Research Methods in Life Sciences Commons^™

Bridging The Gap In Science Research: Preparing Students For College- Level Research In The Sciences, Victoria Helwig, Yaoguang Li

UConn Library Presentations

Many first-year students enter college unprepared to fully engage with scientific literature and academic library resources. Drawing on experiences from academic librarians working with STEM students, this session explores common gaps in science research skills, including navigating databases, identifying scholarly sources, and understanding the structure of scientific literature. Participants will be introduced to practical strategies and classroom-ready activities to better prepare students for college-level research. Discussion questions: What science research skills do students struggle with most when entering college? How can high school instruction better support these skills? Where can librarians and educators collaborate to support student success?

Online Decoding Of Rat Self-Paced Locomotion Speed From Eeg Using Recurrent Neural Networks, Alejandro De Miguel, Nelson Totah, Uri Maoz

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Objective. Accurate and reliable neural decoding of locomotion holds promise for advancing clinical applications such as rehabilitation and prosthetic control, as well as for understanding neural correlates of action. Recent studies have demonstrated successful decoding of locomotion kinematics across species in motorized treadmill settings. However, efforts to decode locomotion speed directly and continuously in more natural contexts—where pace is self-selected rather than externally imposed—are scarce, and those that exist generally achieve only modest accuracy and require intracranial implants. Here, we aim to decode self-paced locomotion speed non-invasively and continuously using cortex-wide electroencephalography (EEG) recordings from rats. Approach. We introduce an …

Lovastatin Potentiates The Function Of Α7-Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors, Dmytro Isaev, Keun-Hang Susan Yang, Murat Oz

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Background/Objectives: Statins are currently one of the most commonly used cholesterol-lowering drugs. In recent years, in addition to their well-known effects on the cardiovascular system, statins have been shown to exert beneficial effects in the progression of various neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases. Methods: In this study, the effects of lovastatin on the function of α7-nicotinic acetylcholine (nACh) receptors expressed in rat hippocampus and Xenopus oocytes were investigated. Results: In whole-cell patch clamp studies in hippocampal neurons, 21-day chronic (20 mg/kg), but not acute (20 min), lovastatin treatment caused significant potentiation of choline (a selective agonist for α7 nACh receptors)-induced currents …

Increased Neural Activity In The Bed Nucleus Of The Stria Terminalis Of Uninfected Canaries After Observation Of Infected Conspecifics, Madeleine Chang, Sophia Santangelo, Devon Comito, Bennett Hardy, Patricia C. Lopes

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Recent evidence suggests that the immune system may be upregulated in anticipation of pathogen exposure, yet the neural mechanisms that respond to and signal impending infection risk remain poorly understood. We investigated neural responses to infection risk in uninfected hosts observing infected conspecifics, using the canary (Serinus canaria domestica)—Mycoplasma gallisepticum host–parasite system. We focused on five brain regions of interest, comprising three nodes of the social decision-making network—preoptic area, bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) and hippocampus—a stress modulatory region (paraventricular nucleus) and a visual processing region (nucleus rotundus). After 1 h of observing infected canaries, …

Effects Of Normothermic Hepatic Ischemia–Reperfusion Injury On The Hepatic Disposition Of Arachidonic Acid And Its Cytochrome P450-Generated Metabolites In Rats, Vindhya Edpuganti, Reza Mehvar

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Purpose

Cytochrome P450 (P450) metabolites of arachidonic acid (AA) are potential therapeutic targets in ischemia–reperfusion (IR) injury, yet their disposition and actions in hepatic IR are unknown. Cellular AA and its P450 metabolites are primarily bound to lipid membranes, resulting in negligible free concentrations. This study investigates how hepatic IR injury impacts the disposition of free AA and its major P450 metabolites in rats.

