The concepts of cancer and chemotherapy are not unheard of to children, but are often scary and confusing. This paper addresses the need for children’s books on difficult concepts (such as cancer), the creation of a script for a children’s book explaining chemotherapy on a cellular level, the creation of...
Water availability is a controlling factor in stream ecosystems with direct influences on habitat and aquatic ecosystem process, but little work has been done evaluating how biota respond to natural variations in low flow conditions during summer, and which biotic or abiotic features in the system may link most closely...
Following their extirpation due to the maritime fur trade, northern sea otter (Enhydra lutris kenyoni) reintroduction in the 1960s has facilitated their recolonization in southeast Alaska. Sea otters are now sympatric with wolves (Canis lupus), which are widespread in southeast Alaska, and a colonizing coyote population (Canis latrans). Recent studies...
Spent hemp biomass (SHB) is a byproduct of the cannabinoid oil production which currently is not approved as a livestock feed ingredient. The 2018 Farm Bill defined the difference between varieties of the cannabis sativa plant as either non-hemp cannabis or hemp which has equal to or less than 0.3...
Oysters are a large part of the American aquaculture market, and the oyster farming industry was valued at over 1 billion dollars in 2021. However, oyster farmers often face issues surrounding the mortality rates of their stock. One cause of this is infections caused by Vibrio coralliilyticus (Vcor), a bacterium...
As coral reefs continue to experience decline from human-related stressors, the countless species that depend upon them for food and shelter are likely to follow, constituting a loss of one of the most biodiverse ecosystems on the planet. Though laboratory studies of corals remain difficult, promising model organisms may hold...
Cobalamin (vitamin B12) is a water-soluble vitamin that plays a role as an indicator of gastrointestinal disease in dogs. In addition, supplementation of vitamin B12 to dogs deficient in cobalamin has been shown to improve clinical signs of intestinal disease.1,2 Low serum cobalamin has been found in dogs with food-responsive,...
Females do not seek out pelvic exams routinely, which can lead to an increase in undetected pelvic cancers. While there are studies depicting women’s perspectives during gynecological exams, there are not many compilations of negative experiences during pelvic exams with individuals of other identities and recommendations for providers. This scoping...
BACKGROUND. Residues of pesticides on crops can result in mortality to foraging bees. The likelihood of mortality can be mitigated by applying pesticides in the evening so that their residues dissipate by the following morning when bees resume foraging. The dissipation rates of different pesticides, or their residual toxicity, is...
The oceans are one of humanity’s greatest resources, providing food, raw materials, livelihoods, and protection. More than 3 billion people around the world rely on marine life as a source of protein as well as their livelihood. Seafood is one of the highest traded commodities globally and many major cities...
Honeybees are essential for agriculture and to sustain an ecosystem. There are two main types of bacterial diseases that affect honeybee colonies and brood: American Foulbrood and European Foulbrood. Both bacterial diseases can be treated with antibiotics approved for use in honeybees, however American Foulbrood is spore forming and cannot...
Breast cancer is a leading cause of cancer deaths among women, with an estimated 12.4% of American women diagnosed with this tumor type. Evidence suggests that exogenous disruptors can exert epigenetic changes leading to aberrant gene expression, shifting the cellular balance toward oncogenesis. While chemical pollutant exposure is well-studied, light...
Differential access to healthcare contributes to health disparities, and discrimination by language preferences may limit healthcare access to individuals for whom English is not their preferred language. This study looks at whether those who have different language preferences within the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS ) survey reported different...
Treated wood commodities disposed of in landfills contain chemicals that can migrate into the environment. Wood treatments such as ammoniacal copper zinc arsenate (ACZA) contain heavy metals which prevent the biological degradation of wood. These metals can migrate out of treated wood into soil or groundwater, posing environmental hazards. This...
Despite the prominence of LEDs in our society, we have limited knowledge pertaining to their long-term effects. These seemingly white LEDs have a large blue light component to them. Recent results have shown that Drosophila living in 12 hrs. of blue light and 12 hrs. of darkness live substantially shorter...
The demands of the healthcare system on its employees are heavy and intense. Long working hours, high-stress environments, and emotionally exhausting situations can lead to burnout. This is particularly a constant concern in emergency medicine. Burnout has been associated with impacting well-being and performance. There is also an interest in...
