LEVEESTORIES.XYZ FOR AN EXPEDITED RECONNAISSANCE STUDY

College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

LEVEESTORIES.XYZ FOR AN EXPEDITED RECONNAISSANCE STUDY Within the design and construction of the Redwood Creek Flood Control Project in Humboldt County, a mistake was made. The project, a substandard system of earthen levees, extended too far into the creek’s estuary. Poorly negotiated allowances of the levied wound left by the Corps into the transition zone caused the circulation of this vital water vein to be compromised in providing proper supportive nourishment to regional health ecology and economic components. Why hasn’t the miscalculated scar been corrected? Participant observation and historical archaeology helped to first understand the biological and cultural aspects involved.

Leveraging Applied Problems to Enhance the Undergraduate STEM Experience

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

Strong analytical skills and the ability to develop and analyze mathematical models are highly sought-after skills, especially when they are paired with the auxiliary skill set of strong scientific writing, the ability to collaborate across disciplines and effective visualizations of quantitative information. We focus on the development of these auxiliary skills by (1) offering training to teams who participate in COMAP’S Mathematical Contest in Modeling (MCM) and (2) through the PIC Math course, a problem-solving course in which students work on problems provided by an industry client.

LGBTQ Risk & Protective Factors for Offending Over the Queer Life Course

College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

Prior research finds lesbian, gay, bisexual (LGB) individuals offending more than their heterosexual peers, due to differential experiences in social institutions like school and family. There are no qualitative studies of queer pathways into or away from crime, or research on the offending of transgender and gender non-conforming individuals. We seek to fill this gap by analyzing life trajectories of LGBTQIA individuals with qualitative interviews. We explore pushes/pulls into/away from criminal behavior and respondents’ relationships with social institutions--including chosen families and political participation--to illuminate sites of intervention in the queer life course.

Life's Footprints

College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

As college students progress through their academic career they begin to form an identity. Their identity then balances their intrapersonal, interpersonal, and cognitive abilities (Jones and Abes 2004). A college education has also been theorized to act as a protective factor from offending, or a factor that can promote desistance from crime (Hirschi 1969). Does the self-concept of college students influence their offending behavior? The purpose of this topic is to conduct a narrative study, to explore the life course development that college students have undergone before attending college, as well as what their current life course (life path) is, and their vision for post-college life.

Light and Dark Assay Comparison of Selected Strains of Anabaena Sensory Rhodopsin

Miles Guillot, Chemistry Undergraduate Student

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

Anabaena Sensory Rhodopsin (ASR) is a retinal containing membrane protein from the cyanobacteria, Anabaena (Nostoc) PCC 7120. The ASR protein undergoes a conformational change upon absorption of orange light, which causes the all-trans-retinal to be converted to 13-cis retinal and the release of the associated transducer protein (ASRT). In order to facilitate future nanolipoprotein studies we examined the efficacy of the production of ASR in several selected recombinant strains of E. Coli through a light and dark spetrophotometric analysis of the purified ASR protein.

Likelihood of agonistic behavior by gull species in Humboldt County based on relative body size

Conor Somerville, Wildlife Undergraduate Student

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

This project is a behavioral study on 4 gull species of Humboldt County. Their agonistic behavior was studied, comparing the frequency of agonistic behavior toward members of other species based on relative body-size. This value was compared with the number of birds of each relative size they had access to. I found that most gulls tended to target members of their own species disproportionately, but Western gulls disproportionately targeted members of other species that were larger and smaller in size. This may have implications on gull behavior and management.

Lineage Tracing of HoxB5 Cells of the Yolk Sac and their Contribution to the Adult Hematopoietic System

College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

Understanding the origins of hematopoietic stem cells has been a challenge due to the lack of a marker specific to this cell type. Recently, our lab has functionally proven that HoxB5 is a unique marker for long-term HSCs in adult murine models. Whether HoxB5 is also a marker for HSCs in development, has not been studied. Here, we are labeling HoxB5+ cells found in the yolk sac blood islands at E7.5 by using a genetic tool we generated. We will then analyze all marked cells at several time points during development and adulthood. This project will discover if HoxB5+ cells from the yolk sac contribute to the adult hematopoietic system and the LT-HSC pool.

Literacy an Asset Based Approach

College of Professional Studies

With No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and Common Core there are misconception on literacy, specifically, false research being promoted for corporate greed. We are not saying that skills based literacy is useless but it should not be the main nor the only approach when engaging students in literacy. In this case study we explored multiple literacies, specifically we implemented side by side sessions where we used a whole language multiliteracy approach through play, creative spelling, drawing, dialogue, and children as authors. We conclude that children love to read when they engage in language play, create their own stories, choose and discuss books.

Live, Love, Latch; An Ethnography of the Breastfeeding Community in Northern Humboldt County

College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

The biocultural approach to anthropology recognizes that one cannot fully discuss human biology without a discussion of human culture as well, and vice-versa. The socially complex topic of breastfeeding is a perfect example of the intersection between biology and culture; while breastfeeding is a biological process, it has been observed cross-culturally that the way it is practiced and if it is practiced at all, is highly dependent on the culture where the mother belongs. Through this ethnography, an anthropological investigation of the unique culture of Humboldt County will be undertaken to understand if and how a positive cultural atmosphere is created for local breastfeeding mothers.

Load Forcasting in Humboldt County

Other

The objective of our project is the prediction of the electric power usage in Humboldt County in 2017. Load is the amount of power that is being drawn from the electrical grid due to consumer, industrial, and governmental practices. Forecasting load is used to predict future electrical power that is required to meet the short term or long term demand. We have created a linear regression analysis with a moving window to predict energy use for the next hour. Our work is a mathematical model that uses past data to achieve an efficient strategy for forecasting electricity loads.