Methods

Rats underwent 60 min of partial (70%) ischemia or sham surgery, followed by 5 min, 3 h, or 24 h of reperfusion. The effects of IR injury on free concentrations of AA and its major …

Survey Of Student Perceptions And Use Of Artificial Intelligence When Reading Primary Literature In The Biological Sciences, Erin L. Zimmer, Michael I. Zimmer

Biology Department Faculty Articles

Artificial intelligence (AI) tools are increasingly used by students in higher education, yet little is known about how they are applied when reading primary scientific literature. This study investigated how undergraduate biology students use AI while engaging with primary research articles and how such use influences confidence, engagement, and perceived learning. Using a mixed-methods design across two institutions, we collected pre-course surveys assessing prior AI experience and attitudes, weekly self-reported AI usage logs during a semester-long primary literature–based course, and post-course surveys evaluating changes in practices and perceptions. Students entered the course with broad familiarity with generative AI but expressed …

Invisible Shipwrecks And Neurological Endangerment: The Trade-Off In Seeking Asylum - Reframing The Neurobiological Cost Of Forced Migration, Eisha Giran

CISLA Senior Integrative Projects

Forced migration along the Spain–Morocco route represents one of the most visible humanitarian crises of the twenty-first century, yet its neurological dimensions remain insufficiently examined. This paper investigates how prolonged displacement and trauma reshape neural systems involved in stress regulation, memory, and emotional processing. It introduces the concept of neurological endangerment, defined as a condition of prolonged and inescapable threat exposure during forced migration in which stress-response systems remain chronically activated, opportunities for recovery are structurally constrained, and cumulative neurobiological risk persists beyond the period of immediate danger.

To address the gap between biological measurement and lived experience, this paper …

Decomposition Study Using Pigs In Southeastern Nebraska During The Fall And Winter Seasons, Ryan Bodine

Department of Anthropology: Theses and Student Research

When an individual is found deceased, one of the tools used in the identification process is estimating the post-mortem interval (PMI). This estimate is used to determine how long an individual has been deceased once their remains are found. To estimate an accurate PMI, knowing how decomposition is affected by external factors is key. The transition period from fall to winter in southeastern Nebraska consists of fluctuating temperatures as the seasons transfer from fall to winter. This thesis investigates how decomposition is affected during this transition period while also looking at two different environments that are common in Nebraska, prairies …

No Effect In Plasma Corticosterone Levels After Observation Of Diseased Conspecifics, B. M. Hardy, M. Chang, S. Mccallum, S. Santangelo, Patricia C. Lopes

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Organisms commonly respond to stressors in their environment by increasing the secretion of corticosterone (CORT). While increased CORT is acknowledged as a response to predation risk by organisms inhabiting a landscape of fear, new research raises the potential for changes in CORT as a response to the risk of infection by organisms in their environment. An increase in CORT of a healthy, uninfected individual in response to their perception of the risk of infection in their environment could change their susceptibility to infection, highlighting a significant role for CORT to alter host–pathogen dynamics. To investigate the effects of infection risk …

Design And Functionalization Of A Hierarchical Cu-Btc/Zeolite A4 Composite With Tannic Acid For High-Performance Heavy Metal Removal: Synergistic Adsorption Mechanisms, Kinetic Insights, And Reusability Evaluation, Samar A. Salim

Nanotechnology Research Centre

This study presents the development of a novel multifunctional adsorbent Cu-BTC (HKUST-1)/Zeolite A4 composite functionalized with tannic acid—for the efficient removal of toxic heavy metal ions (Pb²⁺, Cd²⁺, Cr(VI)) from aqueous solutions. The composite was synthesized via a solvothermal process and systematically characterized by XRD, FTIR, SEM-EDS, and BET surface area analysis. The resulting material exhibited a high specific surface area (1050 m²/g), a hierarchical pore structure, and a homogeneous distribution of active sites. Batch adsorption experiments revealed superior adsorption capacities of 220 mg/g for Pb²⁺, 180 mg/g for Cd²⁺, and 150 mg/g for Cr(VI) at pH 6, surpassing those …