This thesis aims to investigate the reasons for discordance in the physician-family relationship, to explore how to improve that relationship, and to develop a set of practices to help prevent conflicts. The research was done by analyzing research on surrogate decision making, conflicts surrounding end of life, and case studies....
Pediatricians and other physicians in the United States identify themselves with various religious or spiritual affiliations and use its practices and customary ways to influence their medical practice. Pediatricians and physicians affiliated in the pediatric medical field have an important role in monitoring the health of many children, teenagers, and...
The data retrieved from gt;momic sequencing techniques provides the raw information required to infer the basis of mutations and their resulting phenotypes, wherein plant ontologies can be utilized in annotating said phenotypes using a common, shared vocabulary. By relating mutant genes of similar phenotypes both within and between plant species,...
The meaning of life is an enduring philosophical question. This paper seeks to explore the thought of Albert Camus and Robert Nozick on the meaning of life and critically examine their contributions to philosophy. Camus begins with contemplating whether life is worth ending or worth living and concludes that only...
The foraging distance of bees has been intensely studied. In contrast, little is known about the factors that determine bee dispersal distance, especially on large spatial scales. Eucera (Peponapis) pruinosa is a wild ground nesting bee that exclusively collects pollen from squash in the genus Cucurbita. Although the bee occurs...
Deep-sea chemosynthetic ecosystems remain a frontier in marine science. Essential to their role in the ocean ecosystem are endosymbiotic bacteria which support larger megafauna, including the widespread symbiont-bearing Vesicomyid clams. The diversity and characteristics of these symbionts in these clams is only just beginning to be understood with technological advances...
The last two years of the Covid-19 pandemic have brought significant changes to global and American societies, as well as to our healthcare system. Millions of Americans were laid off and left without insurance, some areas of medicine suffered financial catastrophe with a fall in patient volumes, others were victims...
In the face of limited resources, how should those resources be allocated? The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the difficulty of allocating a limited number of vaccines. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued standard guidelines based on ethical principles, yet all 50 states in the United States (US) interpreted...
Beginning in 2020, the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic contributed to an increase in housing insecurity among college students. As awareness around homelessness has increased, so has research aimed at better understanding the causes of homelessness and housing insecurity among college students, as well as opportunities to better support economic access to higher...
The safety of the chemical glyphosate, the active ingredient in the herbicide RoundUpTM, has been questioned on numerous occasions. Previous studies suggest that glyphosate-containing herbicides have deleterious effects on a variety of organisms; other studies suggest that these effects may be minor, transient, or non-existent altogether. Proper maintenance of microbial...
This literature review aims to discuss the safety and use of cannabidiol (CBD) products for dogs and cats. The most prominent issue with CBD products for pets is the limited amount of resources and information available to the veterinary community. Another consideration for the control of CBD on the market...
The COVID-19 pandemic has shed a light on the need for people to trust in medical science. With the need for 70% of Americans to be vaccinated to achieve herd immunity but 30% have reported vaccine hesitancy, now more than ever do we need to redouble our efforts to ensure...
Food webs are extraordinarily complex, containing myriad direct interactions and indirect effects. Determining how this network of interactions and effects influences a food web’s qualitative dynamics is a challenging task, especially because data on food web structure and individual interaction strengths is unknown in virtually all real-world ecosystems. The goal...
Christian communities vary widely in their degrees of acceptability or apprehensiveness toward newly developing technologies, ultimately aiming to help individuals optimally grow in their relationships to God and with others. Technologies viewed as conducive to accomplishing these goals are more likely to be accepted by Christian communities. Technologies viewed as...
The canine estrous cycle is unique compared to other domestic animal species. During estrus, serum progesterone concentrations ([P4]) rise two days prior to ovulation. In fact, the luteinization of pre-ovulatory follicles resulting in this initial increase in [P4] (1.5-2.5 ng/ml) cannot be temporally dissociated from the onset of the surge...
This ethnomusicological study has examined the forces that have globalized the Andean instrument of the quena and the genre of Andean music as a whole. This thesis specifically addresses the cultural, and socio-political factors over the last century that has led to the quena being circulated across the globe. Much...
As a child of two Khmer Rouge refugees, the Khmer Rouge genocide serves as the prologue of my family’s story. The Khmer Rouge genocide took place in Cambodia in 1975-1979 after a successful coup led by the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK) (Dy 2007, 2). In an attempt to create...
