I studied whether Chinook parr can tell the difference between full and half siblings based on their olfactory senses. 800 total parr were tested with four different female parents and the same male parent using a Y-maze device that allowed them to ‘choose’ the smell they preferred during the months of March and April 2014. The hypothesized results are that full siblings are recognized over half-siblings. If Chinook prefer their siblings over their non-siblings they are more likely to have a higher survival rate and lower predation rates because they will be less likely to be aggressive and cannibalistic, and more likely to school with these siblings

This research traces the origins of electron density fluctuations in the HIT-SI experiment. HIT-SI is a magnetic confinement experiment that uses two helicity injectors to initialize and sustain current in the confinement region. Densities of 1-10e19 m^-3 with density fluctuations related to the injector frequency are measured with an FIR interferometer. After spheromak formation, injector currents flow in the direction of toroidal current in the confinement volume. Peaks in the density fluctuations are seen when the injector current passes through the beam path of the interferometer. These observations are consistent with particle motion in the direction of injector current as expected by anti-dynamo action in this region. Furthermore, we have observed fluctuations that indicate that the injector current displaces the confined current. Calculating the toroidal current centroid from surface magnetic probe measurements as a function of time provides further testing of this model. Understanding density fluctuations allows a more complete description of the physics of current drive in HIT-SI.

Müller glia are the predominant glial cell types in the retina that play a critical role in development and neuronal support. In adult mammalian retinas Müller glia are mitotically quiescent. However in other organisms, such as zebrafish, the Müller glia re-enter the cell cycle, proliferate and differentiate into new neurons upon retinal damage to replace lost ones. The goal of this study was to promote Müller glial proliferation and regenerate neurons in the adult mammalian retina. p27 is a tumor suppressor and plays a role in controlling cell proliferation. To test if the loss of p27 promotes Müller glial proliferation in adult retinas, we have generated Müller glia-specific p27 knockout mouse. Using tamoxifen-inducible, CreER/lox system to control timing of p27 deletion in Müller glia our Western blot data shows that daily injections of tamoxifen for four days efficiently eliminated p27 expression in adult Müller glia. When p27 expression is lost, adult Müller glia appeared to proliferate. Our data suggest that p27 plays a role in keeping adult Müller glia from re-entering the cell cycle. The controlled re-differentiation of Müller glia and proliferation into new neurons could be used to cure diseases involving retinal damage or degeneration like macular degeneration.

As midwifery becomes widely accepted in Washington State, more Licensed Midwives (LMs), Certified Nurse Midwives (CNMs), doulas, and other birth workers are being sought after to provide healthcare and support to women and families during the childbearing year. From 1980 to 2008, LMs attended over 30,000 Washington State births and in 2010 they attended 2.7% of the total births in the state. Most of these births occur in an out-of-hospital (OOH) setting but do sometimes result in transfers to the hospital. In 2000, about 12% of OOH births nationally required transfer, with emergency transfers claiming 3.4% of the total. This is a low, yet substantial rate primarily due to complications that may arise necessitating additional resources and emergency services, including the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) system. LMs call upon EMS in cases including excessive blood loss, non-reassuring fetal heart tones and rare occurrences of cord prolapse. In these situations teamwork and collaboration is crucial to ensure the best continuous care during an emergency transfer. This study, conducted by midwifery Masters students at Bastyr University, aims to explore the interactions between LMs and EMS personnel to identify the state of their inter-professional relationship and understanding of one another's scope of care. By conducting a qualitative research study, investigators intend to increase communication and cross-profession collaboration and ultimately improve the healthcare of mothers and newborns. Eligible LMs and EMS personnel participated in a structured one-on-one interview with one of the two primary investigators of this study. These interviews are in the process of being coded for themes. A facilitated group interview with both LMs and EMS participants will be held to identify additional data that may not have been represented during initial interviews. All data will aid the research team in future development of cross-profession training/collaboration.