Humanity Is Evolving Its Consciousness: The Role Of Archetypal Energies As Guides During An Unfolding Weeding Out And Alignment Process, Carroy U. Ferguson

Psychology Faculty Publication Series

Humanity is evolving its consciousness at individual and collective levels.  Given these seemingly tumultuous times, as of this writing (January 2026), to make such a statement may sound like a strange thing to say.  However, I suggest that if you are alive today and if you are reading these words, these are the very times for which you were born—to assist Humanity as it evolves its consciousness with your unique gifts, whatever they may be.  That is, this period of our individual and collective human being-ness may be characterized as an unfolding period of weeding out and alignment with the …

A Simple And Affordable Protocol To Assess Censer Seed Dispersal: First Confirmation Of The Mechanism In The Genus Solanum, Abigail J. Motter, Christopher T. Martine, Melody P. Sain

Faculty Journal Articles

The censer seed dispersal mechanism, whereby mature fruits are retained on plants and seeds dispersed by mechanical shaking, is among the most specialized wind-aided seed dispersal strategies employed by the flowering plants. An efficient, affordable, and easily repeatable protocol for determining whether a species uses this unusual mechanism of seed dispersal is lacking. Our focal species, Solanum tudununggae, is one of just two Solanum species (in a fleshy-fruited genus of ca. 1200 species) hypothesized to use this dispersal mechanism as a means to move seeds farther from parent plants than would gravity alone.

20% Caloric Restriction Did Not Impact Bone Health Nor Exercise-Induced Elevations In Bone Mass In Young Female Rats, Ken D. Sumida, Brady Slater, Haley Folta, Kassandra Lee, Sarina Karwande, Quinton Wong, S. Victoria Jaque, Frank Frisch

Health Sciences and Kinesiology Faculty Articles

The purpose of this study was to determine if a 6-week 20% caloric restrictive (CR) diet, with or without resistance training, would impact bone health in growing young female rats. Forty female rats (~ 5 wks old) were randomly divided into the following groups: baseline (n = 8), sedentary fed a normal diet (N, n = 8), sedentary fed a 20% CR diet (D, n = 8), resistance trained fed a normal diet (NT, n = 8), and resistance trained fed a 20% CR diet (DT, n = 8). The exercise groups were conditioned to climb a vertical ladder …

Hepatocyte-Specific Lrp1 Silencing Exacerbates Brain Amyloidosis Without Compensatory Ldl Receptor Family Involvement, Brian Carson, Josephine Chu, Devaraj V. Chandrashekar, Jerome Garcia, Rachita K. Sumbria, Derick Han

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Background

LDL receptor related protein 1 (LRP1) is a major hepatic receptor involved in lipoprotein metabolism, protease degradation, transmembrane receptor modulation, and clearance of excess protein, such as Aβ. Decreased expression of LRP1 due to liver injury can impair receptor-mediated clearance, increasing Aβ availability in the periphery. We investigated the effects of hepato-specific silencing of LRP1 on Aβ deposition in the brain. Additionally, other LDL family members (LRP5, LRP6, and LDLR) that may participate in Aβ clearance were monitored in the liver to ensure non-compensatory effects of LRP1 silencing.

Method

4-month-old male double transgenic (APP/PS1) AD mice were injected with …

The Mitochondria Is The Source Of Hepatic Amyloid Precursor Protein And Peripheral Amyloid Beta: Implications Of Alcohol-Induced Liver Steatosis In Alzheimer's Disease, Josephine Chu, Ross A. Steinberg, Brian Carson, Devaraj Venkatapura Chandrashekar, Rachita K. Sumbria, Derick Han

