Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons™

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Western Washington University

Conference

2017

Articles 1 - 14 of 14

Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Recreating Intercalated Clays Of Chondritic Meteorites, Katherine Winchell May 2017

Recreating Intercalated Clays Of Chondritic Meteorites, Katherine Winchell

Scholars Week

In order to better understand the reactions that form intercalated clays in carbonaceous chondritic (CC) meteorites, a suite of six combinations of nontronite plus fine-grained metal, organics, or sulfur ± water were heated at a temperature of 200°C in sealed Parr bomb containers for a period of three months. Intercalation is the process of materials being introduced between the layers of expandable clays via cation exchange. Reflectance spectra of CC meteorites differ from those of mixtures of the end members made physically in that the CC spectra are darker and show extremely subdued absorption bands of the phyllosilicates (clays) that …

Go to article

Structural Studies To Understand The Effects Of N108k T-State Stabilizing Mutation In Circularly Permuted Hemoglobin, Leah Huey May 2017

Structural Studies To Understand The Effects Of N108k T-State Stabilizing Mutation In Circularly Permuted Hemoglobin, Leah Huey

Scholars Week

The primary goal of our project is to develop a functional hemoglobin based oxygen carrier (HBOC) for clinical care. In order to accomplish this, we are working on designing a single chain hemoglobin (scHb) that can serve as the building block of a monodisperse polymeric HBOC. The scHb is formed from novel covalent fusions between the two α chains and two circularly permuted β chains. The initial constructs of non-covalently linked α and cp-β showed decreased stability and low T-state affinity (Asmundson, et. al., 2009). To counter these effects, two point mutations have been included to increase T-state affinity (Tsai …

Go to article

Broadening The Scope Of Sortase-Mediated Ligations Using Natural Sortase Homologs, Nicholas Horvath May 2017

Broadening The Scope Of Sortase-Mediated Ligations Using Natural Sortase Homologs, Nicholas Horvath

Scholars Week

Sortase-mediated ligations have become an attractive option for protein modification chemistry, enabling the synthesis of a wide range of non-natural polypeptide derivatives. In an effort to expand the scope of this methodology, we have been characterizing the in vitro reactivity of a panel of natural sortase homologs. Here we present our studies on the substrate and nucleophile tolerance of sortases from a range of bacterial species. Notable findings include that sortase A from Streptococcus pneumoniae (SrtApneu) shows a high degree of substrate promiscuity, allowing this enzyme to process a range of substrate variations that deviate from the LPXTG substrate motif …

Go to article

Effects Of Arabidopsis Thaliana Villin-4 Mutations On Root Hair Physiology, Morphology And Function, Maya Klem, Emily Bossard May 2017

Effects Of Arabidopsis Thaliana Villin-4 Mutations On Root Hair Physiology, Morphology And Function, Maya Klem, Emily Bossard

Scholars Week

The protein Villin is found in both plants and animals across many taxa. In plants, one of the roles of Villin is to aid in root hair formation and function. They do this by assisting in the formation of actin bundles in root hairs in addition to other processes. It has been found that Arabidopsis thaliana with mutated Villin-4 have compromised actin bundles and in certain cases shorter or dysfunctional root hairs. This study examines the effects that the mutation in Villin-4 proteins has on various parts of plant root physiology. By examining the changes in responses of Arabidopsis thaliana …

Go to article

Analysis Of Concentric Growth Rings In Hydrothermal Epidote, Brandi Petryk May 2017

Analysis Of Concentric Growth Rings In Hydrothermal Epidote, Brandi Petryk

Scholars Week

Crystals found within geothermal cores from Akutan Island, Alaska, show concentric growth rings of what appear to be alternating bands of epidote and clinozoisite minerals. The intent of this project is to determine the nature of these growth rings and what processes could allow them to form. Our working hypothesis is that the rings are due to fluctuations in the oxidation states of the hydrothermal system, which would control the amount of available Fe3+ needed to make epidote. In relatively reducing conditions, Fe3+ would be scarce and clinozoisite (Fe-poor variety of epidote) would form. We have tested this hypothesis by …

