Building strong relationships between parents and teachers is critical to supporting young children in developing key social, emotional, and pre-academic skills. Especially in preschool, parent-teacher relationships can support a young child’s development across home and school. Communication is an important aspect of successful parent-teacher relationships; however parents and teachers face interpersonal, intrapersonal, and structural barriers to communicating with one another. This study aims to elevate the voices of racial and ethnic minoritized parents of a preschooler and preschool teachers to understand barriers to communicating and strategies to overcome these barriers. Using a qualitative approach, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 9 parents of a preschool child and 7 preschool teachers at two local early childhood centers. Using a codebook, I am currently analyzing all interviews to answer the following research questions: 1) What type of communication do parents and teachers want? 2) What barriers do parents and teachers face when communicating? and 3) What are some strategies for improving communication between parents and teachers? Preliminary results indicate that both parents and teachers desire open, honest communication. Parents expressed wanting daily communication related to how their child was doing in school. Teachers expressed a desire for parents to understand more about their kids and to be able to speak to parents when they have a concern about their child’s behavior. Despite a desire for communication, both parents and teachers describe feeling unsatisfied by their current level of communication, citing how COVID-19 has limited their ability to communicate. Some strategies discussed included increasing face-to-face contact, having more events at school, and creative ways for daily communication (e.g., interactive platform, daily notes, etc.). Through listening to parents and preschool teachers about their current experiences, we hope to identify ways to improve communication between parents and teachers, ultimately improving young children’s outcomes.

Parent-teacher relationships are important in supporting young children’s social and emotional development. Especially in preschool, strong parent-teacher relationships can support a preschooler’s development across home and school. Despite the importance of parent-teacher relationships, parents from racial and ethnic minority backgrounds report having lower-quality relationships with their child’s preschool teacher. In this qualitative study, we sought to evaluate the voices of parents from racial and ethnic minority backgrounds, to understand barriers to and strategies for creating strong parent-teacher relationships. As part of a community-based partnership, we partnered with local preschools that serve a majority of underrepresented students. I assisted in conducting interviews with nine parents, in which three identified as Asian, one identified as Black/African American, three identified as white, and two identified as more than one race. During the interviews we asked parents questions about barriers at the individual, center, and systematic level that stand in the way of establishing close relationships with their child’s teacher, as well as potential solutions. My team is currently in the process of coding and analyzing all transcripts to explore barriers and solutions in more detail. Preliminary results reveal that parents brought up several barriers including time, limited face to face interaction, lack of communication, and feeling unwelcome in their child’s school. These barriers were described as impediments to the parent’s ability to form relationships with their child’s preschool teachers. We are currently analyzing and working with our community partners to identify solutions to improving parent-teacher relationships. The findings of this study are important in understanding how to support parents from racial and ethnic minority backgrounds in forming and maintaining strong relationships with their child’s preschool teacher.

Since 2013 there has been a decline in the harvest of Dungeness crab (Metacarcinus magister) in south Puget Sound. The Pacific Northwest Crab Research Group (PCRG) is a network that focuses on crab population monitoring. PCRG runs a large-scale larval trapping network that uses light traps to attract Dungeness crab megalopae via positive phototaxis. The light traps span the Salish Sea, to recognize migration patterns and better understand Dungeness crab population dynamics. In addition to Dungeness crabs, different crab species are caught in the traps, creating an opportunity to study more species. All crab larvae follow the same larval stages, called zoea and megalopa, which appear similar to the naked eye. This creates a problem because population counts are often done by volunteers who don’t have prior knowledge of megalopa morphology. Gathering reliable population data of the marine organisms caught in the traps requires a clear procedure to identify bycatch. In this research project, I will classify the unknown larvae into morphospecies by carefully looking and documenting individual characteristics of each organism. Documents will note features such as: carapace shape, carapace width, lateral edges of carapace, telson shape and additions (e.g. setae), number of spines, location of spines, antennae, length and width of thoracic legs, coloration, and overall shape. Measurements will be taken through Image-J, which will be documented along with photographs clearly differentiating anatomical characteristics to compare to DNA barcoding to be conducted by Seattle University on these samples. When DNA results come back, I will determine if specimens that had identical characteristics are genetically matched. This information will be used to make an accurate guide down to the species level. My results will be shared with PCRG to improve the accuracy of population counts of different crab species which will increase reliability of future PCRG data.

