Biology Commons^™

Developing A Writing Intensive (Wi) Microbiology Lab Course, Jeremy Dodsworth

Q2S Enhancing Pedagogy

Students at CSUSB will be required to take two courses designated as writing intensive (WI) after the quarter-to-semester (Q2S) transition in Fall 2020. Having WI courses in the Biology major will allow Biology students to satisfy the WI requirement and a major requirement/elective with one course, and having WI course in the major will help students develop discipline-specific critical thinking and writing skills. The current upper-division Microbiology course involves a significant amount of writing. Here I present plans for augmentation and modification of the writing activities and assignments in this Microbiology course associated with Q2S to potentially fulfill the WI …

Inquiry Into Cell And Molecular Biology Cmb 395, Michael Cerbo

Library Impact Statements

No abstract provided.

The Bioethical Significance Of “The Origin Of Man’S Ethical Behavior” (October 1941, Unpublished) By Ernest Everett Just And Hedwig Anna Schnetzler Just, Theodore Walker Jr.

Journal of the South Carolina Academy of Science

Abstract –

E. E. Just (1883-1941) is an acknowledged “pioneer” in cell biology, and he is perhaps the pioneer in study of egg cell fertilization. Here we discover that Just also made pioneering contributions to general biology and evolutionary bioethics.

Within Just’s published contributions to observational cell biology, there are substantial fragments of his theory of ethical behavior, a theory with roots in cell biology. In addition to such previously available fragments, Just’s fully developed theory is now available. This recently discovered unpublished book-length manuscript argues for the biological origins of ethical behavior (evolving from cells to humans, within a …

Effects Of A Neonicotinoid Insecticide On The Growth Of Honey Bee Gut Microbes, Macee Mitchell, Daniel Franzese, Taylor Morales, Shane Lucht, Jesse Steele, Jenifer Walke

2020 Symposium Posters

The gut microbiome plays an essential role in the overall health of organisms. However, the presence and abundance of these microbes may be altered by environmental factors, such as exposure to pesticides. The goals of this project were to understand 1) the prevalence of pesticide residues in honey bees in eastern Washington, and 2) the impact of pesticides to the honey bee gut microbiome. Accordingly, we tested bees from 24 hives among six sites across eastern Washington. High-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS) was used to detect the presence and concentration of six commonly used agricultural pesticides: Carbaryl, Chlorpyrifos, Coumaphos, Cypermethrin, …

A Look At Gene Control: Tracking The Ccnd1 Gene, Bryan Anders

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Cancer occurs when the cell does not properly control its own cell cycle. It then replicates in an out of control fashion leading to the death of various organs and then the demise of the organism as a whole. As it seems to have always been a problem for cell-based life, certain safeguards against cancer have been evolved over time. One such method comes in the form of prevention via cyclin proteins, which are encoded from cyclin genes. The gene that is the focus of this research is the CCND1, or cyclin D1, gene that controls the progression through various …

Using Crispr-Cas9 As A Restriction Enzyme, Zack Crawley

Master's Theses

Restriction digests are a commonly utilized process for cleaving DNA at specific, but relatively common sites. Restriction enzymes have widespread use in DNA manipulation. CRISPR/Cas9 is a recently identified endonuclease which utilizes a customizable guide sequence to recognize and cut specific ~20 bp sites located in a DNA sequence. This preliminary research aimed to exploit the potential benefit of DNA restriction using the CRISPR/Cas9 procedure through alterations of different components involved in that system. We sought to refine existing CRISPR/Cas9 protocols and make a budget friendly, user-selectable CRISPR/Cas9 restriction digest protocol. The motivation for this research was to simplify and …

The Influences Of Green Infrastructure On Levels Of Somatic And Male-Specific Coliphages At Shadyside Park, Oula Salih

Student Papers and Reports

Microbial contamination is still considered one of the major causes of diminished function and quality of urban rivers and streams in Michigan. Floodplains, a type of green infrastructure used to reduce flooding after large amounts of rainfall, were reported to have variable effects of reducing levels of stormwater runoff within these bodies of water ( Hubbart et al., 2011 ). Viral indicators of fecal contamination in bodies of water include male-specific and somatic coliphages. Water samples from Plaster Creek were collected before and after the floodplain in order to identify the levels of somatic and male-specific coliphages during dry and …

Lifelines Winter 2020, Southern Adventist University

Lifelines - Biology Department Newsletter

The Winter 2020 issue of Lifelines contains articles on students in service, insights from the professor, and departmental happenings.