Go to article

Lipid Binding Studies Of Blood Coagulation Factor Viii C1 And C2 Domains, Rachel Blazevic May 2017

Lipid Binding Studies Of Blood Coagulation Factor Viii C1 And C2 Domains, Rachel Blazevic

Scholars Week

Blood coagulation factor VIII is an essential cofactor in the mammalian blood-clotting cascade. FVIII must bind the phospholipid membrane of activated platelets to function as a cofactor for FIXa. The blood coagulation cascade culminates in the formation of a stable blood clot. In humans, the C1 and C2 domains are implicated in binding phospholipid membranes, however the relative contribution of different residues in the lipid-binding mechanism is unclear. Using site-directed mutagenesis, expression of the isolated C1 and C2 domains in Escherichia coli cells, protein purification with metal affinity chromatography, electrospray ionization mass spectrometry, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays, liposome sedimentation assays, pull …

Go to article

A Computational Approach To Studying The Properties Of Photosensitizers In Photodynamic Therapy, Keenan Komoto May 2017

A Computational Approach To Studying The Properties Of Photosensitizers In Photodynamic Therapy, Keenan Komoto

Graduate Student Symposium

Cancer has long been a significant problem that has affected our world’s population for years and continues to this day. With the number of cases expected to increase annually there is a societal pressure to find effective treatment methods for eliminating cancer. Current forms of cancer treatment tend to cause detrimental effects to the human body and are usually quite expensive and long lasting, some costing upwards of $30,000 over an 8 week period. A more recently established form of cancer treatment known as photodynamic therapy is an effective treatment option for ridding cancers that lie on or just below …

Go to article

Substrate Analogs For Characterizing The Substrate Tolerance Of S. Pneumoniae Srta, Orion Banks May 2017

Substrate Analogs For Characterizing The Substrate Tolerance Of S. Pneumoniae Srta, Orion Banks

Graduate Student Symposium

Bacterial sortases have been widely studied for their usefulness in protein modification, however, the variable substrate specificity and activity between homologs of these enzymes is not yet fully characterized. To attempt to further understand sorting signal recognition, we are working towards a substrate bound structure of sortase A from Streptococcus pneumoniae (SrtApneu). This enzyme displays a wide tolerance for alternate amino acids within the canonical LPXTG sorting motif. Our strategy involves a non-cleavable substrate analog that can be docked into the active site, allowing for elucidation of a structure displaying the key contacts that allow the enzyme …

Go to article

Red Beetl: Recipe Encoder Decoder Beer Translator Lstm, Grace Ermi, Ellyn Ayton May 2017

Red Beetl: Recipe Encoder Decoder Beer Translator Lstm, Grace Ermi, Ellyn Ayton

Graduate Student Symposium

The number of craft breweries has exploded in last decade: there are around a dozen breweries in Bellingham alone. Each brewery must assemble a lineup of beers, but this process of designing new beers usually relies on some combination of brewer instinct and trial and error. Because brewing beer involves complicated biological and chemical processes, the mapping from recipe to the beer it will produce is non-trivial to predict. In this project, we consider mapping between representations of beer in three distinct domains. In one view, a beer can be described by a recipe, which specifies the particular hop, malt …

Go to article

Performance Of Liquid Benzoxazine-Peg Blend Resin Systems For Potential Industrial Composites Processing, Emily Brown May 2017

Performance Of Liquid Benzoxazine-Peg Blend Resin Systems For Potential Industrial Composites Processing, Emily Brown

