Studying if the habitat type has an effect on the what age hawk will be using that territory, either adult or immature. Looking at four habitat types, open, forest, urban and water. There was no significance in habitat type in relation to age.

Spiders are very effective biocontrol agents, particularly when their communities are more diverse. In the progression of more sustainable and natural agriculture, supporting spider communities in California vineyards has potential to keep vines safer from pests. I decided to observe spider taxonomic and guild richness, as well as abundance, on crop and non-crop vegetation in vineyards, while recording a site’s plant species richness and assigning each of those species to be native or not. I set out to determine what factors support more spider diversity, and ultimately, how those factors may encourage spider communities on the vines themselves.

The purpose of this study was to increase physical fitness skills within adult populations with intellectual disabilities in the areas of walking, push-ups, curl-ups through a self-determination model. This was achieved through collaborative engagements with graduate-level students. Within this collaboration participants chose exercise goals and success criteria. An exercise program was established to increase participant skills over five sessions and teach participants how to be independent in their physical fitness endeavors and environments. The goal was to determine if experiences within this study would lead to increased skill level surrounding physical fitness through SDT.

In northern California, purple urchin (Strongylocentrotus purpuratus) populations have exploded, leading to an invasion of the intertidal zone with potential consequences for those communities. We aimed to determine if there was a relationship between surface rugosity and urchin abundance and condition in this recently invaded habitat. We found that urchins took advantage of any intertidal habitat, as abundance was independent of surface rugosity. However, surface rugosity was related to urchin condition, with urchins on rougher surfaces in better condition than those on other surfaces. Rocky intertidal surfaces may therefore provide refugia for overabundant subtidal urchin populations.

Antibiotics are commonly used in modern-day cell culture to prevent the loss of valuable data and cells- useful for protecting valuable cells during long-term studies. Cells are cultured in nutrient rich media, causing rapid proliferation of unwanted contaminants (i.e. viruses/ bacteria). We know that short term treatment negatively affects cell differentiation, proliferation, regulation and metabolism- yet, are still commonly used in cell culture. In this study, we cross-examined the effects of short term antibiotic treatments (96 hours) and long term antibiotic treatments (192 hours) on human embryonic kidney cell proliferation, mitochondrial membrane potential, and protein expression.

Gene editing with CRISPR/Cas9 and AAVs has been a modern technology that has greatly influenced biological sciences. Coupling the editing technology of CRISPR and AAVs could lead to treating the underlying causes of pulmonary arterial hypertension(PAH). PAH is a progressive disease in your lungs that causes vasoconstriction and decreased blood flow, which can lead to heart failure. Placing a stent in the pulmonary artery, with endothelial cells engrafted on it, that overexpresses the important regulatory factors eNOS and VEGF, may lead to an increase in reendothelialization and vasodilation of the pulmonary artery.

This study sought to understand the effects of a visual lure on mesocarnivores at camera trapping stations. By fashioning a lure from fur, feathers, and tinsel, I placed the lure in front of 5 randomized cameras along with 5 cameras with no lure. The cameras were placed along a 150 meter long transect on an active game trail in Freshwater, CA. 9 species of mesocarnivore were detected, and 5 species with larger sample sizes were included in analysis of interest towards the lure, time spent at camera stations, and relationships between species in response to the lure.

We examined how HEK293 kidney cells responded metabolically to heavy metal poisoning by cadmium chloride (CdCl2), aluminum chloride (AlCl3), and cesium chloride (CsCl) using two fluorometric assays (resazurin and MitoTracker). We then attempted to mitigate adverse effects by treating these cells with ascorbic acid (vitamin C).

My research project investigated success American Robins (Turdus migratorius) as predators in livestock pastures. Using random focal sampling and critical behavior incidence recording I obtained percent of successful attempts in moderately and over grazed pastures made by male and female birds.

Various studies have documented gender inequity in scientific fields, including medicine, computational biology, the physical sciences, and ecology. A clear indicator of this bias can be seen in the disparity between men and women authorship of scientific papers. This study describes gender diversity in wildlife publishing across institutions, countries, and study species taxa in recent decades. We reviewed all research articles published in the Journal of Wildlife Management from 1999 to 2020 and collected author names and affiliations. We classified the gender of each author using Genderize.io, and calculated the men:women ratio of first and co-authors over time.