Conservation on Hunting

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

The goals of animal conservation and the goals of indigenous peoples wishing to hunt are not compatible in all cases. There has been a large amount of land being modified by modern civilization and it is increasing rapidly. There has been two pressing reasons for the preservation of undisturbed land, one is the preservation of indigenous homelands and the preservation of wildlife. Conservationists and indigenous peoples have been paying attention on certain wildlife and Indigenous homelands. Some of the data they do on hunting by indigenous people are, 1) the time period over which the information on hunting was collected ; and 2) the number of people consuming the game killed.

Conspicuous Crisis Concerning Consumption of Calamitous Compounds

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

After manipulating the data, our team presents our conclusions and strategies in an attempt to illuminate and combat the opioid crisis in the 5 states of question. We make policy recommendations for government officials regarding (1) the spread of the current opioid crisis in and between the five states, (2) the various characteristics of opioid incidents in all counties, and (3) the associated socio-economic factors that are present in counties that are in danger of being in an Opioid Crisis.

Construction of Flow Injection System to Detect and Analyze Zinc Using Fluorescent Methods

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

Zinc is a metal that is found in trace amounts in seawater and acts as a micronutrient to marine phytoplankton. To detect and quantify trace amounts of zinc, a flow injection (FI) system was constructed using a flow-through fluorescence detector. The FI system was interfaced with a LabVIEW program which allows for the signals to be analyzed and quantifies time resolved peaks. Zinc, when bound to the organic ligand p-tosyl-8-aminoquinoline (p-taq), fluoresces when exposed to an excitation wavelength of 377 nm and emits light at 495 nm. The fully functioning FI system will be used in the analysis of zinc in Humboldt Bay and coastal waters.

Construction of Niemann Pick Disease Type C1 HEK293 Cell Model Utilizing CRISPR Gene Editing

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

Niemann Pick Disease Type C1 (NPC1) is a rare lysosomal storage disorder that affects 1:150,000 people. The disease is characterized by cholesterol accumulation within lysosomes, as well as clinical cognitive decline and neurodegeneration. These symptoms can be attributed to a mutation in the NPC1 gene that leads to the interruption of the intracellular cholesterol transport. Using CRISPR Cas9 technology, the ability to make a cellular model with inducible CRISPR gene regulation can give researchers considerable insight into the cellular pathology of Niemann Pick Disease Type C1 as well as the ability to apply targeted drug therapy and potentially lead to drug discovery.

Controlled Fires

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

For our creative project we decided to create a poster explaining the relationionships between controled fires and forests. While participating in our Native American Studies class, we spoke breifly about how Native Americans used controlled fires to better the vegagtaion within their land. As biology (the study of life) and botnay (the study of plants) majors, the idea of controlled fires helping forests become more suitable for the life surronding it was an increcribly intresting topic for our research poster. Throughout our presentation we will be taking a closer look at how exactly controlled fires are able to help plants grow back stronger and healthier in the years after the fire.

Correlations between the X-ray and UV spectrum in PG1126

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

PG 1126-041 is a closeby luminous active galactic nuclei (AGN) with a low redshift that displays complex and variable UV and X-ray absorption, which identifies winds expelled from the black hole environment. The data in this paper, collected by the Hubble Space Telescope, was normalized by polynomial fits applied using our own developed Python code. We analyzed the absorption by several ions (OVI, PV, NV, SiIV, CIV and the Lyman series) at 4 different epochs. Our goal is to study a potential correlation between the X-ray and UV absorption to understand their driving mechanism. Discoveries in this project will be compared to AGN much farther than the relatively close PG 1126-041.

Cost-Efficient Methods for Scottish Fishing Industries Affected by Rising Ocean

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

In our paper, we hope to find solutions to the Scottish fishing industries affected by the migration of Herring and Mackerel fish. We acquired pre-existing data from the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) and used it to develop a Python program that manipulates the temperature of water in the North Sea. We identified the range of temperatures preferred by both species and used it in the simulation of our model. Finally, we calculated the cost of fishing trips as these species steered father away from the original possible fishers modeled through our Python program and a threshold for cost impracticality.

COVID-19 anthropause significantly altered community science participation

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

My research project was on the effects of the COVID-19 anthropause on community science activity in California.

COVID-19 anthropause significantly altered community science participation in California

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

My research project is on the effects of the COVID-19 Anthropause on community science participation in California.

CRISPR-Induced Overexpression of Huntingtin as a Cellular Model of Huntington's Disease

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

Huntington’s disease (HD) is associated with CAG trinucleotide repeats in the HTT gene, which encodes the huntingtin protein. Our central hypothesis is that overexpression of normal huntingtin, with the eventual inhibition of cells’ autophagy pathway or other route of clearance, will lead to a disease-like state. In order to address this hypothesis, we are developing a novel human cell model that will allow us to assess how excess huntingtin is managed and/or cleared by cells, and precisely how cell death occurs upon buildup of huntingtin protein. Using this model as a starting point, it is possible to study the response of human cells to huntingtin overexpression.