Dungeness crabs (Metacarcinus magister) are culturally and ecologically essential to Washington; they also constitute the most valuable state and tribal commercial fishery. Recently, there have been sharp declines in adult crab catch, resulting in the closure of the south Puget Sound fishery. Previous research by Alan Shanks has shown larval abundance is a clear driver of adult yield in Oregon, but many gaps in research remain regarding population dynamics in Washington, sustainability, and the impact of shifting environmental conditions. To address these gaps, the Pacific Northwest Crab Research Group (PCRG) was formed by the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community. PCRG is a collective of over 110 state and tribal co-managers, federal agencies, academics, commercial crabbers, and non-profit organizations. As part of PCRG, UWT’s Becker Lab deployed standardized light traps in the south Puget Sound from mid-April to September for two consecutive years, with sampling four days per week. In June 2021, the light trap network experienced a large pulse of Dungeness megalopae succeeding an extreme heat event. With the frequency of heat waves doubling over the last century, understanding temperature and other environmental stress responses in Dungeness crab larvae is imperative. Megalopae (n=55) from six PCRG sites were preserved in the field with 100% ethanol, then returned to the laboratory where I imaged them under a microscope and performed morphometric analysis (carapace width, carapace length, total length) in Image-J. I then compared measurements with recorded temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, and salinity. Analysis is ongoing, but I expect to see an inverse relationship between environmental factors and Dungeness megalopae size. The aim of my work is to quantify larval growth as it relates to varying environmental conditions in order to better plan restoration and predict adult harvest limits. These data will offer valuable insight for restoration and protection of larval Dungeness crab.

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is one of the fastest growing causes of global disability and requires a variety of treatment options due to its multifactorial etiology. While it’s long been known that blood levels of the neurotransmitter GABA are predictive of MDD, recent studies have implicated the human microbiome as a potent GABA metabolizer that can affect circulating GABA levels. Our collaborators used bioinformatics to identify bacteria containing putative GABA-synthesizing genes (puuD) that are predictive of host GABA levels and depression scores. However, previous literature indicates that the puu operon is repressed under anaerobic conditions in E. coli and the putative PuuD proteins have low sequence similarity to the model PuuD enzyme. My project seeks to confirm the biochemical activity and substrate-specificity of these genes using in-vitro assays measuring both the putative PuuDs’ chemical reactivity and kinetics. Due to conservation in the active site structures between the putative proteins and the model PuuD, I expect that the novel PuuD-like proteins will have gamma-glutamyl hydrolase activity and substrate specificity for gamma-glutamylated-GABA. This work provides base-level evidence for the use of systems biology techniques to identify enzymatic function and lays the foundation for targeted therapeutics manipulating the microbiome for improved MDD outcomes.

Cryptocurrency is a worldwide payment system that has the potential to become a universal exchange since it was first presented as a solution to address the limits of centralized banking systems, including inflation and clunky currency conversions. However, high price volatility, cybersecurity threats, and environmental repercussions are some hazards associated with cryptocurrency. Since the start of the 2008 banking crisis, it has long been a contentious topic in the global economy, especially considering the lack of proper regulatory authorities. Current studies on the topic suggest two extremes, with some claiming that it is just a matter of time before cryptocurrencies take over the financial system as opposed to others claiming that they will eventually die out. In 2021, El Salvador became the first country to make Bitcoin legal tender, offering its citizens fee-free transactions and facilitating fast cross-border payments. In contrast, the Chinese government has banned the trade and mining of cryptocurrencies due to their energy consumption and the use of virtual currencies for fraud and money laundering. Major scandals involving this currency consistently occur, causing widespread mistrust in cryptocurrencies and people to question their long-term viability. My literature review assesses the future of cryptocurrencies from the perspectives of economics and political policy, underscoring the prospective advantages of adopting cryptocurrencies as legal tender, either as a replacement for or in addition to centralized currencies. Comparing cryptocurrency usage in different countries, I aim to cast light on the concept of an accessible currency and present a potentially superior alternative for weak currencies. I expect three issues to appear in my results, namely decentralization, security, and scalability. The concept of a universal currency indisputably has the ability to alter how international trade is conducted and alleviate wealth disparity because it would be accessible to everyone, everywhere.

