Comparison Between Native Californian and Governmental Attitudes Toward Resource Management and Conservation

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

Research on various land/ resource management and conservation techniques employed by Native communities in California; their foundations in Traditional Ecological Knowledge, influence on the natural history of Californian ecosystems/ habitats, and their relevance in today's California. Furthermore, the differences between Native community and State and Federal government attitudes toward land/ resource management and conservation will be explored, as well as the overlap/ cooperation between attitudes, especially in the case of the State of California and Native Californian communities.

Comparison of Nitrogen Inventories in the Northern and Southern Sub-basins of Humboldt Bay, Northern California

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

The nitrogen inventory of Humboldt Bay has not been quantified in the last 50 years. Our goal was to compare and contrast the nitrogen content of the surface, sediments, biomass, and water column between Arcata and South Bay. Not only was nitrate, nitrite, and ammonium in the water column and pore water tested, but many other factors including: CTD, biomass, grain size, chlorophyll-a, loss of ignition, CHN, and metals. We used past peer reviewed papers to determine differences between the two study areas, and coupled NOAA cencoos and Wiyot data, with our own testing to get the best picture we could of Humboldt Bay. Testing spanned for three months in 2015: March, April, and May.

Compiling archived spectral data of exoplanetary systems to search for trends in the atmospheric composition of hot Jupiters

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

The study of exoplanets has produced large amounts of data since the first exoplanet was discovered over two decades ago. Much of these data are archival and available online to be reused to search for new results. More specifically, spectral data that has been taken from planet-star systems to detect planets by the radial velocity (RV) method can be reused to perform transit spectroscopy if the RV curves include spectra taken at the primary and secondary eclipses and the observations have sufficient signal-to-noise ratio. Our goal is to prepare a compilation of current results on the atmospheric composition of hot Jupiter type planets and extend it by reusing archival data.

Computational Fluid Dynamics Models of RO-PRO and FO-RO Hybrid Processes

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

To address the two main issues of using reverse osmosis (RO) for desalination purposes (high energy demand and brine disposal), two hybrid systems have been proposed. One uses forward osmosis (FO) as pre-treatment while the other augments the RO step with pressure-retarded osmosis (PRO). To meaningfully compare the energy reductions from both systems, computational fluid dynamics models of the PRO and FO processes are being developed to encapsulate the complex geometries of the membrane modules and the system response to these geometries.

Computational Models of Galaxies in Kinetic Theory

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

In this research we model the distribution of mass in simulated galaxies by solving the Vlasov-Poisson system of equations. We've expanded our simulations to include multiple species of matter. This allows us to visualize the individual spatial density distributions of, for example, stars and dark matter as well as the joint gravitational potential. We have developed a library of computational tools to allow us to investigate a number of the physical properties of these galaxies. In future work we will use these tools to compare the characteristics of our model galaxies to those of observed galaxies.

Connecting Communities: Education and Resources for Humboldt County, California

Joseph Meihak, Wildlife Undergraduate Student

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

We created a website to promote ethical awareness and responsibility among the Cal Poly Humboldt community. The recent housing decisions have raised ethical concerns, and our website offers resources for housing, transportation, mental health, and local community services. We believe that these issues, such as food and housing insecurities and environmental impacts like pollution and resource scarcity, are interconnected. Our website aims to provide necessary resources to help address these issues and promote environmental consciousness.

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.