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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Synthetic Hagfish Slime Mimetics: Mechanical Characterization, Hayden Johns, Spencer Walker
Synthetic Hagfish Slime Mimetics: Mechanical Characterization, Hayden Johns, Spencer Walker
Fall Student Research Symposium 2021
Hagfish are ancient animals that eject a slime when attacked by predators. The slime that the hagfish emit is almost entirely composed of water but protein strands within the slime cause the slime to have incredible strength. However, these protein strands will be formed synthetically for the purposes of our experiment. To defend against foes, the Navy launches plastic ropes into the propellers of enemy warships in order to decrease the thrust of the motors. In a push to find a more biodegradable solution, the utilization of hagfish slime has shown great promise in stopping propellers.While we know that the …
Effect Of Basal Diet And Black Raspberry Supplementation On Gene Biomarkers Of "Leaky Gut" In Mouse Model Of Colitis-Associated Colorectal Cancer, Eliza Stewart
Fall Student Research Symposium 2021
Colorectal cancer is currently the third leading cause of cancer death in the world. The risk of developing colorectal cancer increases significantly in individuals who suffer from colitis, which is inflammation of the colon lining, seen in Irritable Bowel Disease. The term “leaky gut” is often used to describe increased intestinal permeability and is closely related to colitis. Leaky gut is associated with dysbiosis of the gut microbiota, which can occur through diet. This dysbiosis leads to pro-longed inflammation and affects genes that encode for proteins involved in the tight junctions between cells. Compromised intestinal integrity allows for translocation of …
Bird-Window Collision Mitigation At Usu's C&Ss Building, Brigham City, Utah, Hunter Martin
Bird-Window Collision Mitigation At Usu's C&Ss Building, Brigham City, Utah, Hunter Martin
Fall Student Research Symposium 2020
Bird-window collisions are often not thought about as if they are a major problem to bird populations worldwide. This is not the case as bird populations are threatened by these collisions. In the United States alone it is estimated that 97.6 - 975.6 million birds fatally collide with human-made windows annually, and another 16 to 42 million collide in Canada per year. Our focus is to investigate a possible window collision problem and explore different mitigation efforts to prevent these collisions at the USU-Brigham City campus (Brigham City, Utah, 84302). We hope to determine how many fatal bird-window collisions are …
The Importance Of Experiment Replication In Understanding Distribution Of 'Alalā Seed Retention Time, Camilla Moses
The Importance Of Experiment Replication In Understanding Distribution Of 'Alalā Seed Retention Time, Camilla Moses
Fall Student Research Symposium 2020
Hawaiian forests have suffered damages from climate change, introduced plants, and introduced animals that trample or graze on the native vegetation. The 'Alalā, a native Hawaiian bird that is being reintroduced from captivity, is a disperser of native plants and can facilitate the restoration of native vegetation in Hawaiian forests. If the seed retention time and the flight paths of the 'Alalā are known, we can estimate the distribution of the seeds they disperse and see the effect the species has on forest restoration. In this study, the seed retention time of the 'Alalā is predicted from body mass using …
Furries: The Emergence Of The Modern-Day Anthropomorphism Culture, Nate Bee
Furries: The Emergence Of The Modern-Day Anthropomorphism Culture, Nate Bee
Fall Student Research Symposium 2020
A brief contextualization of what a furry is, and potential origins/explanations for the emergence of the modern-day furry.
The Role Of Dogs In Ancient Mesopotamia, Hannah Chester
The Role Of Dogs In Ancient Mesopotamia, Hannah Chester
Fall Student Research Symposium 2020
This research summarizes the role of dogs in ancient Mesopotamian society, with an emphasis on the religious aspect of dogs in regards to the goddess Gula.