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Background

Alcohol-induced liver injury occurs in the pericentral region of the liver and can induce mitochondrial remodeling and exacerbate Alzheimer's Disease (AD) progression. Subpopulations of mitochondria: general mitochondria (GM), peridroplet mitochondria (PDM) and endoplasmic reticulum(ER)-bound mitochondria (ERM) maintain cellular homeostasis via energy synthesis, lipid homeostasis, and regulation of intracellular calcium. Hepatic amyloid precursor protein (APP) is a source of peripheral amyloid beta (aB) and affects AD pathology in the brain. Understanding the localization and expression of hepatic APP in mitochondrial subpopulations are critical to understanding aB metabolism and may play a role in identifying a potential mechanism for metabolic dysfunction. …

Facility Usage On The International Space Station, Justin St. P. Walsh, Rao Hamza Ali, Ryan Shihabi, Erik Linstead

Art Faculty Articles and Research

Science experiments on the International Space Station (ISS) and in future space habitats require “facilities,” as they are known to space agencies, as the core building blocks of the research capabilities they provide. Facilities are experimental apparatus that enable research, often (but not always) used for more than one experiment, such as centrifuges, furnaces, gloveboxes, freezers, and more. The US Orbital Segment of the ISS has been home to 191 such facilities, belonging to four of the five ISS international partner agencies as well as private companies, in its 25 years of continuous operation. Until now, there has been no …

Longitudinal Pharmacokinetic And Safety Studies Of An Antibody-Erythropoietin Fusion Protein For Alzheimer's Disease, Rudy Chang, Devaraj Venkatapura Chandrashekar, G. Chuli Roules, Nataraj Jagadeesan, Emi Iwasaki, Adenike Oyegbesan, Hayk Davtyan, Rachita K. Sumbria

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Erythropoietin (EPO) shows promise for Alzheimer's disease (AD) but has poor brain penetration, necessitating high doses that cause hematopoietic side effects. To improve brain delivery, EPO was fused to a transferrin receptor monoclonal antibody (TfRMAb), and this study evaluated the pharmacokinetics (PK), safety, and efficacy of repeated TfRMAb-EPO dosing in mice to further its preclinical development. C57BL/6J male mice (10 weeks old, n = 4–5/dose) received subcutaneous (SQ) low (1 mg/kg), mid (3 and 6 mg/kg), or high (20 mg/kg) TfRMAb-EPO doses for 4 weeks. The 1 mg/kg dose showed no adverse effects and resulted in sustained brain and plasma …

Citronellol Reduces Sepsis-Induced Renal Inflammation Via Ap-1/Nf-Κb/Tnf-Α Pathway, Huda Rashid Atiyah, Sarmed H. Kathem, Surya M. Nauli

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Sepsis is characterized by the over-production of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) is a well-accepted model for recreating sepsis-induced renal injury in mice. The current study investigates how citronellol, a naturally occurring substance with a variety of biological characteristics, can prevent acute kidney inflammation brought on by CLP. In the CLP mouse model, citronellol was administered orally at doses of 50 and 100 mg/kg. Serum levels of creatinine and urea were used as markers of renal function, and the Murine Sepsis Score (MSS) was used to assess the severity of sepsis. According to our findings, CLP caused a …

Animal Welfare Body Terms Of Reference, Munster Technological University, Ireland

Policies & Procedures Documents

The University recognises the necessity to uphold animal health and welfare in its education and research activities. As part of this obligation, mindful of the legal regulatory requirements , the University has set up the Animal Welfare Body (AWB) to oversee and enforce the protection of animals and promote a culture of animal care among researchers and educators.