Titus Livius, better known as Livy, was a Roman historian writing at the beginnings of the Augustan age and the fall of the Roman Republic. Livy wrote his magnum opus, Ab Urbe Condita, as a moralizing history in response to the moral degradation and civil strife he experienced during the collapse of the Republic. The first seven chapters of Book I outline Roman prehistory before Romulus’s reign and contain several imitations and allusions to archaic poetry and Classical historiography. Livy himself believes that the subject of his writing would have been better suited for poetry than prose. This project aims to provide quantitative evidence for Livy's claim by quantifying and analyzing instances of literary devices of earlier poetry such as alliteration and etymologizing to determine whether a poetic influence is implicit in Livy’s prehistory of Rome. Preliminary results based on the quantity of alliteration present in Livy's writings suggest some influence by earlier poetic sources. However, it is difficult to substantiate any conclusions on statistical grounds due to fragmentary literatures. Instead, this project also proposes further hypotheses about source accessibility and poetic inclination that may explain the quantitative phenomena.

Avian scavengers perform a critical ecosystem service by breaking down dead and decomposing organic matter and recycling nutrients. However, the scavenging dynamics of birds have received relatively little attention compared to the dynamics of scavenging mammals. Carcasses provide an ephemeral food source for avian scavengers, which presents them with the unique challenge of locating the carrion. This makes detection and consumption efficiency a topic of interest as not all avian scavengers follow the same pattern of arrival at a carcass. Here, we examine avian scavenger succession – the order in which species arrive and consume carcasses – through monitoring ungulate carcasses in Washington State. We found that turkey vultures outcompeted all other avian scavengers when they were present in summer months, while black-billed magpies and common ravens outcompeted golden and bald eagles in winter months. This confirms previous studies that have found that turkey vultures have morphological and genetic advantages that enable them to readily find carcasses and that body size does not determine succession in this scavenging guild. Our study highlights how social scavengers outcompete solitary scavengers and reach carcasses sooner, regardless of the physical characteristics of a species.

Large predators are particularly sensitive to human disturbance due to their slower life histories, large home ranges, and persecution by humans. Previous research shows that top predators have the ability to alter trophic relationships from their positions at the top of food webs. Therefore, anthropogenic-mediated behavioral changes in large predators could exert indirect and direct impacts on the entire ecological community. In Washington, cougars (Puma concolor) inhabit landscapes with increasing human disturbance, making this state an ideal place in which to explore how anthropogenic activity shapes their behavior. In this study, we examined cougar feeding behaviors in response to road, trail, and building density. We used camera traps deployed at fifty-five cougar kill sites to detect carcass visitation, and GPS collars on cougars to assess the total time spent at a carcass. A hurdle model was used to predict the probability of observing a cougar on a camera trap in relation to road, trail, and building density. Cougars were found to spend significantly less time feeding in areas of higher road density (p < 0.001) and building density (p < 0.001). This indicates that human infrastructure (proxied by road density) and human presence (proxied by building density) reduce cougar feeding opportunities. Our study shows that as the human footprint continues to expand into cougar habitats, cougars may experience further disruptions to their feeding dynamics. Understanding the behavioral response of large predators to disturbance is critical in the management of intact ecosystems and in mitigating human-wildlife conflict. 

About one-quarter of photosynthetically fixed carbon is cycled through the marine microbial community in the form of metabolites, the intermediate compounds or products of metabolic processes. Marine heterotrophic bacteria are largely responsible for consuming these metabolites as a source of carbon, energy, and nutrients, yet little is known about transporter affinity and uptake kinetics of bacteria for abundant substrates. Homarine is a small, nitrogen-containing, zwitterionic metabolite that is produced by the cyanobacterium Synechococcus as well as some diatoms and haptophytes, where it is thought to function as an osmolyte. Dissolved homarine is present in the ocean at very low concentrations (~1.1 nM in Puget Sound). I hypothesize that these low concentrations are the result of high affinity bacterial transporters for homarine. Homarine can be used as a sole carbon and nitrogen source for OBi1, a marine bacterium isolated from Puget Sound. In this study, I investigate the uptake kinetics of homarine by OBi1 in the lab using the Michaelis-Menten model. I compare the uptake kinetics of OBi1 to similar homarine uptake experiments in the Salish Sea in June 2019. I expect that OBi1 will have a high affinity for homarine uptake and will take up homarine at nanomolar concentrations. I also anticipate that the marine microbial community in Puget Sound will have similar uptake kinetics to those observed with OBi1. Understanding the uptake kinetics of homarine by marine bacteria sheds light on the cycling of homarine in marine environments like Puget Sound and can help us understand the processes that keep the dissolved homarine concentration so low.

