This ongoing research project investigates the counter-narrative of high schools within American and British culture within films and tv shows. 90210 and many other American shows shows high school as “the greatest time of your life” while Skins, a British-based series, shows that high school is just something that you want to get out of. Sex Education, which is the main focus, combines the two cultures to combat the negative connotation of the stereotypical British high school. I also explore how as technology improves, rhetoric changes its form (television) to fit with what society needs to get their message across a large audience.

Bake the World a Better Place is a non-profit organization based out of Denver, Colorado that aims to holistically improve the community. Presently, the organization engages in job training and job placement of marginalized populations such as those experiencing homelessness. Additionally, continuing collaborations are being made with local hotels to assist with housing individuals during the job training process. Products made during the classes are shared with individuals living on the streets. Through building community partnerships between business, social service agencies, and vulnerable populations, each entity is taking an active role in helping improve their community.

This quality improvement project, guided by the Iowa Model of Evidence-Based Practice, examines the potential impact of implementing the LUCAS mechanical chest compression device in rural hospitals. High mortality rates from cardiac arrest, partly due to inconsistent manual CPR and staffing limitations, have led to a review of the evidence supporting mechanical CPR. Proposed interventions include individual training, department-wide integration, and the development of institutional policies. The anticipated outcomes are increased rates of return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC), improved discharge survival rates, and enhanced staff competency in providing high-quality resuscitation.

A comprehensive overview of the relationship between traumatic brain injuries (TBI) and the development of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's Disease and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). The poster delves into the critical roles that the proteins tau and beta-amyloid play in the neurodegeneration associated with TBI, suggesting a strong link between TBI and subsequent neurodegenerative conditions. It calls for increased research into treatment strategies and an improved understanding of TBI’s long-term effects.

This study investigated how biological productivity in the shallow waters of Trinidad Bay, located adjacent to Trinidad Head, differed from the productivity in exposed nearshore environments before and after the onset of seasonal upwelling in 2017. Biological and hydrographic measurements were collected prior to the onset of seasonal upwelling (March) as well as after (May and June) to determine if the associated hydrodynamics affected the spatial distribution of planktonic productivity. Measurements suggest that Trinidad Bay exhibited enhanced secondary productivity relative to nearby exposed environments during relaxation events following strong upwelling periods.

Glufosinate is an important agricultural herbicide, and in this project we attempt to use computational chemistry to better understand how modifications to its structure impact the properties of a nucleophilic functional group important to its mechanism of action. Though ultimately the uncertainty of these calculations proved too large to draw useful conclusions about the mechanism, we were able to establish a reasonable range for the functional group pKa that excluded older conflicting literature values and to provide insight into how steric factors may cause the substitutions to behave differently within the active site than they do in solution.

This poster describes an exploratory study that was completed this semester to explore the question of whether or not there is a need for an indoor field on the North Coast that would provide a solution that allows organized field sports to continue activities during adverse weather conditions in the low-income areas of Humboldt and Del Norte counties. Gathering data for research was carried out by talking to local individuals involved in recreational facilities development and members of sports associations. It was written to raise awareness of the need for such a space and in the hope of getting the community a step closer to figuring out how to provide such a recreation facility.

A common practice through the waves of environmental movements is for grassroots organizations to eventually form a non-profit that continues to support the environment. This was clearly observed at the Environmental Protection Information Center in Arcata, California. The study of this nonprofit and others like it have painted a clearer picture about how environmental nonprofits organize and mobilize. EPIC follows the patterns of other organizations, being a 45 year old environmental nonprofit, it has seen a lot of changes from its original grassroots mobilization. The focus is now on how to best fulfill its mission statement and maintain a complex membership based business.

In June 2016, the water column abundance and vertical flux profile of microfibers was examined using Niskin bottle collection and a vertical array of surface-tethered sediment traps at the continental shelf break south of Rhode Island. Fibers were extracted and analyzed on a Fourier transform infrared spectrometer to determine the type of materials present. Sinking rates of the fibers were estimated through three independent approaches: theoretical, field-based, and lab-based. In general, the field-based approach indicated roughly 8x slower sinking speeds than those observed in the lab or predicted by theory.

My research has two components. The first component explores field research techniques involving the integration of small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS), with mobile mapping tools and geospatial analysis, to generate layers of data for a target study area. The layers include georeferenced orthophotographs, digital elevation models (DEMs), 3D models, common GIS raster transformations, supervised classifications, and false-color composites. The second component explores the use of information technology to develop effective methods for displaying and communicating scientific information to a broader audience.