with its out-of-the-box trust management, immutability, transparency, and decentralized nature has become a promising next step for suppliers and businesses. Popular solutions such as Ethereum, Hyperledger Fabric, and Hyperledger Sawtooth solve these challenges by improving the communication, trust management, and scalability of supply chain applications. Through the use of smart contracts and cryptographic verification, users can add logic to the supply chain without requiring an understanding of the core system. We look past this with the aim to build upon the current methodologies, by conducting a feasibility analysis on the core mechanisms and internal design choices within these applications which are overlooked in current literature. Our presentation consists of defining the preliminary terms, a literature review, and an explanation of the implementation-level parameters to provide insights into the core bottlenecks and potential vulnerabilities within these supply chain systems.