The AWB is given the powers by the Vice President Research & Innovation to fully uphold the principles of Scientific Animal Protection within the University, ensure compliance with the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA), and provide records of animal engagement for research …

Understanding Animal Introductions And Welfare In Zoos: A Scoping Review, Claudia C. Martinez, Valerie James-Aldridge, Todd J. Mcwhorter, Eduardo J. Fernandez

Psychological Science Faculty Publications

Managing captive zoo species often requires modifying their social groups, but these changes can increase stress and aggression. Specifically, introductions of new animals to existing exhibits with established animals is commonplace, yet little has been published to systematically evaluate this process. This review used the PRISMA framework to evaluate published research on introductions of unfamiliar individuals in zoos, aquariums, and sanctuaries. Peer-reviewed studies from PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus were screened and extracted using Covidence software. Studies were included if they provided quantitative data and before-and-after comparisons. Of 25 studies meeting criteria, most focused on primates, especially western lowland …

The Science Of Sound: Studying The Cognitive, Emotional, And Physiological Effects Of Frequency, Genre, And Music, Jett Yarborough

Senior Honors Theses

Music influences emotion, physiology, and cognition, yet little is known about how the frequency it is tuned to affects these influences. Prior research has shown that music tuned to 432 Hz can reduce stress, lower blood pressure, and improve sleep. My colleagues and I conducted two studies to investigate this. Our research found that music tuned to 432 Hz promotes a significant increase in memory retention and induces a state of focus and relaxation. These results suggest that shifting from the standard tuning frequency of 440 Hz to 432 Hz could have a profoundly positive impact on our daily lives. …

The Inherent Values Of Observation And Description: A Case Study In The Spiny Solanums Of Australia, Christopher T. Martine

Faculty Journal Articles

The basic exploratory effort of doing descriptive biology is an avenue by which we can deepen our knowledge about taxa and the natural phenomena that drive their diversification. As Conniff (2011) wrote in The species seekers, “we still live in the great age of discovery”, and much like that historically recognized period of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries there remains today a distinct need for the sort of work that might have been attributable to the naturalists of that time. The careful observation of how organisms go about their lives, including how they interact with one another …

Agent-Based Model Outputs Regarding Error Associated With Drone-Based Animal Surveys, Emma Schultz, Natasha Ellison-Neary, Landon R. Jones, Kristine O. Evans, Raymond B. Iglay

Research Data

Count results from different scenarios of an agent-based model simulating various drone flight patterns across a survey area with differing animal distributions (clumped, random, uniform). Each Excel worksheet contains count results from surveys with specific numbers of animals (n = 4, 9, 25, 49, 100) programmed within the agent-based model survey area.

Participatory Science Newsletter Vol. 4 2025_07_15, Mairi Poisson, Malin Clyde, Alyson L. Eberhardt

Participatory Science News

In this edition of the UNH Participatory Sciences Newsletter, we offer news and resources on Learning From Each Other. Articles include one student's reflection on attending the national conference for the Association for Advancing Participatory Sciences in Portland, Oregon in May, 2025. UNH PhD student Mairi Poisson was both a presenter and a booth exhibitor, and shares her reflection on the people and topics that excited her during the conference. Additionally, this edition describes the upcoming opportunity to study participatory science as a topic at the UNH graduate school, as well as a winter, 2026 offering for a professional development …

Cilia In The Brain Display Region-Dependent Oscillations Of Length And Orientation, Roudabeh Vakil Monfared, Sherif Abdelkarim, Pieter Derdeyn, Kiki Chen, Hanting Wu, Kenneth Leong, Tiffany Chang, Justine Lee, Sara Versales, Surya M. Nauli, Kevin Beier, Pierre Baldi, Amal Alachkar

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

In this study, we conducted high-throughput spatiotemporal analysis of primary cilia length and orientation across 22 mouse brain regions. We developed automated image analysis algorithms, which enabled us to examine over 10 million individual cilia, generating the largest spatiotemporal atlas of cilia. We found that cilia length and orientation display substantial variations across different brain regions and exhibit fluctuations over a 24-h period, with region-specific peaks during light-dark phases. Our analysis revealed unique orientation patterns of cilia, suggesting that cilia orientation within the brain is not random but follows specific patterns. Using BioCycle, we identified rhythmic fluctuations in cilia length …

