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Prehistoric Shellfish Utilization And Settlement Systems On Western Santa Cruz Island, Michael A. Glassow Sep 2018

Prehistoric Shellfish Utilization And Settlement Systems On Western Santa Cruz Island, Michael A. Glassow

Western North American Naturalist

Archaeologists generally have not taken advantage of the distinctive characteristics of assemblages of shellfish remains from prehistoric sites to gain information about movement of people between sites within their territory. I attempt to demonstrate this potential through analysis of shell assemblages obtained through small-scale test excavation at 2 archaeological sites in the interior of Santa Cruz Island: CA-SCRI-796 in the western sector of the island and CA-SCRI-758 at an upland location in the central sector. An aspect of the data analysis focused on strata containing an abundance of red abalone shells, dating sometime between 3700 and 3350 cal BC at …

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Marine Debris Trends: 30 Years Of Change On Ventura County And Channel Island Beaches, Michaela Miller, Clare Steele, Dorothy Horn, Cause Hanna Sep 2018

Marine Debris Trends: 30 Years Of Change On Ventura County And Channel Island Beaches, Michaela Miller, Clare Steele, Dorothy Horn, Cause Hanna

Western North American Naturalist

The persistence of plastics in marine ecosystems and the physical hazards marine debris pose to wildlife have become issues of global concern. The Santa Barbara Channel is home to a number of important marine and coastal ecosystems, including the 5 islands of Channel Islands National Park, and has a variety of factors that influence marine debris accumulation. We examined the spatial variation of marine debris density and composition across the Santa Barbara Channel by quantifying marine debris on beaches of Santa Rosa and Santa Cruz Islands and the Ventura County mainland. Debris from surveyed beaches was cataloged, weighed, and measured …

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B-Hydroxybutyrate Favorably Alters Muscle Cell Survival And Mitochondrial Bioenergetics, Brian Parker, Benjamin Bikman Sep 2018

B-Hydroxybutyrate Favorably Alters Muscle Cell Survival And Mitochondrial Bioenergetics, Brian Parker, Benjamin Bikman

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The growing worldwide incidence of obesity and its associated pathologies, like type 2 diabetes, has received much deserved attention. However, despite this attention and substantial research efforts, little meaningful progress has been made in slowing or reversing the growing cost and trends of obesity worldwide. As of 2008, almost 10% of medical costs in the United States were incurred due to obesity or other obesity-related diseases,i with the substantial amount of this cost stemming from the dramatically increased risk of diabetes with excess fat mass.ii According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than one …

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Development And Evaluation Of An Eeg-Based Symbol-Digit Substitution Task, Christopher Beckett, Dr. Bruce Brown Sep 2018

Development And Evaluation Of An Eeg-Based Symbol-Digit Substitution Task, Christopher Beckett, Dr. Bruce Brown

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The event-related potential (ERP) method has led to major advances in the experimental exploration of the neurological correlates of human cognition (Luck, 2005). The usual process is to take EEG (electroencephalographic) recordings during a cognitive task. The recording is timelocked to a stimulus so that multiple trials can be averaged to amplify the signal of the resulting cognitive process. In past research studies, faculty and students in our Quantitative EEG Lab (qEEG) have discovered a way to isolate individual cognitive “bands” within a set of ERP waves. These cognitive bands have diagnostic utility. They can be used to identify personal …

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Preservation Of Oncorhynchus Clarkii By Comparison Of Biomarkers, Chase Paulson, Dr. R. Paul Evans Sep 2018

Preservation Of Oncorhynchus Clarkii By Comparison Of Biomarkers, Chase Paulson, Dr. R. Paul Evans

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The purpose of this project is to analyze biomarkers present in cutthroat and cutbow (a mixture of cutthroat and rainbow trout) trout of the Payson Hatchery compared to typical cutthroat and rainbow markers to better understand if cutthroat trout are being preserved locally and in the Western United States.

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The Effect Of The Overexpression Of Irf% In B-Cells On Inflammatory And Co-Stimulatory Activity, Reika Takita, Brian Poole Sep 2018

The Effect Of The Overexpression Of Irf% In B-Cells On Inflammatory And Co-Stimulatory Activity, Reika Takita, Brian Poole

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Systemic Lupus Erythematosus is a chronic autoimmune disease characterized by inflammatory tissue damage inflicted by the body's rogue immune system (1). Although treatment is available for the disease, the pathogenesis of SLE remains unclear (2). However, researchers suspect the disease to be associated with environmental, genetic, and hormonal factors (1).

