Freedom of Speech

Barbara Singleton, Sociology Undergraduate Student

College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

This case research project explains the relevance of Bond v. Floyd in relation to senators and the Freedom of speech doctrine.

Frequency and Intensity of Exposure to Carbonate Corrosive Waters in a Near-shore Upwelling Environment

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

A primary consequence of increasing atmospheric CO2 is the lowering of ocean pH and associated stress on calcium carbonate bearing organisms. Coastal regions are vulnerable to low-pH due to seasonal upwelling which periodically introduces CO2–enriched deep water to the surface. Time-series of pH at Trinidad Head, California were analyzed to ascertain the frequency and intensity of exposure to carbonate corrosive waters from 2006-2011. Most years experienced 11-35 days of exposure to corrosive water, while enhanced upwelling in 2010 resulted in 61-84 days of exposure. Some instances show that corrosive conditions were ameliorated by enhanced photosynthesis in response to upwelled nutrients.

Friendship Circles Curriculum for Blue Lake Community Resource Center

College of Professional Studies

The Blue Lake Community Resource Center (BLCRC) was approached by Blue Lake Elementary School with a request to facilitate friendship circle-type peer support groups for its students. The BLCRC Coordinator, citing a lack of a formal curriculum/training manual for use by its AmeriCorp worker in the facilitation of these groups, asked for a curriculum manual to be used as a guide for future years’ programs. The curriculum will be designed to align with the cultural and social makeup of this rural community with a focus on developing positive self images and social skills for girls in grades 4 through 6.

From Chaos to Collection: The Costco-Price Collection

College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

The Costco-Price Collection is an assortment of historic artifacts excavated in 1994 from the current Costco site and former city dump in Eureka, California. A portion (619 artifacts) was kept as a teaching collection in the Archaeology Research Laboratory at Humboldt State University, and has been used to educate students and encourage interest in California archaeology. This presentation will showcase the rehabilitation of this collection from its original inherited state in 2013 to its current incarnation as a useful and coherent resource through the three-year timeline.

From One Way to Our Ways: Instilling Indigenous Values in the Western Education System

College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

Data show that Indigenous students are underperforming academically in schools because Western based education is failing to adapt multicultural pedagogies into the curriculum. To explore this issue, I examined peer-reviewed literature and conducted interviews from local teachers and experts in the field of secondary education. Indigenous concepts of community based building exercises, oral and social communication, as well as storytelling challenged Western discipline based learning methods focused on isolated learning and individual success. Understanding why Western education is flawed gives insight to immediate and future goals of improving education as a multicultural based discipline.

From Plants to Portola: Geovisualization of the Pre-Colonial California Coast, Derived from Paleobotanical Data and Spanish Journals

College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

This Geovisualization takes a broad look at the California Coast in a precolonial context including native plants, and land management practices used by the Ohlone tribe, in part by referencing Spanish journals from the Portola expedition, and in part by referencing existing Paleobotanical data. The location of primary interest is present day Pillar Point, just north of Half Moon Bay, from which Doctor Teale has previously collected Paleo-environmental data.

From Plants to Portola: Geovisualization of the Pre-Colonial California Coast, Derived from Paleobotanical Data and Spanish Journals

College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

From Plants to Portola: Geovisualization of the Pre-Colonial California Coast, Derived from Paleobotanical Data and Spanish Journals

From the Post-Soviet to Eurasia: Regional Constructs a Quarter-Century after Independence

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

This project, an overview of an in-progress edited book, interrogates Eurasia as a form of regional definition for the states that gained independence after the USSR’s breakup, arguing for the continued relevance “post-Soviet” as a regional construct. The idea of the post-Soviet is positioned as a heuristic device to evaluate existing prior attempts at regional definition. Path-dependency as a concept suggests that preexisting institutions condition the institutional form that follows political transition; the condition of path-dependency remains relevant across the post-Soviet successor states.

Functional impact of alternative splicing on the transcriptomic landscape and fate of multipotent skeletal stem cells and osteosarcoma

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

Greater than 90% of all protein-coding genes in the human genome undergo post-translational alternative splicing (AS), giving rise to many unique isoforms from a single gene. Our work with human skeletal stem cell (hSSC) has demonstrated the need to examine AS as it relates to cancer, development, aging, skeletal regeneration and skewing of hSSCs towards non-skeletogenic lineage fates. Here we explored the relationship between AS and function of hSSCs. Using RNA microarray technology we discovered RNA-binding proteins involved in hSSC function; inhibition of these proteins prevents differentiation and formation of osteosarcoma. Our current work reveals other essential roles of AS in hSSCs.

Fungi Decomposition Rates in Relation to Growth Rate and Moisture Tolerance

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

Researchers found that fungi that grow faster tend to be less resistant to changes in temperature and moisture. Exploring the relationship between a fungus’s growth rate and moisture tolerance, our team used a system of differential equations to model the decomposition rates of woody material by different fungi to understand how decomposition would be affected when the species are in competition.