The increasing rates of drug-resistant bacterial infections is a concern to the healthcare system globally. Anti-adhesive therapy has emerged as a possible alternative therapy, focusing on preventing biofilm formation that is associated with increased drug resistance and disease. The study of anti-adhesive therapy is underway, but the basic transport mechanisms are still unclear. Adhesion depends on the bacterial concentration near the surface, as these bacteria are closest to any adhesive present. Flow chambers are commonly used to study bacterial adhesion and mechanics, but the relative concentration distribution within the chamber is often overlooked. Bacterial concentration without adhesion was found to depend on time – the concentration rises until reaching a peak level. After reaching an equilibrium level, the concentration deviates from the inflow concentration differently at separate locations along the chamber. Measured at three separate points, the peak concentration is highest towards the end of the flow chamber. Bacterial concentration remains space and time dependent without any adhesive protein in the chamber. With adhesion however, the concentration differs across the entire adhesive surface, and also dramatically over a small area near the inflow where adhesion first begins. Bacterial concentration of spotted and even surfaces will be affected by these settling and transport mechanisms - using different adhesives along the chamber increases this variability. Researching anti-adhesive therapy and dynamic adhesion requires the analysis of adhesion strength to different glycans, compounds on the outside of proteins, under different flow rates. The adhesion to each glycan can then be measured relatively and compared. Our data suggests that this data could be severely impacted by the placement of these glycans, in addition to the strength of their adhesion, a factor that has not been previously considered.

Most bacterial infections are initiated when binding to receptors on the tissue surface via bacterial adhesive proteins. After adhesion, they form biofilms and become more resistant to the immune system and antibiotics. A novel approach to preventing infection is the use of anti-adhesive agents that inhibits bacterial adhesion to host tissues and thus blocks the infectious process. Therefore, understanding bacterial adhesion and physiology under different conditions is essential for the development of anti-adhesive drug therapies. This project involves studying the effects of pulsatile flow on Escherichia coli adhesion and testing the hypothesis that flow pulsatility enhances bacterial adhesion because bacteria are adapted to in vivo pulsatile flows caused by intestinal peristalsis, swallowing saliva, or beating of the heart. I used a programmable syringe pump to produce a pulsatile laminar flow composed of a low shear (e.g. 0.1 Pascal) and high shear (e.g. 1 Pascal) in a parallel plate flow chamber. The frequency and amplitude of this pulsatile flow was in the physiological range. Through a microscope with a digital camera, I recorded the number of E. coli that bound to the bottom plate of the flow chamber coated with the model receptor mannan. The preliminary results demonstrated that E. coli accumulation after 5 minutes under pulsatile flow was not significantly different from that under steady low shear but accumulation was more stationary with pulsatile flow. However, the difference in accumulation became significant when comparing with the steady high shear. These data suggest that E. coli initiate adhesion at low shear and they firmly maintain binding at high shear. Future work will require the adhesion assays of wide range of bacteria under various pulsatile flow conditions. This research will help us understand the bacterial physiology and advance the development of anti-adhesive drug therapies.

Premature infants are at high risk for heat loss due to immature development. For these infants heat loss immediately following birth may be significant and transport from birthing area to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) further contributes to heat loss. The purpose of this study is to examine heat loss during transport from birthing area to the NICU. We accomplish this by gathering environmental temperature data as well information on types of transport and interventions used. This is a quantitative quality improvement study that is dealing with collection of observational and measured data. “Temperature collection data sheets” are filled out by nursing staff for NICU admissions that go through the Infant Stabilization Room (ISR). This sheet incorporates general background information about the infant (birth date, time, and gestation), the temperature of the infant in the ISR, the interventions used in the ISR and during transport and the temperature of the infant upon admission to the NICU. Environmental data are gathered using a QUESTemp 34 thermal monitor to record ambient and evaporative temperatures as well as relative humidity in the ISR and along the transport path to the NICU. These data are being analyzed using simple descriptive statistics to identify trends. This study will provide support for Evidence Based Practice that leads to recommendations for specific thermoregulation interventions and environmental set up of the NICU to better prevent and control hypothermia in premature infants.

