Oral Presentations: Four

Diane Wilson’s The Seed Keeper: A Novel focuses on home and belonging. Wilson, a member of the Dakhóta tribe, employs a non-linear timeline, shifting between the perspectives of three different women: Rosalie Iron Wing, Marie Blackbird, and Gaby Makespeace. The three narrators demonstrate that home is not just a physical place; it can also be defined by people, nature, ethnicity, heritage, morals, values, and/or land. Marie Blackbird is Rosalie’s great-great-grandmother, and her point of view reveals the beginning of generational trauma for Rosalie’s family line, as well as the struggles her family has faced with their homes and land. Gaby is Rosalie’s best friend, and her perspective highlights the environmental injustices affecting Native Americans’ homes and lands throughout the country. The ideas presented throughout Wilson’s book demonstrate Rosalie’s perseverance and resistance to the conventional notion of what a home is, offering a complex perspective on the traditional concept of home and belonging. All of the women's stories she shared serve as examples of redefining the notion of home for Native Americans today, especially Rosalie's. Rosalie states, “History might have cost me my family and my language, but I was reclaiming a relationship with the earth, water, stars, and seeds that was thousands of years old” (Wilson, 343). Rosalie’s idea highlights the notion that home is also spiritual and emphasizes an essential value in Native American culture—respect for and a sense of belonging to the land.

How has colonial naming and labeling affected the internal Othering within Native communities? This paper examines the effect of naming and labeling on the ethic Othering and Unhomeliness in Diane Wilson’s The Seed Keeper (2021). Through close reading of the intergenerational points of view, the study explores how the act of naming and labeling reflects the colonial system in place. This can be seen throughout the novel with how Marie Blackbird has been forced out of her home because of how colonizers have labeled Native Americans as “in the way”, how Rosalie Iron Wing has been regarded as antisocial, and even young Thomas Wakpá Meister is being treated throughout his life. By drawing on the theory of postcolonialism and Native American studies, I can reflect on how the acts of naming and labeling have controlled a narrative of Native Americans and the cultural erasure it has caused through examining the intergenerational points of view, the labeling within the novel, and major plot points throughout The Seed Keeper. This paper applies postcolonial theories such as Othering and Unhomeliness in examining The Seed Keeper, arguing that the renaming, labeling, and erasure of indigenous people have caused strained relations and render indigenous people a feeling of unhomeliness. Wilson shows this differing cultural dynamic and the process of reclaiming one’s heritage in Rosalie’s return to her father’s cabin and her care of seeds. The Seed Keeper shows not only the linguistic aspect of othering but also how history, memory, and identity are shaped within postcolonialism. Diane Wilson’s The Seed Keeper reveals how naming, labeling, and erasure operate as tools of colonial Othering that continue to shape Indigenous identity. Yet by reclaiming their language, naming practices, and culture, Wilson converts these acts of control into shows of resilience and resistance to postcolonial structures that continue to linger in Native communities.

My project rhetorically analyzes the presentation of African American history in two slave plantations in South Carolina: McLeod and Boone Hall. Researchers have written about the presentation of African American history in public and private plantations, evaluating their sensitivity, correctness, and effectiveness. Most concluded that both public and private plantations have a long way to go, citing the language and speeches of the administrations. However, there is little focus on plantations in South Carolina, which was the port of entry for the transatlantic slave trade, and few dissect the rhetoric of the plaques used across the plantations. Additionally, due to the new governmental efforts to defund public parks and censor American history, there have been few academic articles written about the effects of such regulations. My presentation focuses on representations of African American enslaved history on plantations, comparing the information presented at Boone Hall, a private plantation, and McLeod, a county-owned park. During my time at these plantations, I found that both plantations censor their language to cater to a white-majority audience. This could especially be seen at Boone Hall, where the history was inaccurate, incomplete, and often romanticized the lives of planters and their relationships with the enslaved. In contrast, McLeod’s presentation of slave history was more accurate and revolved around the experience of enslaved African Americans. Based on these findings, I argue that public parks have made an overall more concerted effort to properly represent and preserve the history of African Americans, but the current government administration’s regulations will further censor the presentations of such history. I argue so by analyzing the rhetoric of the plaques presented at various public and private plantations, their websites and event advertisements, and tying those rhetorical analyses to governmental funding cuts, content reviews, and regulations.

In a day and age of constantly progressing, improving, and ever-changing technology, information has become easier and more efficiently accessed with less effort each time. This acceleration of accessibility to information and knowledge has created an eager audience, that can find answers to any question they may have at the tip of their finger. As a result, the length of time willing to be spent on attention to a subject or an object waver and is dependent on its entertainment value. Unfortunately, reading takes time, effort, attention, and endurance to know how the story ends. So, unless the author can grab the attention of the audience and keep it throughout the novel, it won’t be read or purchased. This gives birth to BookTok, which is a community on the social media platform TikTok that is dedicated to books. However, the majority of influencers aren’t focusing on books as a form of knowledge to experience, but rather the marketable factors of each book in order to gain sponsors. These include book recommendations, reviews, reading challenges, reactions to popular books, and the occasional literary insight that’s been simplified for the length of the video. If there are novels that are highly recommended by multiple influencers, they are deemed “BookTok books” and their market value exponentially increases as large quantities of ‘followers’ purchase them at the same time. Consequently, BookTok evolves into a sales platform, commodifying literature as a product to be consumed. Authors write books that will appeal to their audience by reproducing familiar tropes, and the reader is drawn to the most recent shiny object. This paper then begs the question: how do we re-establish reading as an exploration of knowledge? In Jean-Francois Lyotard’s The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge (1979) and Pierre Bourdieu’s On Television (1996), an answer has been presented in their apprehensions with the future of information. Lyotard expresses concern for the loss of knowledge and culture through commodification, and Bourdieu with the dismantling of authority in distributing knowledge. By rewinding to the time before internet, we can discover what could have been and start from there. Alongside my main theoretical texts by Bourdieu and Lyotard, I draw from a variety of literary theorists specializing in digital media to explore this question.