Examining Ages Of Birds That Have Fatally Collided With Windows At Usu's C&Ss Building, Brigham City, Ut, Taylor Kenyon
Examining Ages Of Birds That Have Fatally Collided With Windows At Usu's C&Ss Building, Brigham City, Ut, Taylor Kenyon
Fall Student Research Symposium 2020
Around 97.6-975.6 million birds fatally collide with windows each year in North America. Bird age could be a contributor to the collisions. The central focus of our research project is to determine if there is a statistically significant relationship between the age of an individual bird and the likelihood of a fatal collision with a human-made window. The data collection method that will be used for this project is a hybrid of primary and secondary research. Personally collected data regarding window collisions, will be obtained from daily surveys of the Classroom and Student Services (CSS) Building at the Utah State …
Analyzing Fatal Bird-Window Collisions Occurring On Usu's C&Ss Building, Brigham City, Utah, Jacob Larkin
Analyzing Fatal Bird-Window Collisions Occurring On Usu's C&Ss Building, Brigham City, Utah, Jacob Larkin
Fall Student Research Symposium 2020
Fatal bird window collisions are often overlooked as minimally damaging to bird populations or viewed as inevitable collateral damage of human habitat expansion. In reality, these unnecessary collisions are truly monumental in number, and prove to be a serious threat to bird populations, especially endangered bird species. In the United States alone it is estimated that between 365 - 988 million birds fatally collide with man-made windows annually. We are focusing our study on fatal bird-window collisions occurring on the Classroom and Student Services Building (C&SS building) at the USU campus in Brigham City, UT 84302. We have selected this …
"Botley, You Need To Listen!" Exploring Young Children's Interactions With Robots While Learning To Code, Selendra Lewis, Rebecca Peterson, Kathleen Bullock
"Botley, You Need To Listen!" Exploring Young Children's Interactions With Robots While Learning To Code, Selendra Lewis, Rebecca Peterson, Kathleen Bullock
Fall Student Research Symposium 2020
Recently, there's been a surge of research about child-robot interactions as robots are being used in classrooms and homes in increasing numbers. Many of these studies are conducted in a laboratory-like setting followed by a survey. This project is unique in that we primarily rely on observational data in classrooms where students are using robots to learn math and Computational Thinking skills including Spatial Reasoning, Algorithmic Thinking, Debugging, and Decomposition. While the main purpose of the larger project is to develop curriculum and assessments for these skills, the structure of the FSRS project proposal allows us to also analyze these …
Altered Toxin Binding Or Access To The Binding Site, What Changes In The Tetrodotoxin Resistant Sodium Channels Of Garter Snakes?, Kenyon Mitchell
Altered Toxin Binding Or Access To The Binding Site, What Changes In The Tetrodotoxin Resistant Sodium Channels Of Garter Snakes?, Kenyon Mitchell
Fall Student Research Symposium 2020
Voltage-gated sodium ion channels are required for the generation and propagation of action potentials in vertebrate nerve and muscle cells. The neurotoxin tetrodotoxin (TTX) binds in the channel pore and blocks sodium channel function. Some populations of garter snakes (Thamnophis sirtalis) have evolved resistance to TTX in part due to amino acid substitutions in the pore of the voltage-gated sodium channel expressed in skeletal muscle fibers (tsNaV1.4). We have previously demonstrated that the four amino acid substitutions in tsNaV1.4 from snake populations in California reduce TTX binding. These four amino acid substitutions are at or near an amino acid position …
Identification And Characterization Of Pd-L1 In Bovine Placentas, Andre Nguyen
Identification And Characterization Of Pd-L1 In Bovine Placentas, Andre Nguyen
Fall Student Research Symposium 2020
Successful bovine pregnancy requires that the maternal immune system modulate T lymphocytes. Program death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) is an inhibitory protein that is associated with immune tolerance and modulation of T cells. Previous studies have linked PD-L1 to suppressing T cell activity and modulating cytokine production, therefore, inducing maternal tolerance and acceptance of the fetus. PD-L1 may be a possible mechanism involved in establishing successful bovine pregnancies. To this day, no evidence of PD-L1 RNA or protein was found in bovine placentas. We hypothesize that PD-L1 is present in the bovine placenta and its expression differs between trimesters. To analyze the …
The Effects Of Estrogen And Arousal On Latent Inhibition, Michael Herron
The Effects Of Estrogen And Arousal On Latent Inhibition, Michael Herron
Fall Student Research Symposium 2020
The behaviors of humans and animals are dependent on neurotransmitters and hormones that affect attention, alertness, and associative learning. These include the hormone estrogen (which plays an interesting role in cognition and attentional processes) and the neurotransmitter orexin (involved in wakefulness, arousal and goal-directed behaviors). Here we evaluated the roles of orexin receptors and estrogen in Latent Inhibition (LI), a measure of attention and associative learning. Latent inhibition is a behavioral phenomenon in which an organism's ability to associate new meaning to a familiar previously inconsequential (pre-exposed) stimulus is reduced when compared to associating meaning to a novel stimulus (non …
Modeling The Effect Of Post-Dispersal Seed Predation On Tropical Tree Species In Panama, Justin Tirrell
Modeling The Effect Of Post-Dispersal Seed Predation On Tropical Tree Species In Panama, Justin Tirrell
Fall Student Research Symposium 2018
Palm trees provide a unique opportunity to study what conditions optimize the probability that a seed will grow successfully. The seeds of palm trees, endocarps, are large and easy to locate. When they don't grow, predators leave marks on them that tell the story of their fate. The focus of my experiment is to determine how the current distribution pattern of parent palm trees in Panama Palm trees affects the the future distribution of seedlings. I have programmed a versatile model that takes the assumption that bruchid beetles are the sole predators acting on the seeds, and that these fall …