Life Sciences Commons^™

Sequencing The Guts Out Of Covid-19; The Evolution Behind The Covid-19 Pandemic, Madelyn Purnell

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The global COVID-19 pandemic has led to an urgent need for scalable methods for clinical diagnostics and tracking of virus variants. In this paper, we attempted a novel method of sequencing using Large Reverse Transcriptase-based cloning (LRTC). Although our methodology ended up not working due to high amount and fast degradation of RNA, we were able to sequence multiple variants of COVID-19 Positive samples from the BYU Student Health Center and 4 sewage samples to check for variant outbreaks in corresponding times. We were able to find several corresponding variants and track the progression of mutation in our local population.

Predictors Of Psychosocial And Physiological Distress In Colorectal Cancer Patients, Hyrum Eddington

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Distress among cancer patients has been broadly accepted as an important indicator of patient well-being. However, questions remain such as what patient characteristics are associated with high distress and whether patient-reported distress is correlated with distress biomarkers. To answer these questions, we performed a survey study of 238 colorectal patients in which we assessed patient-reported distress, possible contributors to that distress, and patient anxiety and depression. We also abstracted demographic and clinical information from patient charts and collected measures for salivary cortisol and sarcopenia. We conducted bivariate statistical analyses between patient demographics, clinical factors, and psychosocial measures with our three …

A Brief Overview Of Burst Suppression: Causes And Effects On Mortality In Critical Illness, Jake Hogan, Haoqi Sun, Hassan Aboul Nour, Stephen Piccolo, Jacob Crandall, Steven Peck, M Brandon Westover

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis examines the effects of brain inactivation (burst suppression) on mortality in mechanically ventilated ICU patients. Past research has associated burst suppression with increased mortality. However, the effects of burst suppression on ICU patients while taking into account the relative contributions of propofol (a sedative), and critical illness to mortality, and whether preventing burst suppression might reduce mortality, has not yet been quantified. This thesis explores this relationship, and the effect of critical illness and propofol infusion on burst suppression to understand what drives burst suppression.

To measure the relationship between burst suppression, critical illness, propofol infusion, and mortality, …

Does Negative Frequency-Dependent Selection Maintain Gonopodial Asymmetry In A Livebearing Fish?, Mary-Elise Johnson

Undergraduate Honors Theses

How genetic variation is maintained in the face of strong natural selection is an important problem in evolutionary biology. Selection should erode genetic diversity, leading to more and more homogeneous populations. Yet in nature, we commonly see high degrees of genetic variation, even for traits that are important to fitness. Negative frequency-dependent selection, a balancing selective force that favors traits when they are rare but not when they are common, is a mechanism proposed to maintain polymorphisms in a population. However, there is little empirical data to demonstrate how negative frequency-dependent selection sustains variation. Xenophallus umbratilis is a bilaterally symmetrical …

Genetics Beyond The Classroom: An Analysis Of Undergraduate Students’ Understanding Of Genetics And Attitudes Towards Clinical Genetics, Jessica Mcclintock

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Genetics is a field of study that has been difficult for high school students, college students, and the general public to fully grasp, comprehend, and apply to clinical settings. Other studies show that students who are given hands on experiences with difficult concepts, like personalized genomics, have a better attitude towards and retention of those concepts. The purpose of this study was to determine if an in-class lecture specifically discussing clinical genetics concepts and benefits in solving difficult polygenic diseases would increase student attitudes towards genetic testing and prenatal testing and their knowledge of genetics in general. Students were asked …

Genomewide Evaluation Of Cis-Elements And Cognate Transcription Factors In Nicotiana Attenuata Predicts 27 Unique Transcription Factor-Binding Site Pairs, Ashton Omdahl

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Nicotiana attenuata has been widely studied for its ecological plant-herbivore relationships and response to environmental stress. The jasmonate signaling pathway regulated by jasmonate ZIM-domiain (JAZ) repressor proteins that modulate defense response levels has been of particular focus in this research. While our understanding of the genes associated with defense response and their regulation continues to expand, the transcriptional regulation of these genes is largely uncharacterized. In an effort to provide insight into these relationships, we performed genomewide analysis of transcript level data in order to predict transcription factors (TFs), their respective binding sites (TFBS), and the genes they regulate. We …