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Sensitivity Of A Lamp Assay For Detection Of The Dinoflagellate Amyloodinium Ocellatum In Simulated Field Conditions And Freeze Tolerance Of The Parasite, Robert Gonzales

Master's Theses

The obligate parasitic dinoflagellate Amyloodinium ocellatum causes amyloodiniosis in warm water marine fishes. The prolific parasite, which has a direct, three-stage life cycle, is highly infectious and can cause heavy losses in aquaculture. Prevention, biosecurity, and early detection are vital for control. In this work, microscopy and a loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay were compared for early diagnosis of A. ocellatum in cultured stocks, and the freeze tolerance of tomonts was assessed to determine if frozen wild fish used as fish food can serve as a potential vector for the parasite.

The lowest dinospore concentration that could be detected by …

A Comparison Of Natural, Living, And Hardened Shorelines Ability To Prevent Coastal Erosion And Maintain A Healthy Ecosystem, Gabrielle Spellmann

Master's Theses

It is important to find a suitable method to protect the U.S. Gulf Coast shoreline, since its’ low elevation and the Loop current make it vulnerable to sea level rise. I focused on two manmade methods, hardened, and living shorelines, of coastal protection for when the natural marsh suffers excess erosion rates. Living shorelines are a suite of shoreline conservation and restoration techniques that usually involve some sort of hardened structure that dampens wave energy so that the native vegetation behind it can take root and stabilize the shoreline. This study looked at six different sites, all containing a natural, …

Spatial And Temporal Variation In Growth Rate Of Blue Rockfish (Sebastes Mystinus) In Nearshore Central California Determined Using A Physiological Biomarker, Ellie M. Brauer

Master's Theses

Identifying areas of high fish population productivity is crucial for protecting habitats essential to fish growth and reproduction and, ultimately, for achieving sustainable fisheries. Historically, evaluations of habitat quality have relied heavily on linking spatial variation in fish abundance to environmental parameters such as substrate category, depth, or bathymetry. That approach, however, assumes that areas of high fish abundance best support growth and reproduction of a species and thus may fail to detect spatial or temporal variation in population attributes, such as somatic growth rate, which can be central to recruitment success and survival. In this study, we employed a …

Optimization Of A Novel Nipam-Based Thermoresponsive Copolymer For Intramuscular Injection As A Myoblast Delivery Vehicle To Combat Peripheral Artery Occlusive Disease, Quentin R. Klueter

Master's Theses

There is a need for a minimally invasive delivery method to enable cell therapies to combat peripheral artery occlusive disease (PAOD) in end stage patients. Myoblasts show promise as a cell mediated therapy but warrant an improved delivery method to increase cell retention in the region of interest because of their adherent nature, relative to previously used BM-MNC’s that are non-adherent. Contemporary issues with achieving successful cell therapies of vasculature can be mainly characterized by the lack of clinical translation from promising animal studies and absence of cell delivery scaffolding. Naturally, polymers have been widely experimented with as grafts to …

Impact Of Primary Myoblasts On Macrophage Polarization In-Vitro, Olivia Welch

Master's Theses

Peripheral artery disease (PAD) is characterized by the development of atherosclerotic plaques on arterial walls, leading to the narrowing of blood vessels, resulting in ischemia in the downstream tissue. In the United States, 12% of the adult population is affected by PAD and its related symptoms. Current surgical revascularization techniques can be effective in part of the patient population, but there is a need for other options. Alternatively, collateral blood vessels, or natural bypass arteries, enlarge to increase blood flow to the ischemic tissue in a process called arteriogenesis, which has been studied as a therapeutic option. Cell-based therapies, such …

Lytic Bacteriophages And Lactic Acid As Processing Aids Against Salmonella Spp. And Escherichia Coli O157:H7 On Marinated And Tenderized Pork Loins, Sherita Li

Master's Theses

Within the last decade, pork consumption has steadily increased and continues to be the most consumed meat globally. However, pathogenic bacterial strains resistant to antibiotics have also been increasingly found in pig farms, animals, and the environment. Bacterial food poisoning cases due to Salmonella spp. and Escherichia coli (E. coli) O157:H7 appear to be linked with a variety of pork products. The meat industry has recognized that research is needed to combat the multi-drug resistance in foodborne pathogens with alternative methods of control. This study evaluated the effects of both E. coli- and Salmonella-specific lytic bacteriophages and …

