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Amphisbaenian Head Movement And Burrowing Forces In Damp Granular Media, Jacob Newell
Amphisbaenian Head Movement And Burrowing Forces In Damp Granular Media, Jacob Newell
Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects
Damp granular media is a difficult environment to study because it is both practically complex and it lacks equations which fully describe its behavior. In this study, an oscillatory lateral head movement and its effects while penetrating damp granular media were tested using a robophysical model. This experimental research was inspired by the burrowing behavior of the clade Amphisbaenia, a group of usually limbless squamates that employ a variety of different burrowing behaviors, but it can apply to a wide range of burrowers. This research could help with both human burrowing technologies and the further investigation of animal behaviors.
Microenvironment Regulates Fusion Of Breast Cancer Cells, Peiran Zhu
Microenvironment Regulates Fusion Of Breast Cancer Cells, Peiran Zhu
Masters Theses
Fusion of cancer cells has been observed in tumors for more than a century and is thought to contribute to tumor development and drug resistance. The low frequency of cell fusion events and the instability of fused cells have hindered our ability to understand the molecular mechanisms that govern cell fusion. We have developed a patterned gel system that can isolate cell fusion events and we demonstrate that several breast cancer cell lines can fuse into multinucleated giant cells in vitro, and the initiation and longevity of fused cells can be regulated solely by biophysical factors. Dynamically tuning the adhesive …