The opioid epidemic in the U.S. has had significant impacts on opioid overdose rates, productivity, and healthcare expenditure. Research has drawn attention to the necessity of a more integrated, biopsychosocial approach to treatment of chronic pain, and how it could alleviate the current public health emergency. Previous literature alluded to...
A disproportionate amount of HIV/AIDS cases each year occur among African Americans. The purpose of this study was to review the numerous studies on HIV/AIDS conspiracy beliefs and their effects into one document. This research was done using research databases to indentify peer-reviewed journal articles on HIV/AIDS conspiracy beliefs, and...
Adults with severe and persistent mental illness (SPMI) are overrepresented in the homeless population, and Oregon’s homeless population has expanded in recent years. In the 1950s, the mentally ill were moved out of the state hospitals and into the community. However, due to a lack of support services in the...
The objective of this paper is to present an alternative model that can be accepted into our current medical care system that outlines protocols for physicians treating terminally ill patients and that will ultimately increase the number of end of life conversations made between them and their patients. The work...
HIV testing among high risk adolescents in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania is challenging due to poor access to test sites and AIDS-related social stigma. We adapted the OraQuick HIV Test, a self-implemented test (SIT), for low literacy youth with no internet access. To compensate for poor literacy, a picture instruction...
An important goal of evolutionary biology is to identify the genetic mechanisms underlying phenotypes in organisms. Understanding adaptation to osmotic stress has many applications, since this stress affects almost all organisms on Earth. By studying the model organism Saccharomyces cerevisiae using experimental evolution, we can learn about genetic mechanisms driving...
Conservation of natural resources has become a new watchword of the scientific community. While many terrestrial ecosystems are well protected, marine ecosystems have only recently come to the forefront. Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) have been introduced as a means of protecting biodiversity, commercial stocks, and ecosystem services. There are many...
This study sought to understand the commonality of vaccine misconceptions among college students and where individuals feel they are obtaining their vaccine information. An IRB approved survey was used to collect 126 responses from Oregon State University students. Individuals, on average, correctly answered only 54.10% of the statements based on...
While breast milk is considered the best nourishment for newborns, they have a lowered ability to digest the fat rich liquid due to decreased lipase secretion for the first few months after birth. To offset this, breast milk itself contains Bile Salt-Stimulated Lipase (BSSL) which significantly heightens fat digestion ability....
Mercury exposure is widely common throughout the world, ranging from sources such as dental amalgams, fish and seafood consumption, industrial mining, and medicine. A straightforward, efficient, and affordable protocol to measure urine mercury content would greatly contribute to assessing one’s mercury exposure and in categorizing populations that are more vulnerable...
Soil bacteria are known to be a prolific source of bioactive compounds. They
produce secondary metabolites that can be used as therapeutic agents. This investigation
focused on the chemistry and biology of secondary metabolites from two soil bacteria,
Streptomyces herbaricolor ICBB 9409 and Streptomyces albiflaviniger ICBB 9297,
which were isolated...
Though empathy has proven to be a vital component of the physician-patient relationship, recent studies have shown that medical students tend to lose empathy during their third year of medical school as they start interacting with patients for the first time. The main objective of this project was to find...
During the first surgery I witnessed, I was struck by an immense sense of wonder at the human body. This research effort determines if this awe is shared by physicians currently practicing medicine, if this wonder will fade as part of an everyday landscape, and delves into the different forms...
Lignocellulosic biomass represents a vast and renewable source of fermentable sugar for
production of biofuels. However, native lignocellulose—comprised of cellulose,
hemicellulose and lignin—is refractory to degradation because the crystalline cellulose is
not easily hydrolyzed by cellulases. Standard chemical treatments of lignocellulose to
reduce the crystallinity of cellulose prior to enzymatic...
Water samples from the Arctic Ocean were analyzed in order to assess the present nature of particulate organic matter and investigate the effect of climate-driven changes on the ecology of the region. 661 individual surface water samples and 216 samples from CTD casts were collected from the Bering, Chukchi, and...
Type-2 diabetes (T2D) has become a pandemic. The main impairment in T2D is skeletal muscle insulin resistance (IR) and is often associated with obesity. Despite decades of study, the mechanisms of IR have not been fully resolved. Evidence has implicated mitochondrial dysfunction as a potential cause and/or consequence of IR....