Graduate Student Symposium

The manufacturing of technology and materials based on benzoxazine resin is limited by melt or solvent-based processing in which benzoxazine monomer is either dissolved in a solvent or melted to transfer onto fiberglass or carbon fiber. Solvent based processing depends on the use of organic solvents which impart health and financial risks. Benzoxazine monomer also suffers from high curing temperatures where the benzoxazine polymerizes to form structures with desirable mechanical and thermal properties. Non-flammable liquid benzoxazine resin with low curing temperatures are attractive for their exclusion of organic solvents and ease of processing. In this study three series of blends …

Go to article

Recognition, Internalization, Growth: Intuitive Design For Archival Representation, Jaime L. Ganzel May 2017

Recognition, Internalization, Growth: Intuitive Design For Archival Representation, Jaime L. Ganzel

Graduate Student Symposium

Although there is a pressing need for archival description and access systems to be more intuitive and user-friendly, the uniqueness of archival records presents significant barriers to establishing simplistic and standardized conventions for the representation of archival materials. Indecipherable finding aids and access tools prevent new and inexperienced researchers from accessing the unique information and documentation held in archives. This article aims to help open the archival record to new and non-traditional archival users, support individual development of archival literacy skills, and cultivate a greater level of archival awareness in our society by developing a usable model for archivists to …

Go to article

Changes In Cormorant Populations In The Strait Of Georgia, British Columbia, 1955-2015, Harry R. Carter, Trudy A. Chatwin, Mark C. Drever Jan 2017

Changes In Cormorant Populations In The Strait Of Georgia, British Columbia, 1955-2015, Harry R. Carter, Trudy A. Chatwin, Mark C. Drever

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

Between 1987 and 2000, nesting populations of Pelagic Cormorant (Phalacrocorax pelagicus; PECO) and Double-crested Cormorant (P. auritus; DCCO) declined in the Strait of Georgia, BC. This northern section of the Salish Sea is a rapidly urbanizing area, and piscivorous birds are important indicators of ecosystem health. To update population status, we conducted a complete survey of 35 PECO and 23 DCCO colonies in July 2014 and opportunistic surveys of some colonies between 2001 through 2015. The PECO population decreased from ~2100-2400 nests in 1959-1987 to ~1100 nests by about 2000, and then rose slightly …

Go to article

Advances In Salish Sea Acoustic Telemetry: 2015 Array Deployments And Promising Transmitter Performance, Erin L. Rechisky, David W. Welch, Aswea D. Porter, Paul Winchell Jan 2017

Advances In Salish Sea Acoustic Telemetry: 2015 Array Deployments And Promising Transmitter Performance, Erin L. Rechisky, David W. Welch, Aswea D. Porter, Paul Winchell

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

The first fish tracking arrays were deployed in the Salish Sea over a decade ago. These arrays have yielded a rich data set which have provided the first direct estimates of early marine-survival and migratory behavior for acoustic-tagged juvenile sockeye, Chinook, Coho and steelhead >130 mm in fork length (FL). In spring of 2015, as part of the Salish Sea Marine Survival Project, the Pacific Salmon Foundation, the Ocean Tracking Network and Kintama Research deployed additional arrays in the Discovery Islands and Johnstone Strait (north of the Strait of Georgia) to provide higher resolution survival data. These new arrays use …

Go to article

Stronger Together: The Cross-Cultural Coalition To Stop Fossil Fuel Exports In The Salish Sea, Margaret Allen Jan 2017

Stronger Together: The Cross-Cultural Coalition To Stop Fossil Fuel Exports In The Salish Sea, Margaret Allen

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

A commonly observed paradox in conservation is that restriction of people’s access to nature and natural resources may protect ecosystem health, but sometimes decreases the wellbeing of local people and can invite conflict and reduce people’s willingness to protect resources. At a middle ground between complete protection and unrestricted commercial use is ecosystem-based management (EBM), which strives to maximize the overall wellbeing of both people and ecosystems. An important domain of human wellbeing to track for the purposes of EBM is resource access, or the ability to gain and maintain uses and benefits of the natural environment. Access does not …

Go to article