Fire Effects In Montane Meadows, Rosie Deak

Master's Theses

The impact of forest fires on downstream meadow communities across California is of great ecological interest, as meadows are an important source of biodiversity in this region. Over a century of fire suppression has led to increased forest stand densities, which in turn has resulted in less water availability due to increased transpiration of densely growing trees. This potentially has left less available water for downstream plant communities in meadows. If true, then high mortality wildfires in surrounding forest are predicted to lead to an increase in available downstream moisture where obligate and facultative-wetland taxa increase and dry-adapted upland taxa …

Use Of Magnetic Iron-Coated Halloysite Nanotubes In Cell Growth, Differentiation, And Combating Cancerous Growth, Christopher Daniel Candler

Master's Theses

Magnetic Halloysite Nanotubes can be used in multiple ways in combating growth of osteosarcoma. The adsorption ability of the inner and outer surfaces of halloysite nanotubes allows for attachment of different molecules, including anti-cancer drugs, polymer layering for controlled drug release, and magnetic coating. This magnetic coating would allow for cell membrane disruption, hyperthermia, and for targeting of specific tissue. In this project, the goal was to create these magnetic nanotubes and test their cytotoxicity against stem cells and osteosarcoma cells.

To create these magnetic nanotubes, we used electrodeposition to adsorb ferrous oxide nanoparticles (FeNPs) onto halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) to …

Impact Of Biodegradable Materials On Healthy And Diseased Brain Cells: Function And Viability, Kyle Mason Rugg

Master's Theses

With the recent creation of Metal Organic Biohybrids (MOBs) from the DeCoster lab group at Louisiana Tech University, a new class of nano and micro particles needs to be investigated. The amalgamation of metals such as copper and an amino acid have already shown promise for biomedical applications such as delayed drug delivery or time delayed anti-microbial effects1. In this study the effects of cobalt, copper, and zinc-based MOBs have been compared against silicon dioxide nanoparticles, a negative control, and copper oxide nanoparticles, a positive control, in order to observe their effects on cancerous glioma cells and healthy astrocyte cells. …

Transient Thermal Response Of Tissues Surrounding An Implanted Medical Device During Inductive Charging, Peter C. Leboeuf

Master's Theses

Inductive charging as a means of power delivery to implanted device is becoming more commonplace as increasingly sophisticated implants with higher power requirements enter clinical use. When such devices undergo inductive charging, losses within the system result in dissipated heat that must be absorbed by the surrounding tissue. The skin-mounted primary antenna and components within the implanted device such as the metal casing, battery, and secondary antenna are all susceptible to temperature increase during a charging cycle. Heating of this kind must be considered when designing modern implants utilizing this mode of power transfer in order to safeguard surrounding tissues …

Genotype And Herbicide Affect Hybrid Sweetgum Growth And Development On Two Upland Site In North Louisiana, Robert Hane

Master's Theses

American Sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua) was hybridized by ArborGen and the University of Georgia with Formosan Gum (Liquidambar formosana) to create a faster growing hardwood variety that can produce greater volumes of pulpwood on shorter rotations. In this study growth rate and physiological factors of five clonal hybrid varieties were tested against a native half-sib family to determine if the hybrid gum varieties were superior. All hybrid varieties grew significantly taller and larger at ground line than the native family. Indeed, the largest hybrid variety in both height and ground line diameter was 94.7 cm taller and 13.9 mm wider than …

Integration Of Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy For Multichannel Cell Culture Measurement, Conard Chan

Master's Theses

ELECTROCHEMICAL IMPEDANCE SPECTROSCOPY (EIS) has been widely used to study the electrical properties of biological material due to its non-invasive nature and experimental reliability. However, most of the precision impedance analyzers used in EIS only provide single- or two-channel measurements which are inadequate for larger-scale multiplexed measurements, such as those found in modern microfluidic cell culture experiments. The Biomedical Microsystems Laboratory has developed a 16-channel cell culture platform with integrated electrode arrays for monitoring cell growth and electrical properties (i.e., the so-called “electrical phenotype”). In this paper, a system consisting of a 16-channel solid-state analog multiplexer (MUX)paired with a low-cost, …