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Membrane Expression Of Thymidine Kinase 1 And Potential Clinical Relevance In Lung, Breast, And Colorectal Malignancies, Evita G. Weagel, Weston Burrup, Roman Kovtun, Edwin J. Valazquez, Abigail M. Felsted, Michelle H. Townsend, Zachary E. Ence, Erica Suh, Stephen Piccolo, K. Scott Weber, Richard A. Robison, Kim Oneill Sep 2018

Membrane Expression Of Thymidine Kinase 1 And Potential Clinical Relevance In Lung, Breast, And Colorectal Malignancies, Evita G. Weagel, Weston Burrup, Roman Kovtun, Edwin J. Valazquez, Abigail M. Felsted, Michelle H. Townsend, Zachary E. Ence, Erica Suh, Stephen Piccolo, K. Scott Weber, Richard A. Robison, Kim Oneill

Faculty Publications

Background: Lung, breast, and colorectal malignancies are the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the world causing over 2.8 million cancer-related deaths yearly. Despite efforts to improve prevention methods, early detection, and treatments, survival rates for advanced stage lung, breast, and colon cancer remain low, indicating a critical need to identify cancer-specific biomarkers for early detection and treatment. Thymidine kinase 1 (TK1) is a nucleotide salvage pathway enzyme involved in cellular proliferation and considered an important tumor proliferation biomarker in the serum. In this study, we further characterized TK1’s potential as a tumor biomarker and immunotherapeutic target and clinical relevance. …

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Toxoplasma Gondii Seropositivity And Substance Use In Us Adults, Bruce L. Brown, Andrew N. Berrett, Shawn D. Gale, Lance D. Erickson, Evan L. Thacker, Dawson W. Hedges Sep 2018

Toxoplasma Gondii Seropositivity And Substance Use In Us Adults, Bruce L. Brown, Andrew N. Berrett, Shawn D. Gale, Lance D. Erickson, Evan L. Thacker, Dawson W. Hedges

Faculty Publications

The intracellular parasite Toxoplasma gondii (Nicolle et Manceaux, 1908) infects humans resulting in acute toxoplasmosis, an infection that in immunocompetent people is typically mild but results in persistent latent toxoplasmosis. In that T. gondii appears to affect dopamine synthesis and because addicting drugs affect midbrain dopamine transmission, latent toxoplasmosis could influence substance use. Using both the third and continuous National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we used logistic regression to test for associations between T. gondii seropositivity and subject self-report of having ever used tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, heroin, or methamphetamine. …

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Lctsr: The New Path To Academic Success, Faith Hathenbruck, Dr. Jamie Jensen Sep 2018

Lctsr: The New Path To Academic Success, Faith Hathenbruck, Dr. Jamie Jensen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The Lawson’s Classroom Test of Scientific Reasoning1(LCTSR) is a content-independent measure of scientific reasoning abilities including conservation, proportional reasoning, identifying and controlling variables, probabilistic reasoning, correlational reasoning, and hypothetico-deductive reasoning. A relationship has been seen between scores on this test and a student’s decision to major in a STEM degree2 as well as with their performance in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, also known as STEM, courses3. Thus, the LCTSR can be a clever tool in predicting a student’s performance and persistence in STEM degrees. This test, however, has more potential than just predicting STEM …

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Antibiotic Resistance In Staphylococcus Aureus From Commercially Available Meat, Samuel Schriever, Bradford Berges Sep 2018

Antibiotic Resistance In Staphylococcus Aureus From Commercially Available Meat, Samuel Schriever, Bradford Berges

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Bacteria can be found everywhere. While some bacteria can help humans to make medicine and clean up environmental disasters, other bacteria can cause horrible disease. After the discovery of antibiotics in the early twentieth century humans have been using them to treat human and animal disease. At first antibiotics very effective at clearing bacterial infections. Bacteria that were able to survive the antibiotics were able to spread and become more common. Bacteria have the ability to share genes and those genes are very favorable for the bacteria that have them. Today, animals are given more antibiotics than humans are. This …