Synaptic plasticity within the ventral tegmental area (VTA) is a process facilitating reward learning and memory. Understanding synaptic plasticity within the inhibitory networks of the VTA is essential to build a complete foundational knowledge of reward system functions under normal physiological conditions. Previously, our lab identified that a 5Hz stimulus induced either inhibitory long-term potentiation (iLTP) or inhibitory long-term depression (iLTD) of GABAergic inputs to VTA GABA cells in mice. VTA GABA cell electrophysiology recordings revealed that iLTP is present in ~50% of recorded cells and iLTD in the other ~50%. While iLTD is GABAB receptor-dependent, and iLTP is partially N-methyl-D-aspartic acid receptor (NMDAR) dependent, it is unknown if other mechanisms are driving the induction of iLTP or iLTD. In preliminary prior studies, we illustrated that plasticity of these VTA GABA cells is input selective, GABA neurons that receive inhibitory input from the lateral hypothalamus (LH) and rostromedial tegmental nucleus (RMTg) exhibiting iLTP and local VTA GABAergic inputs to VTA GABA cells exhibiting iLTD. Furthermore, since VTA GABA neurons innervate local dopamine (DA) cells and/or regions outside the VTA including the nucleus accumbens (NAc), we hypothesize that plasticity type could be explained by unique VTA GABA cell outputs. To examine VTA interneurons we employed synaptic tracer rabies virus. First, Cre-inducible helper virus was injected into the VTA of DAT-CrexGAD67GFP+ mice , later we injected a replication deficient rabies/mCherry virus requiring the helper virus for expression. Next, we recorded GFP+/mCherry GABA interneurons using electrophysiology, which exhibited iLTP in response to 5Hz stimulus (iLTP, VTA GABA to VTA DA: p<0.0001 compared to baseline, ANOVA, n=13). Next, we examined projection GABA neurons by injecting red Retrobeads into the NAc of GAD67GFP+ mice to label and record VTA GABA neurons projecting to the NAc. These cells also exhibited iLTP in response to 5Hz stimulus (iLTP, VTA GABA to NAc: p<0.0001 compared to baseline, ANOVA, n=12). Alternatively, plasticity is also determined by cell subtype. Preliminary single cell PCR data revealing subtypes of recorded VTA GABA cells suggests that variable plasticity can potentially be explained by circuit dynamics and subtype classification. Our study illustrates VTA GABA cells innervating DA cells may facilitate increased dopamine release via iLTP, and GABA neurons innervating NAc could modulate reward or aversion through iLTP. Additional experiments examining VTA GABA cells innervating other brain regions could reveal circuits that exhibit iLTD.

The pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) gene encodes a precursor polypeptide that is processed into multiple peptide hormones involved in regulating energy balance, stress response, and reproductive function. One of these peptides is alpha-melanocyte stimulating hormone, which acts as a satiety signal. Mice with a POMC deficiency show obesity caused by hyperphagia, and they also seem to exhibit infertility. This study aims to determine if one aspect of reproductive dysfunction in POMC-deficient mice, estrus cycling, can be normalized through weight loss. Previous estrus cycle sampling has shown that obese POMC-deficient females typically do not cycle, which likely contributes to their infertility. However, it is unclear whether the lack of cycling is due primarily to the obesity, or to the loss of the products of the POMC gene. To test this, female POMC-deficient mice were placed on a ~30% food-restricted diet in which their allotted food was provided once a day. Five mice in total were tested over a 10-week period: two wild-type controls and three POMC-deficient mice. Daily estrus samples were also taken to assess changes in their cycle. The estrus cycle normally consists of four stages: diestrus, proestrus, estrus, or metestrus. Daily samples were imaged and assigned to one of the four stages. Our hypothesis is that food restriction leading to weight loss could restore or stabilize estrus cycling in POMC-deficient females. Our preliminary analysis seems to indicate that, despite weight loss, we did not see a normalization in the estrus cycle in POMC-deficient females. Conclusions from this study could help the understanding of not only how to treat humans facing infertility due to a POMC gene mutation, but also to a greater understanding of the link between obesity and infertility in general.

Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG) represents the most severe form of pregnancy-related nausea and vomiting, affecting up to 2% of pregnancies and contributing to an estimated $1.7 billion in annual U.S. healthcare costs. The condition can range from persistent vomiting and significant weight loss to dehydration and serious physiological complications, and in extreme cases, can result in maternal and fetal death. The exact biochemical mechanism underlying HG and its effective treatments remain unclear, though the condition has been associated with both elevated and variant forms of the protein GDF15, which regulates appetite and metabolism and may contribute to its severe symptoms. It is hypothesized that the GDF15 variant C211G, along with additional genetic variations present across a broader and more diverse population of pregnant individuals and their children, contributes to the susceptibility and severity of HG. Previous meta-analyses have primarily focused on limited populations, constraining both the scope of findings and the development of future treatment options. By expanding data collection to include families from diverse backgrounds, this study aims to capture a more comprehensive genetic profile, strengthening the ability to detect correlations between maternal and fetal DNA and HG. Building on previous clinical studies and reviews, this genetic approach broadens the scope of HG research and advances understanding of its underlying biological and genetic mechanisms. With continued data collection, we will refine our understanding of the role of the C211G mutation while remaining open to identifying new genetic variants that may influence how often HG occurs and how serious it becomes.