Effects Of Intertidal Position On The Capacity For Anaerobic Metabolism And Thermal Stress Response In The Common Acorn Barnacle, Balanus Glandula, Kyra Anderson

Master's Theses

Intertidal habitats are characterized by dynamic, tidally-driven fluctuations in abiotic and biotic factors. Many of the environmental stressors that vary across the intertidal (e.g., temperature, oxygen, food availability, predation pressure) are strong drivers of metabolic rate in ectotherms. As such, we predicted that there may be pronounced differences in the metabolic and stress physiology of conspecific sessile invertebrates occupying at different relative tidal heights. The common acorn barnacle Balanus glandula represents an ideal model organism in which to investigate the possibility of tidal height-dependent physiological differences, owing to their wide distribution in the intertidal zone and their eurytolerant nature. In …

Translatina Immigrant Mental Health Wellness: Suggestive Intervention Strategies The City Of San Francisco Should Consider Adopting, Valeria Vera

Master's Theses

Translatina immigrants in the United States often suffer from intersectional traumas due to their race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, and immigration status — putting them in a vulnerable position socially, psychologically, economically, and medically. Due to their positionality in the intersections of migration, criminalization, cissexism, and mental health, they are often more marginalized and have greater needs than communities with privileged sociocultural identities. As a particularly vulnerable group, they need guaranteed access to gender-affirming healthcare that is inclusive of mental health services. Despite Translatinas’ need for mental health services, there exist many barriers making services inaccessible and insufficient in San …

Industry And Malady: Entanglements Of Power, Culture, And Disease Afflicting Breast Cancer Patients In The Bay Area, Brieann N. Deornellas

Master's Theses

Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in the United States and, apart from some forms of skin cancer, is the most common cancer diagnosis for women. In 2021, the U.S Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results reported that approximately 281,550 women were diagnosed with, and 43,600 died of the breast cancer. Despite advancements in testing and treatments, about one in eight women will develop breast cancer in her lifetime, and breast cancer has the highest cancer death rate for women, excluding lung cancer.Studies have also shown that breast cancer prognosis and mortality is not uniform, and is statistically …

An Investigation Of The Relationship Of Wave Intensity And Byssal Thread Strength Of The Mussel Mytilus Californianus, Felicia M. Miller

Master's Theses

The intertidal zone is a stressful environment with one of the main stressors being the fluctuation of wave energy over time and space. A structural adaptation employed by mussels living within the intertidal zone is byssal threads that aid in attachment while dealing with various levels of wave exposure. The California mussel, Mytilus californianus, lives in extremely wave exposure conditions, which makes it a great study species to assess the relationship between wave intensity and byssal thread strength. In this study, Mytilus californianus were collected from two locations in the Monterey Bay, each with a predicted wave exposed site and …

Rapid Radiation Of Zeiformes Revealed Through Comparison Of Jaw Morphologies, Jeffrey Peters

Master's Theses

Zeiformes (e.g., Dories, Lookdown dories, Tinselfishes, Oreos) are a deep (1000 m) to mid-water (100 m) marine order of acanthomorph fishes with a circumpolar distribution, and a fossil record extending back to the Late Cretaceous. The order consists of 33 species across six families. The phylogenetic placement of the Zeiformes within Teleostei has been debated, but more recent studies based on both molecular and morphological data place Zeiforms within Paracanthopterygii closely related to Gadiformes. Zeiformes are characterized by anal and dorsal profiles that contain a variable number of fin rays and spines. They are mostly deep bodied, highly compressed fishes …

No Association Between Macronutrient Intake And Body Composition Indices In Collegiate Athletes, Bryan Singharaj

Master's Theses

A scarcity of literature follows the relationship between macronutrient intake and bodycomposition indices within an athletic population. Therefore, the primary aims of the present study were to evaluate the relationship between the percent intake of carbohydrates, dietary fat, and protein with fat-free mass percentage (FFM %), fat mass percentage (FM %), fat mass index (FMI), and lean mass index (LMI). In addition, a secondary objective was to determine if there were any sex differences in the relationship between macronutrient intake and body composition indices. A total of 58 San José State University student-athletes from multiple sports were included in the …

