Obesity is linked to reproductive dysfunction through defects in the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis that arise by unknown mechanisms. Importantly, rodents fed a high-fat diet (HFD) develop similar hypogonadism and reduced ovulatory capacity. During HFD feeding, CNS immune cells (microglia) become activated in the hypothalamus, promoting inflammation, and altering neuronal function indirectly and via cell-cell contacts. Surprisingly, however, genetic ablation of this microglial inflammatory response exacerbates rather than improves HFD-induced HPG axis dysfunction including altering the activity of hypothalamic neurons that express the key reproductive neuropeptide GnRH. Therefore, we hypothesized that increased microglial inflammatory signaling during HFD feeding helps maintain GnRH neuron integrity. To test this hypothesis, we used immunohistochemistry (IHC) to assess microglia-GnRH cell-cell interactions in the hypothalamus of 15-week HFD-fed female mice with microglia-specific deletion of IKKβ (IKKβ-MGKO), a critical regulator of the inflammatory NF-κB pathway. IHC studies using GnRH and Iba1 (microglial marker) revealed fewer cell-cell contacts between GnRH neurons and microglia in the preoptic area of the hypothalamus (POA) of IKKβ-MGKO mice compared with controls. In addition, we found that IKKβ-MGKO mice have reduced levels of Iba1 and total numbers of microglia but no changes in microglial cell morphology as determined by Sholl analysis. These findings suggest that HFD-induced microglial inflammatory signaling promote cell-cell interactions with GnRH neurons that may contribute to maintenance of HPG axis integrity and female reproductive function during diet-induced obesity.

Fusion, the process powering the sun, offers a promising solution for deep-space propulsion as it can provide high specific impulse and lightweight fuel. The Flow Z-Pinch lab is exploring the innovative sheared flow stabilized (SFS) Z-pinch technique to mitigate plasma instabilities and enable fusion using axial flows, creating a compact, scalable path to fusion power and space thrusters. Interactions with electrodes often introduce impurities into ZaP-HD plasmas, whose emission can be monitored to measure plasma parameters like electron temperature. However, excessive impurity concentrations can also contribute to radiative losses, degrading fusion performance. Spectroscopy is a key diagnostic tool for analyzing impurities, allowing measurements by examining light emissions from atoms. The ionizations per photon method (S/XB), which correlates emission intensity at a specific carbon line to particle flux using empirical coefficients based on temperature and density, will be used to quantify impurity influx. Our project uses an existing spectrometer and photomultiplier tube (PMT) setup, with initial efforts focusing on absolute calibration to relate pixel intensity to photon flux. This diagnostic is essential for our understanding of impurity dynamics and their migration in ZaP-HD plasmas. The PMT can give us a time-resolved measurement to correlate to other time-resolved diagnostics, especially to characterize the erosion rate of electrode surfaces. Preliminary data analysis will calculate carbon influx using calibrated data and S/XB coefficients, with future work extending the diagnostic system to monitor additional carbon charge states and emissions at varying axial locations. This research provides novel insights into impurity behavior in ZaP-HD, enhancing our understanding of plasma-material interactions and informing us of strategies to minimize impurity influx for improved fusion performance.

Under India's military occupation, Kashmir has become one of the world's most militarized zones, where systematic human rights violations including enforced disappearances, torture, and sexual violence have been documented. Through analyzing documentary films, visual art, and protest movements, I investigate how Kashmiri women transform individual trauma into collective political action. I focus on two key case studies: the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) and documentary filmmaker Iffat Fatima's "Khoon Diy Baarav." Using ethnographic analysis of films, photographs, testimonies and protest documentation, I demonstrate how these women use memory work and creative documentation to challenge both military occupation and patriarchal structures. The APDP turns monthly protests into spaces for collective mourning while maintaining detailed records that counter official denial. My findings reveal that women's networks employ multiple strategies: preserving memories of the disappeared, creating visual evidence of state violence, building international solidarity through art and film, and establishing alternative archives that document human rights violations. This research contributes to our understanding of how marginalized groups use creative resistance to preserve collective memory and build transnational networks of solidarity under conditions of repression. The implications extend beyond Kashmir to other conflict zones, showing how women's creative activism can effectively challenge dominant narratives while creating powerful spaces for resistance and healing.

Industrial chemical separation processes, such as distillation, drying, and evaporation, consume 10-15% of US annual energy production. Membranes, which act as a selective barrier to separate compounds, are substantially more energy efficient than traditional chemical separation methods that require heat and could help reduce this consumption. Inorganic membranes are inherently suitable for many separation processes because they are chemically and thermally stable; however, ceramic membranes are mechanically fragile and costly to produce. Commercial polymeric membranes are comparably more economical but degrade in harsh organic solvents and high-temperature environments. One approach to achieve the necessary membrane properties at low cost is vapor phase infiltration (VPI), a gas-phase synthesis technique consisting of sorption, diffusion, and entrapment of vapor-phase reactants within organic polymers. The infiltration of inorganic oxides through VPI has been shown to enhance the properties of polymeric membranes by producing cost-effective, chemically stable, and temperature-tolerant organic-inorganic hybrid materials. However, the mechanical properties of these hybrid membranes, which are crucial for maximizing lifetime and durability, are generally less well understood. In this study, polyethersulfone (PES) membranes are subjected to trimethylaluminum and water under various VPI process conditions in a custom-built reactor. Thermogravimetric analysis is utilized to quantify the extent of inorganic infiltration by measuring the aluminum oxide loading within PES membranes. Mechanical properties of these membranes are characterized by tensile stress, modulus, and maximum pressure through dynamic mechanical analysis and burst pressure testing. Enhancement in chemical stability is determined by measuring the degradation of VPI-treated PES samples after exposure to organic solvents. These results provide insight into the relationship between infiltration structure, membrane stability, and mechanical properties, which may allow for improved membrane design and more sustainable industrial chemical operations.