The existential risk of being unable to control a super-intelligent agent is called the Control Problem. Philosophers argue that an intelligence explosion and the creation of a singularity are inevitable, likening it to a ticking bomb. This fear is also present within the media, with rogue robots and singularities being frequent tropes for science fiction. However, the catastrophizing of sentient computers is not new. When first invented, academics and citizens speculated the computer was a precursor to supernatural thinking machines. Even in the mid-20th century, scientists believed sentient computers were right around the corner. This belief led to widespread computer phobia- the general public was afraid of what they thought were sentient gadgets and their implications. As familiarity with computers grew, along with a redefinition of what qualifies as human intelligence, this fear dwindled, and the public viewed computers as mere tools. Once again, due to the innovation of neural networks, we are experiencing a resurgence of phobia, reviving the belief that computers are supernatural thinking machines. This literature review will compare recent and historical philosophical arguments to current psychology and computer science. I expect to find similarities between the 1950s and present phobia and logical dissonance between the application of computer science and philosophical arguments. By confronting a potentially baseless fear, we can correct and alleviate the issues caused by irrationality and identify policies separate from sentience but still necessary to safeguard against non-sentient AI.

Phonemic proficiency refers to the ability to manipulate the phonemes, or unit of sounds, in a word. Speech perception deficits has been linked to lower phonemic proficiency, as children have difficulty isolating, manipulating, and blending sounds that they cannot perceive. Autistic children commonly report difficulty perceiving speech in noisy real-world environments where many people are talking at the same time, such as a classroom or playground. Thus, in this study, we investigate the relationship between phonemic proficiency and multitalker speech perception in autistic children. We hypothesized that we would observe a stronger correlation between speech perception and phonemic proficiency in autistic children compared to the neurotypical comparison group. Moreover, we expected that autistic children will have worse multitalker speech perception thresholds overall, suggesting difficulty perceiving speech under complex conditions. We tested 19 7-to-10-year-old autistic children and a comparison group of 19 age- and biological sex-matched neurotypical children. The Phonemic Proficiency subtest of the Weschler Individual Achievement Test – Fourth Edition was administered to assess phonemic awareness. Multitalker speech perception thresholds were obtained under 2 conditions: Co-located Noise and Segregated Noise. In the Co-located Noise condition, the target speaker spoke sentences from 0° azimuth with two additional distracting talkers, referred to as maskers, co-located from the same location. In the Segregated Noise condition, the distracting talkers were spatially segregated to ±90° azimuth, while the target talker remained at 0°. Preliminary analyses suggest that a relationship between phonemic proficiency and multitalker speech perception is observed. These results will advance our understanding of the difficulty autistic children have perceiving speech and have the potential to lay the groundwork for novel assessment and intervention strategies to improve how children with and without autism listen and learn in a noisy classroom. All authors participated in data acquisition, analysis, and preparation of this presentation.

 Children are tasked with listening and learning in noisy environments where many people are talking at the same time every day. Conceptual models of listening under complex conditions posit that working memory plays a role in the ability to extract the target speech from the distracting noise. Hard-of-hearing (HoH) children, in particular, do worse listening in noisy environments. Thus, in this study we investigate the relationship between working memory and multitalker speech perception in HoH children. We hypothesized that we would observe a correlation between working memory and speech perception in both HoH and the typical hearing comparison group. Moreover, we expected that HoH children will have worse multitalker speech perception thresholds overall, suggesting difficulty perceiving speech under complex acoustic conditions. We tested 7-to-18-year-old HoH children and an age- and biological sex-matched typical hearing (TH) comparison group. Working memory was assessed in both visual and auditory domains; participants were asked to recall either a sequence of visually presented letters or auditorily presented numbers. Multitalker speech perception thresholds were obtained under 2 conditions: Collocated noise and Segregated noise. In the Collocated Noise condition, the target speaker spoke sentences from 0° azimuth with two additional distracting talkers, referred to as maskers, collocated from the same location. In the Segregated Noise condition, the distracting talkers were spatially segregated to ±90° azimuth, while the target talker remained at 0°. Preliminary analyses suggest that a relationship between working memory and multitalker speech perception is observed. These results will advance our understanding of why HoH children experience difficulty perceiving speech under noisy conditions and have the potential to lay the groundwork for novel assessment and intervention strategies to improve how TH and HoH children listen and learn in a noisy classroom. All authors participated in data acquisition, analysis, and preparation of this presentation.