Characterizing Metabolic Changes In Cancer Cells After Treatment With An Extract Created From Walnuts, Codey Y. Huang

Master's Theses

Cancer cells undergo metabolic reprogramming to meet the energy and metabolite demands of constant proliferation. Originally observed as the Warburg Effect, where cancer cells are more glycolytically active, recent research has shown that cancer cells can also utilize oxidative phosphorylation to meet these demands, better known as metabolic flux. Previous work from our lab showed that treatment with a Walnut Extract (WE) induced cell death in MDA-MB-231 and HeLa cells by destabilizing the mitochondrial outer membrane potential, suggesting that the extract may be able to impact oxidative phosphorylation. The aim of the current research was to further characterize the impact …

Research Handling Effects On Stress Hormones, Blood Parameters, And Heart Rate In Juvenile Northern Elephant Seals (Mirounga Angustirostris), Lauren A. Cooley

Master's Theses

Wildlife researchers must balance the need to safely capture and handle their study animals to sample tissues, collect morphological measurements, and attach dataloggers while simultaneously ensuring their results are not confounded by stress artifacts caused by handling. To determine the physiological effects of research activities including chemical immobilization, transport, instrumentation with biologgers, and overnight holding on a model marine mammal species, I collected hormone, blood chemistry, hematology, and heart rate data from 19 juvenile northern elephant seals (Mirounga angustirostris) throughout a translocation experiment. Across my six sampling timepoints, cortisol and aldosterone data revealed a moderate hormonal stress response to handling …

Use Of A Utility-Scale Solar Energy Facility By Avian Populations In Central California, Quratulain Ahmed

Master's Theses

With an ever-increasing demand for renewable energy in response to climate change, utility-scale solar energy (USSE) is on the rise, particularly in California. Although solar energy is viewed as an essential resource for transitioning from a fossil fuel economy, USSE installations can cover thousands of acres of habitat used by avian species. Little is known about the effects of USSE on avian populations, although some evidence suggests that USSE facilities may be leading to bird mortality. The lake-effect hypothesis suggests that birds may mistake solar arrays for large bodies of water resulting in injury or mortality. Though several studies describe …

The Effect Of Submarine Volcanism On Foraminifera At Axial Seamount Of Juan De Fuca Ridge, Gabriela Marie Diaz Santana

Master's Theses

Submarine volcanoes contribute more than 75% of global volcanic eruptions annually and have the potential to change the surrounding submarine ecosystems. The species richness, abundance of foraminifera assemblages and the average test size of samples recovered from marine sediment cores are a proxy for past environmental changes on the seafloor and in the water column. This study evaluates the ecosystem impact of multiple eruptions that formed a massive caldera at Axial Seamount between 1300 and 800 years before present (BP). An examination of the diversity, abundance, and size of planktic and benthic foraminifera assemblages recorded in volcanic and hemipelagic sediments …

The Influence Of Aerosols On Ice And Mixed-Phase Clouds Based On In-Situ Observations And Cam6 Simulations, Flor Vanessa Maciel

Master's Theses

Clouds have a large impact on Earth’s radiation budget, and although there is aconsiderable amount of research on them, there are still uncertainties concerning how thermodynamics, dynamics, and aerosol indirect effects impact their microphysical properties. The lack of observational analysis on cirrus and mixed-phase cloud controlling factors, i.e., temperature, relative humidity, vertical velocity, and aerosol number concentrations, limits our understanding of how these properties impact their microphysical properties and, therefore, complicates how they are simulated within climate models. With seven flight campaigns funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and five funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), …

Exploration Of Novel Nickel Metal Organic Decomposition Inks, Ivy Tran

Master's Theses

In the growing and ever-evolving world of technology, the prospect of printable and flexible electronics has become prominent. Printable metal inks are of significant interest as they can be used to fabricate metal films efficiently, with greener materials, at lower-cost, and with low-waste as compared to conventional metal film deposition techniques. They also allow the utilization of a wider range of materials, giving way to flexible technologies in the future. Here, we introduce the formulation of novel nickel-precursor based liquid organometallic decomposing (MOD) inks that sinter at relatively low temperatures and thermally decompose into a conductive layer. In this work, …

