During the COVID-19 global pandemic, individuals have had to learn to cope with isolation and adjust to new social protocols. In Washington state, a lockdown mandate was issued between March to May in 2020 in response to a surge in COVID-19 cases. This study aims to analyze how King County residents experienced the lockdown and the impact it had on their daily activities, behaviors, and wellbeing. We hypothesize that loneliness increases as a person is more physically isolated from others and also as age increases. The data for this research was collected through an online survey which included the UCLA Loneliness Scale. An additional 16 questions examined demographics and the dynamics within the household including household size, pets, and romantic relationships and how they relate to the person’s experience of loneliness. The survey was distributed through Qualtrics to undergraduate psychology classes and faculty at Bellevue College and South Seattle College and to the researchers’ social circles via email and social media platforms. Participants were residents of King County during the Washington State COVID lockdown and ranged in age from 18 to 65 years old. We aim to investigate if the lockdown measures taken during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic led to a rise in loneliness considering that loneliness has been associated with major public health concerns including mental health problems, chronic physical ailments, and increased likelihood of mortality.

Over the course of the COVID-19 Pandemic, researchers have examined how people adjusted to the conditions of social isolation. As a follow-up to those studies, we investigated if – in King County Washington State - there was a correlation between people’s new level of participation in work/school, religious, or recreational activities during the March - May 2020 lockdown (in comparison to pre-pandemic levels) and how lonely they felt during that time. My team surveyed 252 King County Residents (aged 18 - 65 years old) over the internet, asking about their level of participation, whether the participant conducted the activity in-person or virtually, and if the participant has done more or less of this activity before the pandemic. We collected participants through snowball sampling, starting with immediate friends, families, and colleagues. We conducted univariate analyses on our responses to the types of activity and loneliness. Based on previous studies, it was predicted that those who participated in religious and recreational activities would feel significantly less lonely, while those who had engaged in work and school activities would feel significantly lonelier. No significant differences were present in the results except within recreational activity - people who participated at the same level of recreation as they had before the pandemic were significantly less lonely. In comparison, those who participated in recreation at greater or lesser levels during the pandemic. This is important, as it presents that a balanced amount of recreation can alleviate loneliness and its impacts (depression, anxiety, poor mental functioning, decreased motivation, etc.) This study also illustrates that when we can safely move away from social isolation measures, we need to develop and maintain routines and activities that lessen loneliness.

Biological tubes are the foundation of most animal organs, and thus, tube formation is an important developmental process. We study tube formation in Drosophila melanogaster egg chambers by analyzing the formation and elongation of dorsal appendages (DAs), eggshell structures that facilitate gas exchange in the fully developed egg. To form these tubes, a subset of follicle cells (the DA-patch) must rearrange, change shape, and migrate towards the anterior of the egg chamber. Polarity proteins, which establish cell directionality, are important for mediating these behaviors, but the mechanisms through which they do so are not fully understood. My research aims to enhance our understanding of these mechanisms by establishing how the polarity protein Crumbs (Crb) is involved in the formation of the DAs. To address this question, I used the mosaic analysis with a repressible cell marker method to generate mosaic clones in egg chambers that are null for crb and marked with green fluorescent protein. To determine how the loss of Crb affects DA formation, I used immunostaining to assess cell shape and position by visualizing the membrane protein E-cadherin, which participates in a regulatory network with Crb. I found that Crb is important for proper DA-patch cell shape changes during early tube formation, and that losing Crb causes delayed DA-patch cell migration, leading to shortened DAs. I also discovered that E-cadherin is mislocalized when Crb is lost, indicating that the interaction pathway involving E-cadherin and Crb may be responsible for the defects observed during tube formation. To test this hypothesis, I will stain for other proteins in this interaction pathway. By understanding this pathway, we can gain insight into how Crb functions in DA formation. Since tube-forming mechanisms are highly conserved, this work will suggest how polarity proteins regulate tube formation in all animals, including humans.