Hydrogel biomaterials have many applications in tissue engineering and drug delivery. Stimuli-responsive hydrogels allow for controlled drug release, dependent on a user-defined trigger. However, current stimuli-responsive hydrogels are case-specific and cannot be used for broader applications, such as targeted disease treatment. Most hydrogels can only respond to one input, making them difficult to use in treating diseases with multiple markers. We developed a fully recombinant protein-based material with protease degradable cross links that follow Boolean logic (YES/AND/OR) in response to multiple inputs to allow for user controlled material degradation and drug release. The protease degradable sequences can be easily switched out before expression depending on the application, making our hydrogel generalizable. The hydrogel will be crosslinked with Boolean logic constructs, each of which are flanked by a click-like chemistry protein system. This allows the crosslinks to be covalently ligated to a linker made from elastin-like polypeptides (ELP), which holds the hydrogel network together. The crosslinks and ELP were expressed recombinantly in E. coli and purified on an ӒKTA Pure (Cytiva). A degradation study was conducted by adding different combinations of proteases to prove that material degradation is dependent on the combination of proteases added. We then conducted rheometry to determine the mechanical properties of the hydrogels, and verified that material stiffness followed the expected logical operation, where correct inputs resulted in material degradation. Finally, we tested the hydrogel’s ability to release drugs by incorporating human epidermal growth factor (hEGF) into the gel and measuring activation of the ERK signaling pathway through a Western Blot. The Western Blot showed activation of the ERK pathway only when the correct combination of proteases was added, indicating release of a bioactive protein drug. If successful, this hydrogel could be used for therapeutic delivery of drugs and broader tissue engineering applications.

Laser interferometry is a common diagnostic used to measure electron density in plasma experiments. Traditionally, laser interferometers have been employed under the assumption that the scene and reference beams must be equal in length. While this practice maximizes the signal to noise ratio, it provides challenges to experiments requiring multiple laser beams in laboratories with space constraints. Allowing beam paths to be unequal in length would permit increased flexibility in optical setups. In pursuit of this flexibility, some researchers have shown that gas tube laser interferometers with unequal path lengths can produce accurate measurements, provided that the difference in path lengths is equal to some integer multiple of double the cavity length of the gas tube laser. These investigations, however, assumed that the spatial periodicity seen in a homodyne Michelson interferometer configuration will remain constant when employing the same path length differences on a heterodyne Mach-Zehnder interferometer configuration, with which actual plasma density measurements were collected. This work aims to close the gap between proofs of concept and experimental implementations by investigating the signal quality of a Mach-Zehnder heterodyne quadrature helium-neon (HeNe) interferometer over a range of path length differences. Experimental methods and results are given for the benchtop investigation of signal quality. Application of the setup is discussed for measuring plasma density in ZaP-HD, an experimental device at the University of Washington used to demonstrate a sheared-flow-stabilized Z-pinch nuclear fusion space thruster concept.

The global pandemic of obesity has increased the prevalence and burden of metabolic diseases, including type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Obesity and its comorbidities are frequently associated with hypogonadism (low levels of testosterone (T) in men), and both preclinical and clinical evidence support a causative role of hypogonadism in predisposing individuals to metabolic diseases. However, the mechanisms remain unknown. One potential mechanism arises from our recent discovery that in mice, surgical castration (reducing T levels) amplifies the pro-inflammatory response to consumption of a high-fat diet, specifically leading to activation of astrocytes within the hypothalamus, a brain region critical for regulating whole-body metabolism. Concomitantly, there is a striking reduction of the anti-inflammatory neuropeptide neurokinin B (NKB; encoded by the Tac2 gene) in the same brain region. Therefore, we hypothesized that T limits astrocyte inflammation via enhanced NKB-neurokinin-3 receptor (NK3R) signaling. Using primary astrocytes harvested from newborn mice, we found that T and dihydrotestosterone (DHT; a non-aromatizable androgen) increase the expression of tachykinin genes like Tac2. Further, androgen treatment blunted the proinflammatory response of primary astrocytes to lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a sepsis-inducing bacterial cell wall component. To assess the anti-inflammatory capacity of NK3R signaling, we co-incubated astrocytes with the NK3R agonist Senktide and LPS, finding a significant attenuation of proinflammatory cytokine expression. Together, these data suggested that androgen receptor signaling might constrain astrocyte inflammation through induction of NKB-NK3R. However, the ability of DHT to reduce cytokine expression in response to LPS was preserved in the presence of Osanetant, an NK3R antagonist, indicating that the anti-inflammatory actions of androgens are independent of NK3R signaling. These findings form the foundation for future pharmacologic and genetic interventions in obese mouse models to further clarify the role of astrocyte T and NK3R signaling in hypogonadism-associated metabolic diseases.