Enteric Redmouth Disease (ERM), or Yersiniosis, caused by Yersinia ruckeri, is a major threat to freshwater aquaculture, yet its prevalence appears lower among Pacific freshwater fish compared to their Atlantic counterparts. This observation suggests that Pacific fish may harbor protective commensal bacteria capable of inhibiting Y. ruckeri growth. To investigate this possibility, isolated gut-associated bacteria from freshwater fish collected in Alaska and nearby streams were screened for antagonistic activity by multiple methods, including: swim agar motility assays, co-culture competitive assays, Ethyl Acetate extractions, Type VI secretion assays, and spot-plating assays on agar plates pre-inoculated with a lawn of Y. ruckeri. Several isolates—including species of Pseudomonas, Aeromonas, and Serratia—demonstrated strong inhibition of Y. ruckeri, identifying them as potential probiotic candidates. The most promising isolate is a newly discovered species of Pseudomonas that consistently suppresses pathogen growth. Whole-genome sequencing and annotation of this strain revealed several candidate genes that could mediate antagonism. In its 6.6 Mb genome, there are multiple genes possible for this activity, including multiple type VI secretion systems, bacteriocins, and non-ribosomal peptide synthetases. However, their functional roles in Y. ruckeri inhibition remain unknown. This project aims to identify and validate which specific gene(s) enable this novel Pseudomonas species to inhibit Y. ruckeri. Previously, we generated a knockout of a type VI secretion system gene in the Pseudomonas species. To assess the contribution of the gene to pathogen suppression, the knockout strain was compared to the wild-type using previously established inhibition assays. Current projects are focused on forward bacterial genetics being used to identify other possible gene(s) that enable this novel Pseudomonas isolate to inhibit Y. ruckeri. If successful, this research will identify the molecular mechanisms underlying probiotic inhibition of Y. ruckeri, advancing our understanding of microbe–microbe interactions within fish gut microbiomes. These findings may guide the development of targeted probiotic treatments capable of reducing ERM incidence in aquaculture and improving the sustainability of freshwater fish production.

Primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM), caused by Naegleria fowleri, remains devastating despite current treatments. We set out to discover organelle vulnerabilities that could be exploited for rapid, selective amoebicidal therapy. We created Montenegro’s Medium, a low-cost open culture formulation, and paired it with a reproducible 96-well screen that reads necrosis (LDH, 24 h), apoptosis (caspase-3, 48 h), and mitochondrial potential (JC-1, 72 h) in amoeba-only and HeLa + N. fowleri co-culture. Plates were normalized when the positive control and NoRx on that plate were separated; where they were close, we reported raw signal. Where normalization was used, NoRx was set to 0% and the positive control to 100%; preset blanks were excluded. At the doses tested, amoeba-only signals stayed near baseline, while co-culture injury fell with perturbations of the ER/secretory pathway, thapsigargin + brefeldin A (± metformin), and mitochondrial potential was preserved at 72 h. These data nominate ER/COPII traffic and ER–mitochondria Ca²⁺ coupling as tractable organelle targets to pursue for fast kill with human selectivity, and they provide an open pipeline (medium + raw plates + analysis) that any lab can reuse. We outline concrete next steps, dose–response matrices, combination indices, and delivery strategies (lipid carriers/prodrugs), to translate organelle hits into brain-deliverable candidates.

Drugs of abuse alter the brain's reward system, interfering with its natural ability to modify connections between neurons. The ventral tegmental area (VTA) is a key region within this system, and disruptions to its function have been linked to the cellular mechanisms underlying dependence. Many of the VTA’s roles are mediated by dopamine (DA) neurons that project to various brain regions and are normally inhibited by GABAergic neurons. These GABA neurons are, in turn, inhibited by other GABA neurons, and the type of plasticity observed in these synapses is a mix of long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD). Our research aims to better understand these networks and how they are affected by addictive drugs by connecting the plasticity patterns of these GABA neurons to their projection targets and their inhibitory input sources. The VTA contains both local GABA interneurons and GABAergic projection neurons that regulate DA output. Using GAT-IRES-Cre / GAD67-GFP mice, we combined dopamine neuron–restricted monosynaptic rabies tracing with whole-cell electrophysiology to map GABAergic inputs to DA neurons and distinguish local from projecting sources. We found that VTA GABA interneurons innervating DA cells exhibit inhibitory long-term potentiation (iLTP) following a 5 Hz stimulation protocol, indicating a strengthening of inhibitory control over DA neurons. This suggests that iLTP at GABA/DA synapses could reduce DA neuron activity and alter downstream reward processing. Additional experiments labeling VTA GABA cells with outputs to other regions may reveal which subsets instead exhibit inhibitory long-term depression (iLTD). We next examined inhibitory inputs from the lateral hypothalamus (LH), rostromedial tegmental nucleus (RMTg), and local VTA sources by expressing channelrhodopsin (ChR2) in GABAergic neurons and selectively activating these projections with light. Plasticity induction revealed input-specific patterns: LH and RMTg projections displayed iLTP, while local GABA/GABA synapses showed iLTD, suggesting that differential inhibitory input between GABA neurons can increase or decrease net inhibitory drive onto DA neurons, and the input location determines the direction of plasticity. Finally, we exposed mice to acute or chronic cocaine and found that cocaine abolishes LTD in VTA GABA interneurons, causing a net decrease in DA release along that pathway. These disruptions to inhibitory plasticity impair the system’s ability to regulate DA output. Together, our data indicate that variability in VTA GABA cell plasticity can be explained by circuit-specific dynamics and cell-type identity, and highlight the importance of inhibitory networks in the neurobiology of addiction.