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Engineering A Cancer Specific 3rd Generation Car Immunotherapy, Josie Tueller, K. Scott Weber Sep 2018

Engineering A Cancer Specific 3rd Generation Car Immunotherapy, Josie Tueller, K. Scott Weber

Journal of Undergraduate Research

This project aimed to develop a cancer-specific immunotherapy that will target and destroy cancer cells without killing healthy cells. Current cancer treatments struggle to successfully target cancer cells and commonly target all rapidly dividing cells (both healthy and cancerous). Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) immunotherapy aims to harness T cells, the body’s natural defense system, to fight cancer by giving T cells via molecular engineering a non-native protein which targets cancer. We successfully produced a T cell that can effectively kill cancer cells while leaving normal cells untouched while minimizing the toxic side effects normally experienced by patients. Future steps involve …

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Association Of Essential Tremor And Parkinson’S Disease Development, Alexander Gosch, Mary David Sep 2018

Association Of Essential Tremor And Parkinson’S Disease Development, Alexander Gosch, Mary David

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Essential tremor (ET) is a neurological disorder characterized by symmetrical tremor of the upper limbs. Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a similar disorder, also characterized by tremor, with a few differences: ET tremor is mostly seen during action, while PD tremor is more prevalent while at rest. PD is characterized by problems with walking and balance, while ET is characterized primarily by tremor without balance problems. PD symptoms generally improve with the use of the drug levodopa while ET responds better to the drugs propranolol and primidone.

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Examining How The Cd5 Co-Receptor Alters T Helper Cell Activation In Response To Bacterial Infection, Garrett Hamblin, Scott Weber Sep 2018

Examining How The Cd5 Co-Receptor Alters T Helper Cell Activation In Response To Bacterial Infection, Garrett Hamblin, Scott Weber

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Properly functioning helper T cells are crucial in a response to an infection. The adaptive immune response is orchestrated by T helper cells and their function is dependent upon interactions between the T cell receptor (TCR), peptide MHC (pMHC) and co-receptors. Upon TCR interaction with a foreign antigen, a calcium signaling cascade is initiated, which determines T cell activation, survival, proliferation and differentiation. CD5 is a T cell co-receptor that is a negative regulator of T cell activation. T cells with higher CD5 expression respond better to foreign antigen than those with lower CD5 expression. Cell-surface expression of CD5 is …

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Is Mafb Essential To Β-Cell Growth And Proliferation?, Aaron Leifer, Jeffery Tessem Sep 2018

Is Mafb Essential To Β-Cell Growth And Proliferation?, Aaron Leifer, Jeffery Tessem

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Project Purpose: Our goal is to determine if MafB is necessary for β Cell proliferation and glucose stimulated insulin secretion (GSIS). Project Importance: Approximately 29.1 million people are affected by type 1 or type 2 diabetes in the United States, according to 2014 National Diabetes Statistic Report. In addition, these 29.1 spent or lost 245 billion dollars combined. A cure for diabetes would result in not only a better life style but would also save billions of dollars. Project Profile Body: Both forms of diabetes are ultimately caused by decreased functional β-cell mass. β-cell transplantation is a possible treatment for …

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Sex Differences In Rhesus Monkeys’ Digit Ratio (2d:4d Ratio) And Its Association With Maternal Social Dominance Rank, Alexander Baxter, Elizabeth K. Wood, Parker Jarman, Ashley N. Cameron, John P. Capitanio, James Dee Higley Sep 2018

Sex Differences In Rhesus Monkeys’ Digit Ratio (2d:4d Ratio) And Its Association With Maternal Social Dominance Rank, Alexander Baxter, Elizabeth K. Wood, Parker Jarman, Ashley N. Cameron, John P. Capitanio, James Dee Higley

Faculty Publications

Prenatal androgen exposure (PAE) plays a pivotal role in masculinizing the developing body and brain, and extreme exposure may contribute to autism, anxiety disorder and schizophrenia. One commonly used biomarker for PAE is the pointer-to-ring-finger digit length (2D:4D) ratio. Although this biomarker is widely used in human studies, relatively few studies have investigated 2D:4D ratio in nonhuman primates, particularly rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta), one of the most commonly used animals in biomedical research. Thus far, data suggest that sexual dimorphism in 2D:4D ratio may be in the opposite direction in some monkey species, when compared to the pattern …