Research, and evolutionary theory, demonstrates that romantic relationships and platonic friendships fulfill different needs and are necessary for survival and critical for reproductive success. These relationships can be highly gendered with different dynamics. Usually, women’s same and cross-sex friendships are more fulfilling and richer. However, there is limited research looking at romantic relationships and platonic friendships and the individual differences and characteristics within these relationships. The current research explores how gender, sexuality, and heteronormativity impact the assessment, comparison, and characteristics between platonic and romantic relationships. We explore which individuals break out of traditional gendered friendship norms and seek similar interactions within their platonic friendships and romantic relationships. 194 Participants answered a questionnaire measuring the different characteristics desired in platonic friendships and romantic relationships. This survey was answered twice, once while thinking about a platonic friend and again for a romantic partner. Relationship characteristics were measured by scales, created by the researchers, that looked at emotional intimacy, physical intimacy, quality time, action affection, verbal assurance, and relationship perception. Romantic relationships had no difference between genders or sexualities for any of the scales. However, there were significant differences between genders and sexualities found in platonic relationships. Non-heterosexual women and non-binary individuals had higher engagement and support and had the highest overall assessment ratings within their platonic relationships. Heterosexual men and non-heterosexual women differed the most in their ratings for all platonic relationship characteristics, heterosexual men having lower scores on average. This supports previous research that men have less fulfilling relationships than women.

Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) is one of the most prevalent chronic diseases among teens in the United States. Teens with T1D facing socioeconomic disadvantage are disproportionately negatively affected by the burden of T1D and are at-risk for poor mental and physical health outcomes. Limited access to diabetes-related technology may be one factor contributing to these disparities. The purpose is to describe diabetes technology (continuous glucose monitors and insulin pumps) use among teens with T1D according to neighborhood-level socioeconomic disadvantage in Washington. The research also aims to investigate links between neighborhood disadvantage and diabetes outcomes and test whether diabetes technology moderates this relationship. We abstracted demographic, clinical, and psychosocial data from medical records of teens aged 13-18 seen for T1D clinical care at Seattle Children’s Hospital in 2019. We determined state-relative decile scores (1-10) for neighborhood disadvantage using the area deprivation index (ADI) tool, which considers income, education, employment, and housing quality factors. Diabetes management was measured using A1c, a 3-month average of blood sugar levels. Diabetes distress was measured using Problem Areas in Diabetes-Teen, a self-report measure of the emotional burden of living with diabetes. I will perform a descriptive analysis calculating the percentage of participants using diabetes technology for each ADI score and for low and high disadvantaged groups using cutoffs from previous literature to reveal technology use patterns. I will conduct linear regressions exploring relationships between neighborhood disadvantage and outcomes (A1c and diabetes distress) and enter diabetes technology as a moderator. We predict that higher neighborhood disadvantage will be associated with poorer diabetes management and higher distress, but this will vary as a function of technology use. Altogether, this research highlights use of a neighborhood-level tool to identify patterns for an at-risk group of teens and may help to identify intervention targets for public policy addressing health disparities.

This research project aims to investigate how urban ecological design interventions can contribute to the restoration of the vitality of the Belltown neighborhood in Seattle in a post-Covid world. Specifically, the project will utilize an interdisciplinary framework that bridges the fields of landscape architecture and social science through the lens of urban ecology theory. The research methods that will be utilized in this project include investigation, interpretation, and design projection. Investigation will involve the analysis of the current state of the neighborhood, focusing on revealing the hidden urban ecological systems. Interpretation will involve a critical review of the findings from the investigation and the development of design interventions to address the challenges identified. The hypothesis of this project is that small, incremental design interventions that reveal hidden urban ecological systems will foster creative engagement of users with places and natural processes at play, encouraging the care and stewardship for healthier communities and ecosystems in the long term. To support this hypothesis, the project will conduct a thorough review of existing literature on urban ecology and design interventions, as well as collect data through observations and interviews with community members. The expected results of this project are specific and measurable, including the successful implementation and evaluation of an interactive story map to reveal urban ecological systems at play in the neighborhood, and finding potential locations for proposed design interventions. Ultimately, the project aims to contribute to the broader goal of designing future urban grids using the urban ecology framework to reconcile people with their streets in a post-Covid world.