Ant-plant mutualisms are ecologically important interactions that have evolved over 100 million years. While well-studied systems typically involve plants that provide food rewards and nesting structures in exchange for protection, less attention has been given to associations in which such rewards are absent. In these cases, the ants often rely on sap-feeding insects, such as mealybugs and soft scales (superfamily Coccoidea), that produce a nutrient-rich exudate as an alternative nutritional source. These insects themselves depend on bacterial symbionts to obtain essential amino acids and minerals lacking in plant sap. However, their taxonomy and microbial partnerships remain poorly characterized, limiting our understanding of their ecological roles within ant-plant systems. We investigated the diversity and microbiome composition of Coccoidea associated with live-stem nesting Myrmelachista ants (Formicinae) across Costa Rica, Colombia, and Puerto Rico. Using an in-house nanopore sequencing pipeline, we generated 313bp DNA minibarcodes (cytochrome oxidase subunit 1) from 49 Coccoidea specimens collected from 46 Myrmelachista colonies (mealybugs: n=43; soft scales n=6). Phylogenetic analysis resolved 24 putative clades (19 mealybugs and 3 soft scale lineages), revealing substantial unrecognized diversity, with most sequences sharing only approximately 92% identity to existing NCBI entries and aligning primarily with Old World taxa. Full-length 16S rRNA sequencing (1,500 bp) recovered microbiome profiles for 47 of 49 Coccoidea specimens, identifying five dominant bacterial families: Bruguierivoracaceae, Anaplasmataceae, Burkholderiaceae, Yersiniaceae, and Rhondanobacteraceae. Interestingly, none correspond to known endosymbionts from other Coccoidea, suggesting that these live-stem associated lineages may harbor novel or functionally distinct microbial partners. Together, our results reveal substantial Neotropical diversity of Coccoidea associated with Myrmelachista ants and identify unique bacterial assemblages potentially linked to their nutritional ecology. These findings underscore the complexity of multi-trophic mutualisms and highlight the value of DNA sequencing and microbiome profiling in uncovering hidden biodiversity and symbiotic interactions in ant-plant systems.

Bacteria can migrate across surfaces through various mechanisms. While species such as E. coli and Salmonella typically rely on flagella-driven swarming, rapid migration of Salmonella lacking functional flagella termed "swashing" has been observed, suggesting a novel mode of surface expansion. Here, we propose and test a possible mechanism for this novel method of motility: Initially, the center of a colony ferments rapidly, until it is more densely packed with bacteria than the edges. The excreted metabolites—namely acetate—shut down growth in this area. However, the colony edges continue to metabolize, leading to outward movement and growth. Additionally, increased metabolite production at the colony edge leads to osmosis of water toward the metabolites, creating a wave of water that pushes the colony outward. As the wave propagates, the previous edges are shut down by the accumulated metabolites, maintaining the outward growth in a wave-like manner.

Recurring downslope windstorms along Utah's Wasatch Front, particularly in Weber and Davis Counties, pose a significant natural hazard to infrastructure and community safety. This threat was highlighted by extreme windstorms in December 2011 and September 2020 that caused widespread, catastrophic damage including wind gusts exceeding 100 mph, mass tree loss, prolonged power outages, and millions in economic losses. This study utilizes the 2011 and 2020 events as case studies, integrating damage reports, stakeholder interviews, and GIS-based mapping to conduct a comprehensive downslope wind risk assessment and identify high-risk areas and infrastructure. This assessment informs the development of specific resilience strategies for utility, transportation, and emergency response agencies. This resilience planning framework proposes a strategy to mitigate future risk by focusing on improved early warning systems, critical asset hardening, vegetation management, and optimized inter-agency response protocols.

Ciguatera Poisoning (CP) occurs when humans consume fish containing ciguatoxins. These toxins build up when lower trophic level fish consume sediment directly or when herbivorous fish ingest benthic dinoflagellates of the genus Gambierdiscus. As larger carnivorous fish feed on smaller herbivorous fish, the toxins biomagnify and become concentrated at higher trophic levels, ultimately posing serious health risks to humans. Gambierdiscus spp. are found in tropical and subtropical regions, where they attach to macroalgae and dead coral in benthic environments. To understand the ecological presence of Gambierdiscus spp. in American Samoa, we conducted fieldwork across six sites during the Summer of 2025 as part of Hawaiʻi Sea Grant’s Pacific Ciguatera Network project. At each site, samples were collected of the dominant species of macroalgae, and the maximum number of Gambierdiscus spp. recorded in any sample was 70. In addition to field sampling, community outreach sampling days were organized, where local participants joined in processing samples and contributing to data collection and analysis. Local partners included the National Marine Sanctuary of American Samoa, the Tafuna High School Science Club, American Samoa Community College, and the Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources. This collaborative approach not only enhances data quality but also strengthens community awareness of ciguatera and its impacts. Altogether, these efforts aim to increase local capacity for monitoring and to inform strategies for managing CP risk in vulnerable island communities.