During the past two decades, interest has grown in the role and welfare implications of different head and neck positions (HNPs) in equine biomechanics as well as dressage training and competition. To evaluate the influence of HNP on stride length, 17 horses of varying breeds and dressage levels were studied...
The ocean provides many ecosystems services and yet humans have viewed the ocean as a black hole for trash since the 1950s. With recycling not getting to the source of the problem, smarter consumer choices are being targeted, specifically choices centered around the use of plastic. Thus efficient, useful communication...
It is well known that in-stream large wood affects river channel shape, sediment deposits, stream flow, and available habitat for aquatic species. However, less is known about how wildlife interact with this large wood. Previous research has shown that small mammals and birds utilize woody debris in river channels for...
With a growing demand for renewable sources of freshwater around the world, stormwater offers a potential solution. However, various pollutants can be present within stormwater, such as antibiotic-resistant bacteria, that present a danger to human health if stormwater is used for agricultural purposes. Biochar has the capability to remove bacteria...
Youth in the United States of America are disproportionately affected by the School-to-Prison Pipeline, especially low-income and/or BIPOC youth. This is a result of centuries of historical classism and racism that serve as the foundation of the United States and is directly correlated with mass incarceration and the Prison Industrial...
The Covid-19 pandemic has affected everyone in the world to some degree through social isolation and a changing of the norms, including the number of deaths. However, no research has been done on how companion dogs in the United States have been affected by these societal changes. Research in Israel,...
Many pollination studies with honey bees have examined the effect of colony density on crop yield and yet overlook the effect of variation in the population size of these colonies. High colony density in northern highbush blueberry has been met with concerns from beekeepers who feel higher densities will intensify...
Mental health issues such as depression are increasingly prevalent in college students. However, research on disparities in mental health problems in students of color in college has been limited. In the present study, we used the Healthy Minds Study (HMS) data collected on mental health of college students from 2018-2019...
It has been demonstrated that dogs form attachment bonds to their owners and that these attachments can be classified and described in ways that are analogous to attachments found between human infants and their mothers. While a secure attachment to a parent has been shown to improve problem-solving abilities in...
In the context of the obesity epidemic, the current study aimed to evaluate the health barriers individuals face towards living a healthy lifestyle. Furthermore, we sought to understand how individuals perceive they can overcome their health barriers, and how they believe healthcare professionals can help them overcome their health barriers....
Voluntourism is a field of service work that combines volunteer work and leisure travel. With its increase in popularity in recent years, research concerning the impacts of voluntourism in developing countries is lacking. This study aims to discover the impacts that volunteers have on communities, specifically in Nepal. Using a...
Black Rockfish are important commercial and recreational species and understanding their biology is useful in developing best management practices. A common means to assess diet in both freshwater and marine fishes is stomach content analysis, which can determine diet composition and infer foraging behaviors. We conducted a stomach content analysis...
Estrogen is a sex hormone responsible for the development and regulation of the reproductive system and secondary sex characteristics. They also play a critical role in the development of breast and uterine cancer. The formation of agonistic metabolites of estrogen, especially 16α-hydroxyestrone, have been found to have cancer-inducing effects meanwhile...
The Canada goose (Branta canadensis) monogastric gut is proposed to contain aerobic spore-forming bacteria that produce non-toxin substances that may promote anti-inflammatory immune responses. It is hypothesized that the aerobic bacteria found in samples of Canada goose microflora could have probiotic effects in other avian species or used for commercial...
Grasslands and croplands located in temperate agro-ecologies are ranked to be the best places to install solar panels for maximum energy production. Therefore, agrivoltaic systems (agricultural production under solar panels) are designed to mutually benefit solar energy and agricultural production in the same location for dual-use of land. However, both...
Scytalidium ganodermophthorum (Xylogone ganodermophthora) is known as a yellow-pigmenting spalting fungus. However, recent observations have indicated that the dichloromethane-extracted pigment produced by S. ganodermophthorum can vary in color from yellow to green to red to purple, depending on the age of the fungus at harvesting. The timeline and mechanisms behind...
Writing an educational children's book to promote the use of American Sign Language and education about Deaf culture while also providing parents with a resource to learn ASL while spending quality time with their child.