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Advancing Social Connection As A Public Health Priority In The United States, Julianne Holt-Lunstad, Theodore Robles, David A. Sbarra Sep 2018

Advancing Social Connection As A Public Health Priority In The United States, Julianne Holt-Lunstad, Theodore Robles, David A. Sbarra

Faculty Publications

A robust body of scientific evidence indicates that being embedded in high-quality close relationships and feeling socially connected to the people in your life is associated with decreased risk for all-cause mortality as well as a range of disease morbidities. Despite mounting evidence that the magnitude of these associations is comparable to many leading health determinants (that receive significant public health resources), government agencies, healthcare providers and associations, and public/private healthcare funders are slow to recognize human social relationships as either a health determinant or health risk marker in a manner that is comparable to other public health priorities. This …

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La Sal Daisy, Erigeron Mancus, Density And Associated Species From Treeline Ecotone And Alpine Habitats, James F. Fowler, Steve Overby, Barb Smith Aug 2018

La Sal Daisy, Erigeron Mancus, Density And Associated Species From Treeline Ecotone And Alpine Habitats, James F. Fowler, Steve Overby, Barb Smith

Western North American Naturalist

The La Sal daisy, Erigeron mancus, is endemic to treeline ecotone and alpine meadow habitats of the La Sal Mountains in Utah, an insular, laccolithic mountain range on the Colorado Plateau in southeastern Utah. From 2009 to 2011 we established elevational transects through upper spruce-fir forest, treeline ecotone, and alpine meadow habitats on Laurel Ridge in the Middle Mountain group of the La Sal Mountains to measure (1) periodic changes in E. mancus population density, (2) changes in the elevation of the E. mancus population centroid, (3) changes in patch size occupied by E. mancus, and (4) changes …

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Interaction Between Seed Detectability And Seed Preference Affects Harvest Rates Of Granivorous Rodents, William S. Longland, Lindsay A. Dimitri Aug 2018

Interaction Between Seed Detectability And Seed Preference Affects Harvest Rates Of Granivorous Rodents, William S. Longland, Lindsay A. Dimitri

Western North American Naturalist

Granivorous rodents commonly exhibit preferences for seeds of particular plant species. However, among buried seeds that are available, rodents may find that alternate, less desirable seeds are more easily located by olfaction than preferred seeds. Seeds of Indian ricegrass (Achnatherum hymenoides) are a highly preferred food resource for seed-caching desert heteromyid rodents. We tested relative abilities of heteromyids to locate buried caches of Indian ricegrass seeds versus seeds of another plant species (cheatgrass, Bromus tectorum) that are common in heteromyid diets at a western Nevada field site. Rodents located more cheatgrass than Indian ricegrass seed caches in …

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Front Matter, Vol. 78 No. 2 Aug 2018

Front Matter, Vol. 78 No. 2

Western North American Naturalist

No abstract provided.

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End Matter, Vol. 78 No. 2 Aug 2018

End Matter, Vol. 78 No. 2

Western North American Naturalist

No abstract provided.

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Increasing Water Use Efficiency By Nitrogen Management In Turfgrass, Austin Hopkins, Dr. Neil C. Hansen Aug 2018

Increasing Water Use Efficiency By Nitrogen Management In Turfgrass, Austin Hopkins, Dr. Neil C. Hansen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

This project identifies turfgrass practices to conserve water by optimizing nitrogen (N) fertilization and irrigation strategies. Turfgrass is the most irrigated crop by area (163,800 km2), accounting for 1.9% of the continental U.S. This causes negative environmental impacts and puts the future of irrigated turfgrass in question due to increasing water scarcity, especially in the western U.S. More information is needed on how to irrigate in droughts as turf provides significant benefits in our environment such as aesthetics, cooling effects, carbon sequestration, and preventing soil erosion.