Western Australia’S Agricultural R&D Ecosystem, Ross Kingwell

Farm Systems and Economics published reports

• Decades ago, the agricultural R&D ecosystem in Western Australia (WA) was fairly simple with few funders and some key providers of R&D services such as the Department of Agriculture, CSIRO and the University of Western Australia.
• Since then, the agricultural R&D ecosystem in WA has increased in complexity with more R&D providers and a greater injection of industry and private funding.
• These changes have occurred against a backdrop of the total investment in agricultural R&D declining as a share of agriculture’s gross value of production.
• State and federal governments have reduced their share of the total investment in agricultural R&D. …

Scientific Note: Garden Loosestrife (Lysimachia Vulgaris, Primulaceae), An Emerging Invasive Plant Species Of Riparian Corridors In The Mid-Atlantic Region, Christopher T. Martine, Amy L. Jewitt, Claire M. Ciafre, Kaitlin G. Henry, Elizabeth H. Williams, Pj Newhart, Melody P. Sain

Faculty Journal Articles

Lysimachia vulgaris (garden loosestrife, Primulaceae) is an herbaceous perennial native to Europe that has been identified as an aggressive invasive species in parts of North America. The status of the species in the Mid-Atlantic region of the US, however, is poorly determined. Using recent field observations (from iNaturalist, iMapInvasives, and EDDMapS records) we here report localized incursions of L. vulgaris in the Susquehanna River Valley of central Pennsylvania, along with notes on its ecology, threats to native plant communities, and broader distribution in the state.

Murine Tbk1 Regulates Mpp3-Type Hspcs And Circulating Leukocytes In Normal Hematopoiesis And Flt3+ Lscs In Mll-Af9-Driven Leukemia, Austin P. Runde, Joseph Cannova, Ryan Mack, Kanak Joshi, Mark Sellin, Rohit Thalla, Allan Youmaran, Mattias Lenz, Peter Breslin, Wei Wei, Jiwang Zhang

School of Medicine

BACKGROUND: Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is an aggressive hematologic cancer with a notoriously bleak prognosis; for non-M3 AML, the overall 5-year survival rate is ∼30%. While 60-70% of newly diagnosed AML patients will achieve complete remission (CR), half of these patients will experience relapse (secondary resistance) by three years from their diagnosis. Moreover, 30-40% of AML patients present with refractory disease (primary resistance) and cannot respond to frontline treatments. Leukemia stem cells (LSCs) are implicated in both primary and secondary resistance, and their eradication is necessary to maintain CR. LSCs have unique transcriptomes and immunophenotypes, thus can be identified relatively …

Arts-Based Sustainability: From New York To Malawi, Martha B. Lerski

Publications and Research

Recognizing that libraries serve multiple constituencies and subject areas, this chapter documents and advocates for development of transdisciplinary arts-based research (ABR) and culture-related projects linked to environmental challenges. Libraries contribute collections and spaces, as well as the research of library and information scientists. Libraries are currently among invisible contributors to sustainability planning and services. The chapter will link this invisibility to the value of what visual arts refer to as negative space elements in subjects ranging from traditional ecological knowledge to environmental science. Library collections, projects, and research contribute to education for sustainable development (ESD) as required to achieve the …

Participatory Science Newsletter 2025_05_20, Mairi Poisson, Malin Clyde, Alyson L. Eberhardt

Participatory Science News

In this edition of the UNH Participatory Sciences Newsletter, we offer news and resources on The Power of Participatory Sciences. These include a story about UNH graduate student Lauren White's work using participatory science data about horseshoe crab spawning in the Great Bay. Another story highlights UNH's Coastal Research Volunteers Beach Profiling Project and another outlines how many UNH researchers at UNH are working with local communities to find solutions to environmental problems. A final article shares information about the 2025 conference for the Association for Advancing Participatory Sciences and the poster presented by scholars and students from UNH.