Characterizing the paleoecology of extinct herbivorous mammals has long been a valuable approach to interpreting evolutionary and environmental changes throughout the Cenozoic Era. The analysis of carbon stable isotopes (δ13C) from tooth enamel is a common paleoecological proxy, but there are complications in the interpretation of these data. In the past, ecological and morphological traits have been used to contextualize isotopic ecologies, such as the difference in δ13C enamel values between grazers and browsers. Understanding how these isotopic differences relate to an animal’s morphological and ecological characteristics has been integral for clarifying isotopic records of climate and environment from the geologic past. An understudied morphological trait that could drive isotopic variability is muzzle width. Hypothetically, an animal with a wider muzzle is less capable of selecting the plant material it ingests, leading to increased consumption of undesired plants and thus a more variable δ13C signal among individuals of the same species. In this study, we assembled a dataset of more than 2000 published modern ungulate δ13C enamel measurements for 107 species across five continents to analyze the isotopic breadth of a species as a function of its muzzle width. Species were filtered into “populations” of ≥10 individuals of the same species from the same locality, and the population-level standard deviation (SD) of the δ13C. Linear mixed-effect models were then used to model muzzle width, alongside other ecological and environmental traits, as a predictor of population-level SD. When accounting for other traits, muzzle width is a significant predictor of population-level variability in δ13C (SD). Overall, these results open the door to considering how cranio-dental morphology can influence δ13C variation at both the individual and species levels. Accounting for these controls can help improve sampling strategies to address diverse paleodietary and paleoenvironmental inferences.

As humanity continues to explore space, we will likely need to use available resources to support the long-term occupation of celestial bodies. Growing plants using available soils such as that of a lunar nature and in as pure of its state as possible, would allow for more efficient colonization efforts on the moon. We aim to use the traditional breeding method of landraces to create a line of plants that are able to thrive in lunar regolith. Over three generations of Wisconsin Fast Plants were grown in lunar regolith simulate with the most productive plants being bred and grown preferentially in the next generation. We expect that these land race plants will produce more biomass, heavier seeds, and more seeds than their control counterparts in each generation. We hope that with our results we can demonstrate a simple method that will allow plants to thrive as we make our first steps into space agriculture.

Intro
Accurate material property characterization of arteries in their natural state is essential for our research purposes. This can be difficult to achieve after tissue is harvested from a living organism and transported to a remote testing facility. An established practice in literature is to warm and stretch arteries back to a stable condition; for example, by applying 10 preconditioning stretch cycles to the artery and then collecting data on the 11th [1,2,3]. While this procedure is generally accepted, the assumption that arteries reach a final relaxed stiffness after 10 cycles lacks substantive evidence. There are also disagreements in literature regarding whether the age of the arteries, methods used to harvest them, or storage mechanisms influence the mechanical properties of the samples. For example, recent studies have found contrasting results as to whether freezing arteries prior to testing impacts arterial stiffness [4,5]. Further, harvesting facilities may employ different methods when collecting tissues; a noteworthy one being the process of scalding swine for hair removal which cooks and shrinks tissues [6].

Research Methods
To determine whether 10 pre-conditioning stretch cycles were sufficient for artery characterization, a test methodology was developed to stretch porcine arteries 15 times under a constant load in a food texture analyzer (low-force uni-axial tensilometer) at physiological temperatures. The peak distance each artery stretched each cycle was then fitted to an exponential decay model of the type Length = C – Ae^(-cycles/𝜏). The values for C, A, and 𝜏 were determined and 3𝜏 cycles calculated. 3𝜏 represents 99% of the asymptotically approached final stretch value. This method was implemented to test freshly harvested unscalded, day-old unscalded, freshly harvested scalded, and flash frozen arteries, as well as artery samples that were frozen for a month. The calculated values for 3𝜏 were compared across groups.

Results
It was found that 10 pre-conditioning cycles were not sufficient for the stiffness of the artery to stabilize, thus contradicting the generally accepted rule-of-thumb found in literature. It was also found that the various harvesting and storage conditions yielded no significant differences in stiffness, but there were differences when looking at the age of arteries since harvesting.

Conclusion
It is important that future research not simply accept the 10-cycle rule but properly monitor the stretch decay during testing to determine necessary pre-conditioning cycles prior to making final measurements.

Metals and many ceramics are comprised of many crystals or grains. The region of material where these grains join is known as a grain boundary. The grain boundary is known to affect a variety of material properties including yield strength, corrosion resistance, creep resistance, and diffusivity. Research has been done using X-ray crystallography, diffusion, and other techniques to determine the width of a grain boundary. In most cases, the grain boundary width is given as a single value. However, computational analysis of simulated aluminum grain boundaries reveals that in many cases the maximum or mean width of a grain boundary is misrepresentative to the grain boundary, as it fails to describe how the width of a grain boundary varies throughout the grain boundary area. My research describes the width of a grain boundary not as a single value, but a distribution of widths across the single grain boundary. For example, in grain boundaries with a low misorientation angle, the grain boundary width can be dramatically different from point to point because of the structures that form. But even in large misorientation angle grain boundaries, the distribution of widths can vary greatly throughout the grain boundary. These grain boundary width distributions will be examined across a dataset of 7000 grain boundaries to determine correlations with other characteristics such as the disorientation angle. The implications of this research are broad and could affect assumptions in experimental measurements that rely on grain boundary widths. Additionally, a better understanding of these widths could impact our ability to improve materials for diffusion and corrosion resistance.