 Antibodies play a key role in imaging, diagnostics and therapeutics. Antibodies are large molecules, often proteins, produced by our immune system that recognize and bind to specific targets. This project focuses on creating antibody-like recognition proteins that can be triggered to bind and release on command. We propose to create this activatable protein by mutating key regions on an existing protein that would act as a scaffold for the new switchable binding protein. FimH, found on the end of bacteria fimbria, is an ideal protein scaffold because it can be triggered to have an allosteric conformational change that affects binding affinity. To fully explore the different mutation possibilities, we propose to randomize 3 complementary determining region (CDR) loops that are crucial in binding to FimH’s original target. This “library” of proteins will then be expressed on bacteria, filtered to remove improperly folded proteins and screened against targets of interest in order to search for unique binders. The display library size is significant in our work because a larger library increases the probability that there could be more unique binders found while screening the library. We have created a display library of 1.07x10⁵ variants of CDR loop 2 randomized. I have focused on maintaining the diversity of the expressed library by optimizing the library transformation rates while randomizing CDR loops 1 and 3. Through this work, I have found an optimum ratio of cells to library DNA that will express a sufficient sample of the library at an affordable cost. We predict that this technology could improve the specificity of diagnostics and imaging by exacting control through triggering binding and unbinding of targets in these systems.

Trapped ion quantum computing uses trapped ions to represent information not only as 0s and 1s as in a classical computer, but also as a superposition of 0s and 1s. This provides many benefits over traditional computing, such as enhanced encryption and more efficient factorization of prime numbers. In our implementation, one of the first steps to trapping barium ions to use a qubits, the quantum equivalent of classical bits. We use a 791 nm laser to ionize barium-137, making further operations possible. In normal operations, the frequency of this laser can fluctuate unpredictably, making it unsuitable for ionization. To combat this problem, I designed and built an optical cavity to stabilize the laser. By arranging two mirrors so that the light interferes with itself, only a limited range of frequencies are allowed to pass through. First, a spacer with a low coefficient of thermal expansion keeps the mirrors at a fixed distance, while an analog circuit regulates the temperature of the spacer to insulate it from swings in ambient temperature. A second analog circuit then monitors the light coming out of the cavity and feeds back to the laser, allowing the user to lock onto a specific frequency. This locking system provides a low cost, yet effective method of stabilizing a laser  and will be easy to implement again, with other lasers. More generally, this shows how an ion trap can be improved with the relatively simple laser locking method used here.

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is a leading cause of mortality and permanent neurological disability. Microglial activation and inflammation contribute to the onset and progression of TBI-induced pathology. In this study we aimed to identify the factors that activate brain inflammatory pathways in the early responses to TBI, and the mechanisms by which inflammation is sustained during the late stages of pathology. We have previously demonstrated that the microglial expressed receptor, CX3CR1, regulates microglia activity. We have also shown that lack of CX3CR1 leads to deficits in cognitive function and synaptic plasticity. Here we hypothesized that the loss of the CX3CR1 receptor - and consequently, the loss of normal microglia function - would increase pathologic conditions in the brain after TBI and cause measurable defects in behavioral and cognitive abilities. To this end, three month old male CX3CR1 wild type and CX3CR1 knockout mice were subjected to a mild TBI (0.5mm depth) using a controlled cortical impact (CCI) animal model. Control mice (sham operations) received the same anesthesia and craniotomy, but were not subjected to CCI. All animals were humanely euthanized and transcardially perfused at fifteen and thirty days following TBI. I specifically participated in assisting TBI surgeries, behavioral testing, transcardial perfusions, brain sectioning, and immunohistochemistry. Our results indicate that lack of CX3CR1 at early time points protects neuromotor function, reduces cell death, and is associated with expression of microglia that have an anti-inflammatory phenotype. However, the long term effect of CX3CR1 receptor loss following TBI induces neuronal cell death, as well as neurobehavioral and cognitive deficits, which are associated with an increase in expression of microglia that have a proinflammatory phenotype. These results point to the presence of CX3CR1 in the early stages following a TBI as essential in slowing the progression of the neuropathology. In conclusion, CX3CR1, the fractalkine signaling receptor, plays a central role in regulating neuroinflammation after a TBI.