Search Presenters & Abstracts
View Presenters & Abstracts by College
Presenters & Abstracts: 2022
Kinetic Evaluation of Putative Cellulase Enzymes for Cellulosic Biofuel
- Jasmine CollinsChemistryUndergraduate Student
College of Natural Resources & Sciences
Cellulose composed of glucose monomers is the most abundant biopolymer on earth, as the primary component of the plant cell wall. The enzyme cellulase breaks down the polysaccharide through hydrolysis at the β-1,4-glycosidic linkages. As cellulose is the most ample renewable biological resource and has a low-cost energy source based on energy content. The objective of this study is to evaluate clones of putative cellulases for their activity compared to commercially available products and identify potential cellulase protein activity found in cow rumen in order to optimize biofuel production.
Lineage Tracing of HoxB5 Cells of the Yolk Sac and their Contribution to the Adult Hematopoietic System
- Joe Olage PasillasBiologyUndergraduate Student
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.
Mapping Species Ranges in the California Floristic Province
- Alex RumbelBiological SciencesUndergraduate Student
- Cameron JonesBiological SciencesUndergraduate Student
- Dr. Oscar VargasBiological SciencesFaculty
- Ava GuillenBiological SciencesUndergraduate Student
- Brittany LongBiological SciencesUndergraduate Student
- George SabbaghBiological SciencesUndergraduate Student
- Luis Angel GonzalezBiological SciencesUndergraduate Student
- Stephanie SandovalBiological SciencesUndergraduate Student
- Tristan RoachBiological SciencesUndergraduate Student
- Victor Garcia BalderasBiological SciencesUndergraduate Student
- Zoe DraheimBiological SciencesUndergraduate Student
College of Natural Resources & Sciences
The California Floristic Province (CFP) is a global hot-spot of biodiversity. Creating a database of plant distributions for the CFP is pivotal to define species’s conservation status. Students associated with the Herbarium used R to create precise polygons for the range of 62 species in the CFP. We accessed publicly occurrence repositories for our target species and used a protocol to remove outliers. Using these cleaned coordinates, we created polygons of the ranges and inferred the area in square kilometers. This information was used to create a preliminary histogram for CFP plant distribution, highlighting a high percentage of plant taxa with ranges smaller than Humboldt county.
Mediated Representations of Romance in Popular Culture
- Jessie Cretser-HartensteinJournalism & Mass CommunicationFaculty
- Whitney McCoyJournalism & Mass CommunicationUndergraduate Student
- Brianne BeronillaJournalism & Mass CommunicationUndergraduate Student
- Abraham NavarroJournalism & Mass CommunicationUndergraduate Student
College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences
The concept of romance is mass produced in American popular culture. Television audiences consume a myriad of mediated representations of courtships and relationships in fictional, and often unrealistic, tales of true love. Over the past 25 years, reality dating shows have blurred the line between fact & fiction, creating a new platform for delivering the mediated messages that shape the hearts and minds of viewers across the country. This study utilizes content analysis and survey research to examine portrayals of romance on reality TV.
Meds to Beds
- Katie OhlsenNursingUndergraduate Student
College of Professional Studies
Hospital readmissions that occur within 30 days of discharge due to medication adherence are largely preventable. CMS, the largest insurance payer, does not cover hospital admissions that occur within 30 days of discharge. Our rural area lacks critical access to pharmacies. Frequent hospitalizations and medication non-adherence increase patient mortality and reduce the quality of life for the patients and their families. Providing patients with a 30-day supply of their medications prior to leaving the hospital, along with patient education and a nurse follow-up phone call 48 hours later, can reduce ER visits and 30-day hospital readmissions.
Minority Stress and Psychological Adjustments Moderated by Stress Appraisals
- Bernardo Sosa-RosalesPsychologyGraduate Student
- April PerezPsychologyUndergraduate Student
- Edgar Jimenez-MadoraPsychologyGraduate Student
- Emilia BumgardnerPsychologyUndergraduate Student
- Kevin D. CherryPsychology
- Maria I. IturbidePsychologyFaculty
College of Professional Studies
During the pandemic, students experience a series of academic, structural, social, and personal stressors. For example, some students experienced abrupt closure of colleges and universities; some students’ households did not have access to needed resources such as an internet connection, and limited resources for remote online learning. Students of color experience these stressors in addition to ethnic minority stress which may have been exacerbated because of the current social climate. The current study examined associations between minority student achievement stress on self-esteem and academic sense of belonging and the possible moderating effects of challenge-focused stress appraisals.
Mock Codes, Emergent Scenarios, Nursing Confidence and Team Performance
- Kelsey LeeNursingUndergraduate Student
College of Professional Studies
Critical care nurses specialize in caring for human responses to life-threatening problems. Nursing confidence in codes has shown direct correlation in improved patient outcomes, reduced time to compressions and adherence to American Heart Association guidelines. Currently, in a high-acuity critical care unit in Northern California, mock code scenarios and simulations are not a common practice. A quality improvement program is being developed to improve resuscitation efforts on this unit. It will include a self-assessment, mock codes and emergency scenario days. The goal is to increase nursing and staff confidence in resuscitation efforts, as well as improve team performance.
Modeling Pregnant Elk Presence in Alberta, Canada
- Nariman MoussavizadehWildlifeUndergraduate Student
College of Natural Resources & Sciences
The aim of this research is to better understand pregnant Cervus elaphus relationship to climatic and topographic elements.
Nano Adventures: The Role of Adventure in the Lives of Humboldt Students & Beyond
- Haley UrizRecreation AdministrationUndergraduate Student
College of Professional Studies
When was your last adventure? How did you know it was an “adventure”? If you felt like it was an “adventure” that’s a good start and likely means that it was! That is because the meaning of the term adventure is fairly personal and based on what you personally perceive as unique, unusual and exciting. It may also include a certain level of risk, potentially some dangerous risk, such as swimming with sharks in Australia or riding a motorcycle on a mountainous road in Italy. But risks don’t need to be life threatening or thousands of miles away.
Nanodisc assisted terbinafine transport into Saccharomyces cerevisiae
- Joshua ChapmanChemistryUndergraduate Student
- Parker ChapmanChemistryUndergraduate Student
- Vini ButtinoChemistryUndergraduate Student
College of Natural Resources & Sciences
We wish to answer whether or not nanodiscs make an effective means of transporting medication, specifically in the treatment of fungal infections, seeing as research is currently examining its effectiveness in the transport of chemotherapy drugs to prevent collateral cell death. We tested nanodisc transport of the antifungal terbinafine, which is often used as a topical ointment for direct application, to determine if naondiscs improve its effectiveness as a fungal killer. We treated cultured samples of Brewer's yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) with DMPC lipid nanodiscs wrapped in Apo-A1 protein and loaded with terbinafine and observed fungal cell death, as compared to direct application.