Hybrid rocket propulsion systems have attracted significant attention due to their favorable balance of safety and controllability. Standard liquid rockets offer safe operation through the separate storage of fuel and oxidizer; however, their system complexity often results in high costs and unnecessary design complications. In contrast, solid-fuel rockets feature simpler design but lack controllability in the operations as combustion cannot be halted once initiated. As a remedy and bridging the benefits of the two approaches, hybrid rockets combine solid fuels and liquid oxidizers to enjoy the simplicity of solid rockets and the controllability of liquid motors. In the present work and supported by the Miller Advanced Research Solutions (MARS) center, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was employed to simulate an internal fluid flow of a lab-scale hybrid rocket motor, aiming to better understand the underlying multi-scale multi-physics flow mechanisms and support design optimization. The CFD simulations were performed using ANSYS Fluent software. A density-based solver along with the ideal gas law were used to solve the three-dimensional governing equations of the compressible fluid flow in the rocket assembly. Governing equations including conservation of mass, linear momentum and energy equations were solved for an inert air flow. The rocket geometry and boundary conditions were selected to match the corresponding experimental setup. An inlet and outlet pressure and temperature conditions were set to replicate the experimental conditions. In the present work, combustion effects were intentionally excluded to isolate the behavior of non-reacting air flow in the rocket assembly. However, modeling combustion and studying its effects will be investigated in future works. For the present simulations, both inviscid and viscous models were performed and compared against the isentropic one-dimensional theoretical predictions. Biased stretching grid resolution was utilized to resolve the boundary layer near the no-slip walls for the viscous model. Across the board, simulation results are in good agreement with both experimental data and theoretical isentropic model. Consistent with experimental findings, simulations achieved a Mach number of 2.5 for the nozzle exit velocity of the rocket with negligible differences observed between the two inviscid and viscous models. The established CFD framework of the present work provides and facilitates a robust foundation for the future investigations of the hybrid rocket optimization particularly for simulations involving reacting flows and solid-fuel layer regressing over time.

We introduce a flywheel-powered jumping robot with improved jumping power over traditional spring-based jumping robots. Jumping locomotion allows robots to overcome obstacles and traverse rough terrain more rapidly than wheeled or legged walking systems [1]. Many existing jumping robots rely on elastic energy storage, using springs or rubber bands that are slowly charged and then rapidly released to achieve powerful jumps. Although these spring-based jumpers have demonstrated impressive performance (e.g., small bio-inspired robots jumping several times their body length [2]), they suffer from the inherent limitation that elastic elements can store a limited amount of energy per weight due to material strain constraints. In our research, we explore an alternative kinetic energy storage mechanism using a flywheel to power jumps. Flywheel energy storage has the potential for hundreds of times greater specific energy than conventional springs (modern flywheels can store up to 360 kJ/kg) [3], allowing for more powerful jumps.

Our design for a flywheel jumping robot stores energy in a high-speed flywheel and releases it through a clutch and variable transmission to generate a vertical leap. To model the energy transfer, we develop an analytical three-body model that treats the jump as two sequential momentum transfers. We present expressions for jump efficiency, jump height, and transmission profiles. The model also reveals the design principle that efficient jumping happens when flywheel inertia is maximized relative to the clutch and base, subject to material strength constraints.

Using the insights from the model, we have developed a first prototype jumper. The prototype is a 3.0 kg, 33-cm-tall robot with a steel flywheel, a neoprene-lined cone clutch, and a 3D-printed variable-pitch track that serves as the transmission. Experiments with high-speed video and a force plate are compared to the model predictions. At moderate flywheel speeds (~3000 RPM), the robot achieves >60 cm jumps, peak ground reaction forces >100 N, and energy-transfer efficiency of ~50% of the theoretical maximum given required inelastic losses. Theoretical jump height scales quadratically with flywheel speed, whereas our results indicate a sub-quadratic relationship consistent with increased clutch slip and friction losses.

Compared with spring-powered and combustion jumpers reported in the literature, our inertial approach offers high-powered leaps with tunable force profiles and promising payload scalability. The results establish design rules for flywheel jumpers and suggest areas for near-term improvements toward agile, flywheel-powered jumping locomotion.

At the turn of the twentieth century, debates over where San Francisco could acquire additional water supplies entered mainstream politics. The questions over environmental preservation and conservation culminated in the battle for Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite. Historians have largely ignored one of the key figures in the acquisition and construction of the Hetch Hetchy Dam, Attilio Giannini. This project examines how Giannini’s extensive involvement in civic and legislative work reframes the early environmental movement as a form of pragmatic political action rather than a simple philosophical divide between preservation and conservation.

Giannini’s public service reveals that environmental politics operated through lived, local governance as much as through federal policy or elite ideology. This includes his work in his role as head of the San Francisco Public Works Committee to his lobbying in Congress and his assistance in securing municipal bonds for construction His work highlights how politicians then—and now—can responsibly engage their constituents, especially minority communities who are most affected by poor policy decisions.

