A “tough on crime” approach in the late 1900s ushered in more punitive sentencing than ever before in American history. As a result of mandatory minimums, three-strikes laws, and other harsh legislation, the American carceral state boomed. Not only were more people incarcerated, but they were incarcerated for longer periods of time. Since then, federal court cases have challenged the constitutionality of life and lengthy sentences, especially for individuals sentenced when they were juveniles. In the wake of these federal decisions, Washington state has enacted a variety of legal pathways towards post-conviction sentence review and early release. This study explores how learning of the possibility of early release affects incarcerated individuals who previously did not expect to have a chance at release. This research will be conducted through qualitative interviews and a survey with a sample of 12-15 individuals who served lengthy sentences and unexpectedly learned of a chance for early release. The findings of the research are expected to make a variety of contributions. First, the research will fill a gap in the literature on the social-psychological dimensions of imprisonment and on the significance of hope for incarcerated individuals. Second, this research will add qualitative insights to the largely policy-related literature on criminal sentencing. Third, the research may influence early-release policy by demonstrating potential benefits of such programs, which may positively contribute to less stringent sentencing and carceral practices. Fourthly, the research may help to shatter preconceived notions that individuals who have served life/lengthy sentences are “burdens” to society and instead replace such negative views with positive, prosocial, and communal experiences.

Methanotrophs are prokaryotes that naturally consume the potent greenhouse gas methane for energy. Through metabolic engineering at an industrial scale, these microorganisms hold potential to mitigate the contribution of methane emissions to global warming. In particular, Methylotuvimicrobium buryatense can sustain robust growth both in nature and experimental settings; it is a promising engineering candidate. To develop a robust metabolic engineering platform using M. buryatense, biologists require a deeper understanding of the genetic mechanisms by which it functions. Here, I present an open-source software tool designed to interactively explore the transcriptome of M. buryatense. By integrating bulk RNA-seq datasets collected from experiments over the past decade and applying an array of unsupervised machine learning clustering algorithms, we cluster genes by their expression profiles in differing growth conditions. These gene clusters are annotated with gene ontology (GO) terms using statistical enrichment analysis to assist in functional interpretation of the clusters and the genes that comprise them. To enhance domain-expert researchers’ ability to explore and drill-down into specific queries, I unify these cluster-specific analyses in a web-hosted tool using interactive data visualization techniques centered on a ReactJS frontend and Azure Cloud backend. With both exploratory and query-focused use cases, this software tool can support M. buryatense biologist workflows for predicting functions of hypothetical proteins, showcase new or confirming putative regulatory processes, and generate new experimental hypotheses from the presented transcriptomic trends.

Youth suicide is a serious mental health and injury prevention issue that is exacerbated through access to firearms. Child Access Protection (CAP) laws are one way to address this critical issue. Previous work suggests a persuasive case for CAP law implementation in all states but is not clear on what makes them effective in the average person’s experience. To fill this gap, the research question I explored in this study is: Are the firearms used in youth suicides stored differently when there is a CAP law in place? This was done to identify if CAP laws were effective in altering storage patterns in cases where the victims are not the firearm owner. Using the National Violent Death Reporting System dataset on youths ages 8-20 who died by firearm suicide between 2003-2018, I conducted data analysis using RStudio to generate descriptive statistics for all demographics and the gun storage variables, “locked” “not-locked” and “missing”. Among all decedents, the majority identified as 88.01% male, 80.49% white, and the mean age reported was 18 (SD = 3). The analysis indicated an association between CAP laws and locked storage; however, it was not strong enough to be conclusive with only a 3.22% higher prevalence of unlocked firearms in no CAP law states. Similarly, for the loaded variable, there was a 0.43% higher prevalence of unloaded firearms in the presence of CAP laws. Although results were inconclusive, this could be due to data limitations such as having 67.59% of total cases missing storage data. Future research should be conducted to explore preventative policy and its effective implementation, including barriers such as various political factors and community norms. Although current data shows minimal impact of the effectiveness of CAP laws, this merits further study on potential policies, community-based methods, and other interventions for this urgent issue.

Structured Interprofessional Bedside Rounds (SIBR) is a hospital communication model that was designed to facilitate collaboration on patient-centered daily plans of care. SIBR is associated with improved teamwork and communication among health professionals, leading to better patient health outcomes and satisfaction. Despite a growing body of evidence in support of SIBR, some healthcare teams find it challenging to consistently use the model and little is known about how this may impact patient satisfaction. The purpose of this study is to compare the level of satisfaction with rounds reported by patients in two ICUs and one acute care floor where SIBR has been adopted as the standard of practice but where variations in fidelity to the model persist. Data is obtained from the Study to Evaluate Associations Between Rounds, Heart Failure Care, and Patient Outcomes (STEAR-HF) through observations, questionnaires, interviews, and electronic health records. STEAR-HF is an in-progress multimethod study involving participants with a diagnosis of advanced heart failure who have been hospitalized at the University of Washington Medical Center. Participant recruitment is ongoing with more than 40 participants recruited to date. Patient satisfaction with rounds is being gathered via a 10-day post-discharge questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive statistics. In preliminary results, 92.3% of participants (n=12) reported that they agreed or strongly agreed with the statement, “I liked morning rounds in the ICU.” Meanwhile, only 57.2% of respondents (n=7) agreed or strongly agreed with the same type of statement for the acute care units (“I liked morning rounds on the acute care floor”). In parallel, rounds observations indicate higher levels of SIBR fidelity in the ICUs compared to the acute care floor. Additional research is needed to more closely compare patient satisfaction between critical care and acute care units and in relation to rounding model fidelity.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recognizes that heart failure (HF) is one of the most complex and expensive health conditions to treat, and affects over 6.2 million Americans. The purpose of this study is to assess health system trust among patients with a diagnosis of advanced heart failure, who were recently discharged from the University of Washington (UW) Medical Center-Montlake. We are also exploring respondent’s reports of trust in the UW ’s healthcare system compared to the general healthcare systems. Data collection for this study is ongoing. Based on the descriptive analyses of reports from 17 respondents, preliminary results suggest that respondents have greater trust in the UW’s healthcare system compared to the general healthcare system. For example, 88.2% (n=15) of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that the UW’s healthcare system provides excellent care, whereas 64.7% (n=11) agreed or strongly agreed that the general healthcare system provides excellent care. In addition, when asked whether patients, regardless of their race or ethnicity, receive equal medical treatment, 58.8% (n=10) agreed or strongly agreed that they received equal medical treatment from the UW’s healthcare system compared to only 35.2% (n=6) who agreed or strongly agreed with the same statement in the general healthcare system. Additional data collection and analysis are needed to confirm whether the findings are similar over time. Further, it is important to explore whether there are differences in responses among study participants from different demographic and socio-economic groups (e.g., race/ethnicity, age, gender, rural/urban residence, education, employment, income, and insurance status) to develop strategies to provide equal health care access in diverse populations and reduce health disparitise.