Characterization Of A Conserved Transient Receptor Potential Channel Supporting Spermatogenesis In Planarian Flatworms, Haley Nicole Curry

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

The molecular processes underlying the control of external stimuli on development of the reproductive system remain to be understood. The Transient Receptor Potential superfamily of proteins (TRPs) consists of cation channels that respond to external stimuli and are abundant in the somatosensory as well as reproductive systems. Mammalian TRP-Melastatin 3 (TRPM3) channels are activated by heat and the neurosteroid pregnenolone. Here we characterize an ortholog of TRPM3 in the planarian flatworm Schmidtea mediterranea (Smed-TRPM3). Smed-TRPM3 was hypothesized to play a role in germline development due to enriched expression in the reproductive system of sexual planarians. In situ hybridization analysis revealed …

Establishment Of Isoform-Specific Coxsackievirus And Adenovirus Receptor Knockout Epithelial Cell Lines To Understand The Mechanism Of Adenoviral Infection, Amal S. Alkahlout

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Adenovirus infection mostly triggers cold-like symptoms, but in some cases, adenovirus infection may lead to severe symptoms and death. The primary receptor for many adenoviruses is the Coxsackievirus and Adenovirus receptor (CAR). There are two transmembrane isoforms of CAR; CAR^Ex7 and CAR^Ex8. CAR^Ex7 localizes at the basolateral surface and CAR^Ex8 localizes at the apical surface. I hypothesized that knockout of CAR^Ex8 will prevent apical adenovirus transduction, while knockout of all CAR isoforms will prevent apical and basolateral adenovirus transduction. To test this, I utilized CRISPR/Cas9 to knockout endogenous CAR^Ex8 or all CAR isoforms in MDCK-CAR^Ex8 cells. The results indicate that …

Variation In Available Habitat Impacts The Spatiotemporal Interactions Of A Great Lakes Carnivore Community, Mackenzie E. Rich

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Interactions between carnivores play a crucial role in regulating lower trophic levels. In order to examine interspecific interactions among Great Lakes carnivores, I used occupancy models to examine habitat selection patterns and quantify interactions between species. I determined temporal patterns of activity for each species and quantified interspecific activity overlap using kernel density estimates. To generate these models and analyze the patterns displayed, I placed 25 cameras across 25 km2 of diverse northern Wisconsin forest. I extracted habitat data from the National Landcover Database using GIS to inform my occurrence models for each detected carnivore species. The only significant influence …

Characterization Of Ph-Based Inactivation Of Respiratory Syncytial Virus (Rsv), Jenna Nosek

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a negative-sense, single-strand RNA virus that affects the upper and lower respiratory system in humans. Currently, RSV is the leading cause of infant mortality worldwide, while also infecting target populations of the elderly and immunocompromised. Significant efforts towards vaccine development have been made due to limited therapeutic options, however, physical instabilities of RSV may hinder movement in vaccine development. We hypothesize that strain-specific differences in stability likely attribute to differences in RSV F protein, as proposed by previous studies about the intrinsically instability of RSV. A panel of recombinant RSV viruses were analyzed for strain-specific …

Invasive Species Shift Fungal Driven Decomposition In Midwestern Forests, Adam M. Reed

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Midwestern forests are currently impacted by two prominent invaders, Agrilus planipennis and Lonicera maackii. The Ag. planipennis induced loss of Fraxinus spp. trees can facilitate Lo. maackii invasion, which is likely altering microbial driven forest nutrient cycling. To assess these changes in microbial processes, I conducted litter bag and culture-based decomposition experiments using leaf litter from Acer spp., Quercus spp., F. nigra, F. pennsylvanica, Lindera benzoin, and Lo. maackii. For the culture-based decomposition experiment, I inoculated six species of fungi separately onto both single species and multispecies (half Lo. maackii and half native spp.) leaf litter and measured decomposition rate, …

Neuroanatomy Of The Blackspotted Rockskipper, Entomacrodus Striatus, Pooja Dayal

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Here I characterized the central neuroanatomy of the Blackspotted Rockskipper, Entomacrodus striatus, native to French Polynesia. The neuroanatomy of E. striatus has not been studied prior to this paper. I used several histology and antibody staining techniques to accomplish this, including Crystal Violet, immunohistochemistry, immunofluorescence, and Bielschowsky’s Silver Nitrate staining. This paper describes the most successful techniques used, identifies major structures in the species’ neuroanatomy, and also explains why studying E. striatus is important in the future of vertebrate research.