Giannini’s record shows consistent, grounded problem-solving at every level of government: negotiating directly with private water companies, working with the city and state, and later influencing federal debates. He held town hall meetings in English and Italian, collaborated with city engineer Marsden Manson to conduct accurate surveys in response to misinformation, and prioritized public education and feedback in the policymaking process. His tenacious advocacy in Congress likewise centered on the interests of his district rather than party lines.

This research draws on newspaper accounts, government documents, congressional records, and archival materials from the San Francisco Public Library and the University of California, Berkeley, supplemented by both contemporary and modern scholarship on the Hetch Hetchy controversy. Approaching the topic from a public-history perspective, I aim to portray the narrative as accurately and accessibly as possible while recovering the legacy of a figure whose impact has been largely forgotten.

Giannini’s story complicates our understanding of the early environmental movement, revealing it as a collaborative, civic effort rather than a purely ideological clash. His example reminds us that responsible governance and environmental stewardship depend on the intersection of policy, public trust, and human care—and that partisanship is not a prerequisite for responsible policymaking

As synthetic biology advances rapidly, humanity's relationship with living organisms is transforming. This project examines how cultural representations of nature—from conservation to cartoons—create recursive feedback loops that alter biological reality itself. Drawing on philosopher Jean Baudrillard's concept of hyperreality, I analyze three increasingly complex pathways through which human culture shapes evolutionary processes: simple cultural selection of charismatic megafauna, de-extinction through genetic engineering, and the recreation of entire ecosystems based on their cultural representations.

These processes operate through what I term "representational feedback loops," where our images of nature influence how we interact with and modify organisms, creating new biological realities. In turn, these new realities shape future representations. In this way, representation of organisms causes a genetic ratchet effect where phenotypes are culturally selected based on their “memetic fitness”- that is, on the way that the organisms’ phenotypes match a hyperreal image fixed in human minds.

Using case studies ranging from lions to Colossal Biosciences' direwolf project and Russia's Pleistocene Park, I demonstrate how the boundary between original organisms and their cultural copies is collapsing. Species preservation increasingly depends not on ecological importance but on memetic fitness—their cultural resonance and symbolic power.

This analysis reveals that genetic and cultural information are becoming deeply intertwined —cultural relevance has become an important part of organisms’ ecological niches. The implications extend beyond conservation ethics to fundamental questions about what "nature" means in an age where humanity's selective pressure operates primarily through representation. Rather than moralizing this transformation, this project aims to articulate what is actually happening to life as synthetic biology collapses the distinction between the map and the territory. It concludes by asking whether humanity needs not only a more conscientious relationship with its environment through ecology, but also a more mindful relationship with its images through semiotics—if there is a meaningful distinction between the two.

Gerald of Wales' Topographia Hibernica provides a formative early example of werewolves in Western writing; in his series of short fictions about life on the British Isles, he develops a narrative of Irish/Celtic “beastialness” wherein one of the cornerstone texts tells the tale of two exiled wolf-people who seek the Eucharist from a priest. Though the wolves in the Topographia are a man and a woman, its connections between gender, early Irish subjugation, and lycanthropy share connections to the unattributed Melion, estimated to be written shortly after the Topographia. Melion follows one of Arthur's knights—the eponymous Melion—and his marriage to an Irish princess, who abandons him for her native shores by tricking him into transforming into a wolf. In order to prevent him from returning to humanity, she takes with her the magical ring which allows him to change between human and animal. This point is notably similar to Marie de France’s Bisclavret, wherein the wife of the titular character steals his clothing while he is in wolf-form, trapping him in his beastly shape. Though Bisclavret does not directly mention Ireland as the other two do, it navigates a complex relationship between women, monstrousness, and the law, perhaps due to influences from the previous two works. My research examines these three medieval werewolf texts—Melion, Bisclavret, and the Topographia Hibernica—and explores the relationship between wolves and subaltern identities, specifically intersecting the texts’ treatment of both womanhood and Irishness. I argue that hybridity in the three works functions to place these identities within a liminal space that ultimately dehumanizes and subjugates them under the law, thus embodying Giorgio Agamben’s definition of the bandit/outlaw posited in Homo Sacer (1998). The work takes a transnational approach by exploring the historical connections between French Normandy and Ireland which draw together French works—Bisclavret and Melion—with Irish progenitors such as the Topographia Hibernica. Alongside the use of Agamben as a theoretical cornerstone, I draw from a variety of feminist and postcolonial medievalist scholars such as Victoria Blud, Rhonda Knight, and Noah Guyunn.

The Linnaean system of classification continues to play an active and functional role in biological nomenclature despite conflicting with current taxonomic and phylogenetic theory. A fundamental problem of the Linnaean system is that it is based in substance ontology. Substance ontology promotes categorical thinking, with strictly bounded taxa that have discrete and persisting features, rather than treating taxa as dynamic, gradient lineages that overlap in complex ways. Substance ontology thus constrains rather than facilitates the re-construction of evolutionary lineages and phylogenetic networks. I use two examples to demonstrate this point. The first is from microbial systematics. Microbial patterns of evolution are dominated by horizontal gene transfer (HGT), producing gradient evolutionary networks that treat taxa as dynamic systems rather than endurant substances. The other example is from Canidae systematics. Taxonomists have recently adopted taxonomic revisions to long-standing fox classifications to better reflect the phylogenetic relationships. This prioritizes capturing the transformative flow of taxonomic lineages, in contrast to categorical treatments that treat taxa as static entities. I advocate for the adoption of process ontology, or the view that the biological world is best understood as a hierarchy of processes stabilized through different time scales. This paper discusses how adopting a process ontology alters the function and relevance of the higher Linnaean system and provides a more thorough and complete understanding of the biological world, allowing for the generation of better research questions. My argument rejects categorical thinking in taxonomy in favor of a process ontology to best convey the reality of the often-convoluted biological world.