Symbiosis takes place across the domains of life. In the plant-parasitic nematode, Xiphinema americanum species complex, the bacterial endosymbiont, identified as Candidatus Xiphinematobacter americanum, lives in the gut epithelia of mature female nematodes and moves to the ovaries and uterus where it is transmitted to the eggs. This suggests that...
Dermatological issues are a widespread problem in humans that are often
overlooked. In our present study, we have isolated lipids from de-identified epidermal
skin tape samples from both Atopic Dermatitis and healthy individuals using a high
efficiency one-step extraction method, which were subsequently analyzed using modified
Liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC-MS)....
Dendrimers are well-defined, polymeric nanomaterials currently being investigated for their biomedical applications. Initially, higher generation (size) dendrimers were of interest because of their drug carrying capacity. However, increased generation was associated with increased toxicity. The objective of the present study was to investigate the role of surface charge and generation...
The Pacific coast sea anemone Anthopleura elegantissima is an excellent model organism for the study of temperate symbiosis due to its unique relationship with two microalgal symbionts, Elliptochloris marina and Symbiodinium spp. In addition to hosting one or both of these symbionts, A. elegantissima can live aposymbiotically, allowing for the...
Utilizing Danio rerio (zebrafish) as a model organism has gained popularity recently, however a lack of research into their immune response pathways had led to the discovery of subclinical infections, and has potentially confounded results. We conducted a study to determine the cytokine expression from TLR activation in order to...
Storytelling has been a key societal element for hundreds of years. Over time it has evolved from tales spread by word-of-mouth, to printed words, and most recently to worldwide digital platforms. Stories, and their ability to be both shared and coveted, make them a truly unique aspect of the human...
In order to decrease Lyme disease prevalence it is crucial to understand the role of the black-legged tick, Ixodes scapularis, and its hosts within the ecosystem. This study sought to validate stable isotope analysis as a method of determining tick blood meals by comparing the δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N of the...
The study and utilization of Danio rerio (Zebrafish) as a model organism has increased greatly in recent decades. They are used in many areas of biological research, but one field that has used them extensively is immunology. Since zebrafish have been found to possess many orthologs to human genes, study...
Pseudocapillaria tomentosa is a nematode that parasitizes Danio rerio, causing major disease that affects the economic commodities of fish industries and destroys experimental results at research facilities. There is a critical need for a rapid and sensitive diagnostic assay to test for P. tomentosa in D. rerio populations. PCR primers...
The freshwater snail Biomphalaria glabrata serves as the intermediate host of the
blood fluke Schistosoma mansoni. Previous studies using the 13-16-R1 strain of B.
glabrata demonstrated an association between the gene encoding Cu/Zn superoxide
dismutase (SOD1) and susceptibility/resistance to the parasite. This association is
assumed to involve a polymorphism that...
High-quality child care enables children to learn necessary foundational skills, but children with disabilities, compared to typically developing children, are less likely to experience high levels of classroom quality. Further, teacher’s perceptions of children with developmental delay or disability may be skewed, which may lead to a lower-quality classroom experience....
Approximately 37.6% of Fiji’s population is comprised of individuals that have
Indian descent (2007 census). This is primarily due to the recruitment of Indian
indentured servants to work on the sugar plantations of Fiji during British colonial
rule in the 1880s. Many descendants of these servants have since moved to...
Empathy and its development are crucial for student pharmacists and other health professional students. Methods of developing and maintaining high levels, however, are still being researched. To determine the impact of a short literary fiction intervention on empathy levels in student pharmacists, participants in this study were randomized to a...
Anthropogenically-induced increases in the acidity of the ocean have the potential to seriously harm marine calcifying organisms by decreasing the availability of carbonate (CO32−) used to make shells. I tested the effects of lowered pH on juvenile Pisaster ochraceus, an intertidal sea star and keystone predator in the eastern Pacific...
All organisms possess circadian clocks, which generate daily oscillations in clock controlled gene expression that regulate many essential biological functions in synchrony with the 24-hour light/dark cycles. When the genes that control the internal clock are weakened, accelerated aging symptoms are observed. Past research in Drosophila demonstrated that aging flies...
Transgenic biotechnology holds enormous potential as a tool to address global food insecurity. Transgenic food crops have been shown to increase food availability and food system security by incorporating disease, pesticide and drought resistance. Production costs of transgenic crops are lower due to the reduced need for costly pesticides and...