Floral Trait Architecture In Crop Sunflower (Helianthus Annuus) Under Drought Conditions, Lauren Segarra

All Master's Theses

Longer and more intense droughts are predicted to become more common in the coming century due to anthropogenic climate change. Drought can reduce crop yield and decrease food security. In order to mitigate the negative effects of drought on crop production, it is important to elucidate the underlying mechanisms that promote drought stress resistance in crop plants. Floral traits impact yield, especially in oilseed crops such as sunflower (Helianthus annuus), but their susceptibility to drought stress is understudied. The goal of this study was to describe the floral trait architecture of H. annuus crop lines under drought versus …

Biology Of Binge Eating Related Disorders And Proposal For Integration Into Treatment, Karlyne Morawe

Graduate School of Professional Psychology: Doctoral Papers and Masters Projects

The concerningly low recovery and high cross over rates of eating disorders with binge eating behaviors suggests there might be a missing element in current treatment approaches commonly used to address eating disorders. Research supports the existence of significant biological correlation between disorders that are characterized by binge eating behaviors. This paper examines some of the biological processes in which these disorders show the most significant correlations. These include the organism’s response to caloric restriction, the brain’s response to feeding, the biological drive for reproduction, sensory association to feeding, and habituated responding to the feeding process. Additionally, we will explore …

Influence Of Light Availability On Tree Growth, Defense, And Emerald Ash Borer (Agrlius Planipennis) Success In White Fringetree (Chionanthus Virginicus) And Black Ash (Fraxinus Nigra), Michael S. Friedman

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

White fringetree is a host for the invasive emerald ash borer (EAB) despite being lower quality than black ash. Observations suggest that host trees grown in full sun are more resistant to EAB than those grown in shade, however chemical defense mechanisms and the impact of environmental stress have not been assessed. We quantified constitutive and induced defenses and other characteristics white fringetree and black ash phloem tissue grown under differential light conditions, and these traits were related to EAB larval performance. White fringetree had significantly lower constitutive and induced activities of defense associated enzymes and lignin but higher phenolic, …

A Planarian Kinesin Associated Protein 3 Homolog Is Required For Spermatogenesis And Ciliogenesis, Donovan Christman

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Microtubule-based structures are an essential part of eukaryotic cells as they are involved in a number of processes such as phagocytosis, chromosome separation, intracellular transport, and cell motility. Transport along microtubules is accomplished by kinesin superfamily proteins (KIFs), which are motor proteins that bind cargo and use ATPase activity to move along microtubules in an anterograde fashion. One of the most common kinesin complexes is the heterotrimeric Kinesin 2 complex which is composed of KIF3 subunit dimers and the Kinesin Associated Protein 3 (KAP3). This complex is known as the KIF3 complex and functions along microtubules in cilia and flagella. …

The Evolution Of Dragons, Laura J. Mayfield

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Dragons have been depicted in human art as early as 4500 BCE. For centuries, these fantasy creatures have inspired countless folk and fantasy tales, as well as appearing in the art of different cultures around the world. Now there are thousands of different depictions of these huge, flying, fire-breathing lizards, but are any of them possible? In this study, I reference peer-reviewed scientific articles, phylogenetic analysis, and paleoart studies to create biologically-sound dragons. Basing the dragon lineage on a real branch of webbed-winged scansoriopterygids—an extinct family of climbing and gliding maniraptoran dinosaurs—I explored the possible wing-structure, fire-breathing abilities, and effects …

Brown Booby Family Units: Comparing Mothers, Fathers, And Chicks Through Stable Isotopes, Erin Taylor

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Seabird behavior and diet is important to study in order to determine where to focus conservation efforts in a rapidly changing climate. A primary aim of my project is to understand how brown booby family members from a breeding colony on Islas Marietas, Mexico relate to each other isotopically and in terms of their diet. Comparing the family units (mother, father, and chick from the same nest) of these seabirds and sex trends overall will help develop the big picture to determine the best conservation efforts for this species. I also aim to improve our ability to compare seabird plasma …

Fate Of White Fringetree Through The Invasion Wave Of Emerald Ash Borer And Its Variation In Resistance To Attack, Emily A. Ellison

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Ornamental white fringetrees in IL, IN, OH, and PA were reassessed in 2018 as a follow-up study to determine the fate of the white fringetree through the invasion wave of emerald ash borer. Attack rates decline by half from 2015-2018 and only 13% of trees were infested. Health of not reinfested trees in 2018 improved suggesting resilience against EAB attack whereas currently infested trees in 2018 displayed signs of declining health. Trees differed in their resistance to EAB attack and 41 additional ornamental and wild white fringetrees were studied in OH to determine if the anti-herbivory defense chemical, oleuropein, influenced …

Composition Of Dung Beetle Communities In A Tropical Montane Forest Alters The Rate Of Dung Removal More Than Species Diversity Alone, Elizabeth A. Engle