Historic Ohlone Resource Distribution Within The Alameda Creek Watershed, Naseem Fazeli

Master's Theses

The Alameda Creek watershed is located within the ancestral homeland of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area. Their ancestors historically utilized a variety of plants for food, medicine, ceremonies, and building materials, with their understanding of the value of the plants based on traditional ecological knowledge (TEK). The arrival of Spanish, and later Anglo/American, colonists beginning in the mid-18th century introduced urbanization and European agricultural practices, which have degraded wildlands and impacted species richness and diversity. As interest in environmental restoration has been increasing in recent decades, the present-day Muwekma Ohlone Tribe has an opportunity to …

Co-Composted Biochar Improves Dry-Farmed Tomato Productivity In The Santa Clara Valley, Ca, With No Change In Soil Microbiology, Duncan A. Keller

Master's Theses

California is a globally important site for agricultural production, but the state is currently suffering from an unprecedented drought. One strategy to conserve water is dry farming, where growers cache moisture in the soil from off-season rain or early-season irrigation for crops to use throughout the growing season. Some California growers have dry-farmed tomatoes for decades. Recently, some have begun adding co-composted biochar (COMBI) to boost productivity and stimulate soil microbiology, particularly arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. To the best of my knowledge, no field research on dry-farmed tomato systems currently exists, let alone on the effects of COMBI amendments on yield, …

Examining Communibiology During Adrenal Stress Scenario Training In Feminist Self-Defense: An Experimental Study, Daniel A. Van Hook

Master's Theses

In communication episodes featuring heightened stress, interactions that are perceived as threatening and evoke a sense of powerlessness often predict a cycle of victimization. Meanwhile, social interactions which affirm safety and agency amidst stress foster empowerment. This study utilized Hoplology, which studies stress inoculation against aggression and posttraumatic stress, and Communibiology, the study of neurobiology as an antecedent and outcome of communication, to explore (a) whether Adrenal Stress Scenario Training in Feminist Self-Defense (ASST-FSD) produces a physiological response to promote stress inoculation, (b) how anxiety impacts physiological response, and (c) reports of mental toughness. A 4-day ASST-FSD training pilot study …

Evolution Of Life-History Characteristics In Gadoidei, Joshua Hittie

Master's Theses

Life-history characteristics (e.g., age and growth) have been used extensively to understand the temporal population dynamics of fish species, but less so within a phylogenetic framework. This study investigates life-history characteristics within the suborder Gadoidei (order: Gadiformes) and to test the extent of phylogenetic signal for those characteristics. To accomplish this, a phylogeny of Gadoidei was first constructed based on both mitochondrial and nuclear genes. Within this phylogenetic framework, life-history traits, including growth rate, age at maturity, and longevity, as well as ecological data, such as water depth and diet type, were mapped to the phylogeny using parsimony analysis to …

Queer Church Construction: Dialoguing Ecclesiology And Queer Theory, Daniel Ryne Warwick

Master's Theses

What would “The Church” look like if it were constructed by the socially marginalized, specifically queer bodies (modernity’s LGBTQIA+)? The “Catholic theological tradition” has been reticent in its hesitancy of queer theory, reinforcing the rejection of queer faithful and their highly contextual expressions of spirituality. This thesis seeks to build a well-architected theology out from these rejected queer bodies in order to demonstrate the intrinsically disordered’s inherent ordered-ness within the Catholic tradition and experience. Three distinct pillars of ecclesiology are engaged in this manner: spatiality, temporality, and spirituality. The first chapter, “En-sexed Flesh in De-Sexed Space; or, The Case of …

Phenotypic Analysis Of Murine Gut Associated Lymphocytes, Madison Flood

Master's Theses

γδ T cells are important in the role of immune homeostasis, especially in relation to the gut. It has been shown that there is a higher proportion of γδ T cells in the intestines than in circulation. With this knowledge, our lab focused on understanding the mechanisms of these cells, specifically regarding immune tolerance. In our preliminary research, we identified a subset of γδ T cells that express Foxp3, a transcription factor essential for the functioning of regulatory T cells, in the neonatal (5 day old) intestine. We hypothesized that these Foxp3+ γδ T cells have immunosuppressive functions upon exposure …