"Children depend on others to exercise their rights, which can create an ethical conflict between the parent and the adolescent when it comes to medical decision making. This exposed conflict, when the adolescent and the parent come to opposing decisions, can be defined as adolescent consent dissonance (ACD). This relates back to childism–where it’s generally believed that adults are superior–which can manifest in various ways: including dismissing an adolescent’s opinions and needs, and ignoring their capability as an autonomous, ethical agent. Maintaining that ethical agency and autonomy is a key part of acknowledging adolescence as a developmental stage from childhood to adulthood. Promoting that ethical agency is a coordinated ethical obligation of healthcare professionals and the adolescents’ family. One way to accomplish and address this is through the Patient Activation Measure (PAM). Specific needs and counselling-action depend entirely on the individuals’ maturity level, as well as general level of awareness and understanding of their own health. Thus, we should employ the PAM framework to pediatric medical care to help us support how the adolescent understands and moves through their development as they gain “the confidence, knowledge and skills to manage her [condition] in a manner that improves her health. It is through the acknowledgement of this issue, and the recognition of adolescents as autonomous, ethical, agents, that we can better empower and support them as they transition as champions of informed decision making."

The central role Kv11.1(hERG), a potassium ion channel, plays in mediating I_kr and its association with cardiac irregularity makes understanding and effectively modeling Kv11.1 necessary for disease and drug modeling. Several models of Kv11.1 have been proposed and investigated to better understand its gating kinetics and subsequent electrophysiological function both in vivo and in controlled cell lines. Despite decades of productive research, limited access (in quality, quantity, and dimensionality) to ground truth data makes it difficult to meaningfully distiguish between similarly performing models. We employ recent tools from nonequilibrium thermodynamics to examine and contrast a selection of Markov models of Kv11.1 surveyed by Bett et al. (Biophys. J. 101:631–642, 2011) in terms of their energetic and entropic responses to a variety of driving voltage protocols. In doing so, we (i) calculate in detail previously sampled maximum tail current, (ii) reveal novel thermodynamic consequences predicted by these model class, structure, and parameterization choices, and (iii) propose leveraging these tools as additional differentiators for model selection.

High school mountain biking has surged in participation over the last five years, yet little research exists on its impact on resilience and character. This study examined the experience and impact on character of mountain biking among junior high and high school athletes who attended a mountain bike camp. Character Lab defines character as “intentions and actions that benefit ourselves and others.” With youth mountain biking at an all-time high, leagues are expanding opportunities through camps emphasizing fun, inclusivity, equity, respect, community, and character. The National Interscholastic Cycling League (NICA) began in 2000 when a math teacher started an after-school program to support character development. A university in the Mountain West partnered with the Utah High School Cycling League to host its first summer camp for rising 7th–12th graders in an intensive one-day, eight-hour session. Participants learned bike maintenance, technical riding, Leave No Trace, adaptive riding, wilderness first aid, and character development. Outcomes were measured through quantitative and qualitative approaches using the American Camp Association Youth Outcomes Battery (ACA-YOB) to assess Perceived Competence and Problem-Solving Confidence. Semi-structured Zoom interviews gathered data on participants’ experiences, and thematic analysis followed Braun and Clarke’s (2006) six-phase approach. Of 28 campers, 21 completed the ACA-YOB questionnaire. The group was 24% female, with an average age of 13 (grades 6–11). On average, campers made two new friends and rated enjoyment at 8.33/10. In terms of growth, 85.71% reported increased perceived competence, and 80.95% reported higher problem-solving confidence. Eight campers completed interviews (33% female, average age 13). Qualitative analysis identified three interrelated themes: Family and Community Influence, Personal Growth Through Challenge, and Enjoyment and Identity as Riders. These findings provide evidence-based insight into a rapidly growing high school sport across the USA.

My study examines how digital media preferences, as displayed on platforms such as Spotify/Apple Music, Letterboxd, and GoodReads, function as both personal expressions and socially interpreted signals of identity. The central research question asks: to what extent do media preferences authentically reveal who we are, and how are they perceived and misperceived by others? To explore this, I conducted an experiment with 20 participants aged 22–25. Group 1 submitted a personal photo along with their favorite book, top four films, and five most-listened-to musical artists. Group 2 then attempted to match each photo to the corresponding media and taste profiles. This design simulated how people encounter curated identities online and tested how well aesthetic signals translate into recognition. The results showed a striking gap between confidence and accuracy: participants achieved only about 30% accuracy overall, despite expressing certainty in their judgments. In follow-up reflections, participants admitted relying heavily on surface-level cues such as gender, clothing, or race, which often led to stereotypical assumptions. Some expressed discomfort at realizing how quickly they defaulted to bias, while others reflected on how culture shapes aesthetic interpretation. These findings suggest that while media preferences feel like transparent markers of identity, their interpretation is deeply shaped by social expectations and stereotypes. Rather than serving as a clear window into individuality, digital taste often reflects collective assumptions. The study underscores the tension between self-expression and misrecognition in online environments, highlighting the need for more critical awareness in how we read each other.