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Dung beetles provide key ecological functions by degrading and recycling dung. I used experimentally-assembled communities to examine the role of species richness, community biomass, species diversity, species identity, and community composition in dung removal, using Ateuchus chrysopyge, Copris nubilosis, Onothophagus cyanellus, and Dichotomius satanas. I hypothesized: (1) that as species richness, biomass, and diversity increases within a community, dung removal increases; and (2) species are not functionally equivalent, so community composition should influence dung removal rates. As species richness, biomass, and diversity of experimentally-assembled communities increased, the proportion of dung removed also increased. Also, the four species in this study …

Assessment Of In Vivo Muscle Force In The R6/2 Mouse Model Of Huntington's Disease Using Newly Designed Force Rig, Steven Russell Alan Burke

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, we develop a system to study in vivo muscle function in a mouse model of Huntington’s disease that allows for the recording of muscle force by stimulating the motor nerves or the muscles directly after a nerve block. This allows us to distinguish between defects in the nerve, such as problems with vesicle release, and primary muscle defects, such as altered intracellular calcium homeostasis. We hypothesize that there are primary defects in R6/2 skeletal muscle that are separate from neurodegeneration or defects in the CNS. In this case, we should see defects in muscle force generation during …

The Process And A Pitfall In Developing Biology And Chemistry Problems For Mathematics Courses, Mary Beisiegel, Lori Kayes, Devon Quick, Richard Nafshun, Michael Lopez, Steve Dobrioglo, Michael Dickens

Journal of Mathematics and Science: Collaborative Explorations

In this paper, we describe our process for developing applied problems from biology and chemistry for use in a differential calculus course. We describe our conversations and curricular analyses that led us to change from our initial focus on college algebra to calculus. We provide results that allowed us to see the overlaps between biology and mathematics and chemistry and mathematics and led to a specific focus on problems related to rates of change. Finally, we investigate the problems that were developed by the partner disciplines for use on recitation activities in calculus and how those problems were modified by …

Amphibian Vocalization: Implications Of A Novel Laryngeal Muscle In The Calling Mechanisms Of The TúNgara Frog Engystomops Pustulosus, Amy D. Lagorio

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The current functional model of the anuran larynx includes four pairs of laryngeal muscles. Their contractions do not account, however, for the behavioral control of call complexity observed in male túngara frogs (Engystomops pustulosus), which optionally add a secondary note with distinct harmonic structure to their advertisement call. Examination of the túngara frog's laryngeal morphology through dissection, microtomography, and resin histology has revealed that the m. dilatator laryngis is divided into two separate bundles (superficial and deep). The superficial bundle closely matches the typical description of the m. dilatator laryngis and is well positioned to open the glottis. …

Proteomic Analysis Of Fetal Rat Neural Stem Cells After Treatment With Hericium Erinaceus, Bright Adam Test

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The fungus, Hericium erinaceus, has outstanding chemical properties, displaying health benefits in digestive, hepatic, and nervous tissues. Its ease of accessibility and use makes it one of the most common substances used for treatment in Eastern medicine. More and more recent research is confirming the incredible health benefits of this fungus, especially the impact that is seen on nervous tissue growth and recovery post-treatment. Such neurite outgrowth and myelin sheath regeneration could illustrate the beginning of the cure to lifelong neurodegenerative diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis. In this first-of-its-kind study, we cultured and differentiated fetal rat neural stem cells while …

Prevalence Of Dirofilaria Immitis In Southern California’S Invasive Aedes Species And Native Culiseta Incidens, Zaina Chaban

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Dirofilaria immitis is a mosquito-borne parasite that causes dog heartworm disease, effecting over 100,000 dogs in the United States each year (CAPC - Parasite Prevalence Maps., 2021). Increased disease reports are commonly attributed to an increase in the local mosquito vector population. Since 2013, dog heartworm disease cases have increased by approximately 21% in the United States as reported by the American Heartworm Society. During the same time, invasive mosquitoes belonging to the genus Aedes have been found in Southern California and spread to other areas. The purpose of our research was to determine the prevalence of Dirofilaria …

Biology Of Sharks And Their Relatives Bio 422, Joanna Burkhardt

Library Impact Statements

No abstract provided.

Mammal Species Inventory Using Various Trapping Methods In Zone 4 Of Billy Barquedier National Park, Belize During Rainy Season, Mersady Redding

Animal Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Belize is a small country, but it is extremely ecologically diverse. Based on the few studies conducted in Belize, the abundance of mammals is low but diversity is high. Particular findings note the number and identity of species differed between four sites in the Maya Mountains of Belize, indicating that a data set from a single site is not representative of the Neotropical region. Insufficient data is available to estimate current species richness of many areas in Belize, including Billy Barquedier National Park (BBNP). The objective of this study was to explore trapping and documentation methods of terrestrial mammals in …

Undergraduate Research Science: Principles And Practice Bio 200, Michael Cerbo

Library Impact Statements

No abstract provided.