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Development Of A Model For Adult T Cell Leukemia/Lymphoma In Htlv-1 Infected Humanized Mice, Kayleigh Ingersoll, Dr. Brad Berges Aug 2018

Development Of A Model For Adult T Cell Leukemia/Lymphoma In Htlv-1 Infected Humanized Mice, Kayleigh Ingersoll, Dr. Brad Berges

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Human T-lymphotropic virus type-1 (HTLV-1) is a virus that is linked to Adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATLL), causing cancer in T cells. There are an estimated 10-20 million people worldwide infected with HTLV-1. HTLV-1 is transmitted through contact of bodily fluid and usually occurs through breastfeeding, sexual transmission, and sharing needles. ATLL develops in only about 5% of infected persons after decades of infection. An ATLL diagnosis is grim as there is no cure, and most patients do not respond or only have a limited response to treatments. Current treatments include antiretrovirals or chemotherapy, but there has been little to no …

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Upregulation Of Humanized Hprt Housekeeping Gene In Malignant Tumors Hinders Use As An Endogenous Control, Abigail Felsted, Kim O'Neill Aug 2018

Upregulation Of Humanized Hprt Housekeeping Gene In Malignant Tumors Hinders Use As An Endogenous Control, Abigail Felsted, Kim O'Neill

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Our lab focuses on developing immunological techniques for diagnosing and treating cancer in a less invasive manner than current methods employ. New unique biomarkers are constantly needed to identify cancer in early stages in order to decrease mortality rates. When researching and publishing such biomarkers, many scientists use housekeeping genes such as glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) and hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase (HPRT) as positive controls. It is expected that housekeeping genes are expressed in all cells and have relatively consistent expression in all tissues both normal and malignant. As a member of the purine salvage pathway, HPRT recycles 90% of the free …

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A User Friendly Tool To Allow Easy Access To Big Biological Data, Pj Tatlow, Stephen Piccolo Aug 2018

A User Friendly Tool To Allow Easy Access To Big Biological Data, Pj Tatlow, Stephen Piccolo

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Over the course of the past year I have been able to put a lot of work into creating a tool for scientists, those with computational background and without, that provides a simple web interface for downloading data from large, publically available datasets. It allows users to select a dataset that we have pre-processed, enter filters based on the samples they want to research, and download only that portion of the data. This will save researchers a lot of time, as well as reduce their reliance on bioinformaticians.

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Forensic Science Research Opportunities, Conrad Monson Aug 2018

Forensic Science Research Opportunities, Conrad Monson

BYU Research Development Office Research Networking Conference

Forensic Sciences research needs, disciplines, and activity at BYU

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Integrative Omics At The Nanoscale, Ryan Kelly Aug 2018

Integrative Omics At The Nanoscale, Ryan Kelly

BYU Research Development Office Research Networking Conference

Overall Objective: Quantify thousands of biomolecules from small samples (including single cells) with high throughput; mass spectrometry instrumentation; biochemical separations; microfluidic sample processing; data analysis; biological applications

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Identifying Early-, Mid-, And Later-Life Experiences That Condition The Expression Of Genetic Propensities Of Cognitive Decline And Alzheimer's Disease, Lance Erickson, Keoni Kauwe, Dawson W. Hedges Aug 2018

Identifying Early-, Mid-, And Later-Life Experiences That Condition The Expression Of Genetic Propensities Of Cognitive Decline And Alzheimer's Disease, Lance Erickson, Keoni Kauwe, Dawson W. Hedges

BYU Research Development Office Research Networking Conference

Implications: The presence of known markers for Alzheimer's disease often do not result in Alzheimer's; what social, psychological factors trigger the expression of Alzheimer's...better risk profiles

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Biomedical, Alonzo Cook Aug 2018

Biomedical, Alonzo Cook

BYU Research Development Office Research Networking Conference

Areas of Interest: Tissue engineering: heart, kidney, pancreas, eye, blood vessels, and nerves

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Cell-Free Protein Engineering, Bradley Charles Bundy Aug 2018

Cell-Free Protein Engineering, Bradley Charles Bundy

BYU Research Development Office Research Networking Conference

Protein production: therapeutics, biocatalysts; Biosensors; Virus-like particles

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3d Printing For Lab-On-A-Chip, Gregory P. Nordin Aug 2018

3d Printing For Lab-On-A-Chip, Gregory P. Nordin

BYU Research Development Office Research Networking Conference

Areas of Interest: 3D printed microfluidics, biological and chemical sensors, nanophotonics and integrated optics, micro- and nanofabrication, MEMS, and microfluidics

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