Purpose: Increasing enrollment numbers of multicultural students, and growing research between the relationship between student engagement and student success and retention heighten the importance of addressing student engagement in campus recreation. This study was conducted to explore the facilitators and barriers to underserved students participating in physical activity through campus...
Group foraging occurs across many ecosystems and taxa, and benefits some or all individuals in the group by optimizing feeding efficiency. The beater theory describes when individual “beaters” benefit other group members by herding prey into more accessible areas. Humpback whales feed on a variety of small patchy prey, and...
The aim of this study was to evaluate the different attachment profiles that characterize shelter dog-shelter volunteer and foster dog-foster volunteer relationships and to assess the proportion of insecure and secure attachment styles within foster, shelter, and pet dog populations. Foster dog-foster volunteer, shelter dog-shelter volunteer, and pet dog-owner pairs...
Flame retardants are in many home products including couches, chairs, and electronics. The most commonly used flame retardants contained polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) until 2004, when the majority of these chemicals were phased out. PBDEs were found to be persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic to both humans and the environment. Organophosphate...
Coastal dunes are dynamic and unique ecosystems. On the Pacific coast, dunes are generally dominated by the beach grasses, Ammophila breviligulata and Ammophila arenaria, two invasive species introduced in the early 1900’s to stabilize sand and create foredunes that serve to protect people who live behind them. Recently, a novel...
Hmong women in the United States have been shown to have low rates of breast and
cervical cancer screening. The reasons behind these statistics are unclear. This study
explored possible health literacy factors that may be affecting low screening rates for
breast and cervical cancer in this population. A transcription...
According to The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS report of regional
statistics for HIV/AIDS from 2001-2008, Latin America has the third highest prevalence of HIV/AIDS
among children and adults in the world with about 2 million infected in 2008. Among all of these
countries, Mexico has the...
Circadian rhythms are the daily oscillations in multiple organism functions, from clock gene expression to behavior. Lost or irregular rhythms lead to health problems later in life including nervous system disorders, abnormal sleep/activity cycles, diabetes and obesity. However, it is not known whether strengthening the expression of clock genes throughout...
Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) devices are designed to enable individuals with limited communication abilities to communicate effectively with others. One of the most commonly used AAC devices converts a text input into a vocalized message for the user. These types of AAC devices can be difficult to use and...
This study explored factors that affect acquisition and proper use of contraception among the college-age Latina population at Oregon State University. Interviews were conducted with eleven health care providers at OSU’s Student Health Services during the spring of 2014. Using content analysis we identified individual-level barriers including lack of knowledge...
Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in men and the fourth most common cancer overall, causing an estimated 307,000 deaths in 2012. Prostate cancer is distinct from other cancers in that there are numerous treatment options, yet very few guarantees in relation to outcome. The most common treatments...
The experiments explained in this Honors thesis are focused on finding a cellular model for analyzing Bcl11b, a transcription factor dysregulated in 20% of cases of T-cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (T-ALL). Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia is the most common childhood cancer. Because T-ALL is a result of incorrect thymocyte development, research...
Glioblastoma, which occurs in adults primarily between ages of 40 to 70 years and accounts for 15% of all brain tumors, is a devastating diagnosis with a median survival rate of less than a year. Invasiveness of glioblastoma cells significantly reduces the effectiveness of current treatments, highlighting the importance of...
Unpublished female authors of American short fiction face many prejudices in fiction publishing, submission, and reviewing. These prejudices stem from the writer’s position in a gender-unequal society. Feminist fiction provides dimensional, diverse female characters in relationships where previous fiction had offered only stereotypes whose role was to support and reflect...
Climate change is causing the world’s oceans to increase in temperature, threatening many populations of organisms. Corals are of particular concern, due to both their ecological importance and sensitivity to high temperatures. Coral populations in the Persian Gulf, however, have been surviving in normally-lethal thermal conditions. An analysis of specific...
This study aimed to evaluate the contingencies and reinforcements that most engage active high school (HS) students in a virtual classroom to learn and adopt healthy lifestyles. In Phase 1, 21 HS students completed focus groups about factors they perceived as engaging for them in learning about lifelong healthy habits....
Pseudomonas syringae is a Gram-negative bacterium that can infect a variety of important crops. Infection by P. syringae is dependent on a type III secretion system (T3SS) that delivers effector proteins to plant cells to suppress host defenses. Previous work has shown that, in the presence of simple sugars, specific...