The purpose of this research is to generate immersive, natural-looking environments from geoengineering data that can be viewed on hardware-constrained virtual and mixed-reality platforms. Current mixed and virtual-reality technologies, such as the Microsoft HoloLens, are constrained by limited hardware resources. These constraints set limits on the realism and quality of immersion of virtual reality environments. Thus, no software previously existed to intelligently render immersive 3D terrain on hardware-constrained virtual and mixed reality devices. Through research in terrain generation and 3D rendering, the Viewpoint Generator application was created that can accurately and realistically render 3D environments. To render the terrain, 3D environments generated in Unity, a game rendering software, are pre-processed on a host machine. The 3D terrain is sliced into a grid containing individual slices. For each slice of terrain, a set of concentric panoramas and a skybox are generated. These static components require relatively little power to render. Performance was benchmarked through simulations in Unity and on-device with a Microsoft HoloLens, with a minimum frames-per-second (fps) requirement of 60 fps to prevent nausea induced by slow rendering. These components form the Viewpoint Generator application that can be deployed to hardware-constrained devices, which allows users to explore areas of a 3D environment not previously possible on hardware constrained devices. Applications for the Viewpoint Generator include uses in civil engineering and environmental restoration and visualization. Large-scale environmental projects too large to convey through static 3D renderings or by human imagination can now be explored in an accurate and realistic virtual environment. As the Viewpoint Generator is designed to operate on compact devices, it is easily deployed to remote environments. The Viewpoint Generator sets the foundation for development in procedural environment generation based on geoengineering data, allowing new visual insight into civil engineering and environmental restoration projects.

Our Entrepreneurial Capstone project addresses the challenge of detecting and tracking small drones in a dynamic, ever-changing airspace. Over the past decade, the availability and usage of drones has greatly increased. This has raised concerns that drones will eventually be used to infiltrate the airspace over large venues to cause harm. To detect drones, our team will leverage Echodyne’s state of the art Metamaterial Electronically Scanning Array (MESA-DAA) radar. The radar produces high resolution range-velocity maps, capable of distinguishing and tracking moving objects that are as far as three kilometers away. Our team’s primary goal is to develop a network of MESA-DAA radars that can reliably detect objects entering a designated airspace. Furthermore, our team hopes to provide an intuitive user interface able to map the path of objects within the airspace. Our team’s research will focus on four primary areas: (1) developing a graphical user interface to display the location of multiple objects in real time, (2) applying a Kalman filter to estimate the current and future trajectory of detected objects, (3) developing a network of multiple MESA-DAA radars to generate a 360-degree view around an airspace, and (4) optimizing the current constant false alarm rate drone detection algorithm. The project will use the C programming language to achieve high speed/low latency analysis of the data and the Java programming language to create the user interface. Our research has significant implications for providing the first relatively low cost method for detecting and monitoring the location of drones in a large, dynamic airspace.

The University of Washington CubeSat program needs a space environment simulator to test their satellite. This was done by simulating the magnetic field and light environments of low-earth orbit. We have accomplished this through the construction of a 3-axis Helmholtz cage and sun simulator. The cage is used as a testing rig for a small satellite's, DubSat-1, attitude determination and control systems. The cage is large enough to fit a 3U cubesat (30cmx10cmx10cm) inside and fully cancel Earth's magnetic field, in addition to generating an arbitrary magnetic field vector of the magnitude expected to be found in low-earth orbit. The sun simulator generates a sun vector over the entire sphere within 10 degrees of accuracy using a strip of LEDs. The LED strip is mounted on the cage and a motor is used to rotate the strip around the cage to change the angle of the light. The Helmholtz cage is controlled using feedback from a magnetometer placed inside the magnetic field of the cage. Based on the data from the magnetometer a control loop is used to control the current through the coils to adjust the magnetic field strength to its desired value.

Satellites require intelligent power distribution systems to manage the loads and sources onboard. The UW CubeSat team required a power distribution system to provide overcurrent protection, current monitoring, and current limiting ranging from 500 mA to 8 A for their satellite. Thus, we researched many different types of current limiting switches and current monitoring methods to find the most reasonable, power efficient, and effective way of designing a power distribution system that would be the best for the satellite. We examined many different solutions to this problem, including off-the-shelf chips, operational amplifier current limiting circuits, and metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) current limiting circuits. In the end, we found that a chip made by Texas Instruments was the best solution. We then researched and designed a printed circuit board that could be used to test the operation of the chip. After testing the chip, we found that it could limit current in the desired range as well as monitor the current and report it to a microcontroller. With this chip, the microcontroller is also able to turn electric subsystems on and off. This chip design could be used to construct the power distribution system for the cube satellite in years to come.

The NASA Glenn Research Center’s Advanced Noise Control Fan (ANCF) started its research in the early 1990s at the Aero-Acoustic Propulsion Laboratory (AAPL). The ANCF was used to support noise reduction in engine fan components. ANCF was developed to identify successful concepts for engine fan acoustic testing. These concepts were then implemented into high speed fan designs that were tested at the 9x15 WT, which incurs a significantly higher cost. In this way, the ANCF has substantially contributed to the advancement of the understanding of the physics of fan tonal noise generation. Due to the technological advancements of high speed fan designs over the last several decades, there became a critical need for a new Fan Test Rig that would enable successful completion of the NASA/Industry noise reduction program goals. To make room for this new capability, it was decided that the ANCF would be loaned to the Notre Dame University institution to support continued testing for interested companies and to provide educational opportunities. This presentation will discuss how a Systems Engineering method was used to document and detail the dismantling, shipping and reassembly of the components of the ANCF into its new location.

Polio is on the cusp of worldwide eradication but remains endemic in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Nigeria’s endemic status is being reconsidered because poliovirus was found in circulation after two years being polio-free. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative has implemented an environmental surveillance program to detect poliovirus (PV) in environmental samples such as sewage. Systematic environmental sampling provides supplemental data to disease-based clinical surveillance data. However, traditional PV detection methods from environmental samples, cell culture and quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR), are time consuming and expensive. Development of a screening test has potential to streamline environmental surveillance of PV. Reverse transcriptase recombinase polymerase amplification (RT-RPA) is an isothermal molecular amplification technique with potential as a screening test. In this technique virus particles are lysed to release RNA, which is converted to cDNA and amplified using recombinase enzymes. Amplified PV cDNA can then be detected through lateral flow detection. Collaborators at PATH have developed a RT-RPA protocol that has shown promise in rapid PV detection in stool samples. The aim of this research is to adapt PATH’s clinical PV RT-RPA protocol for use with environmental concentrates and to determine the limit of detection. Concentrates will be obtained by filtering raw sewage from a Seattle wastewater treatment plant. Results of the RT-RPA test and subsequent visualization on lateral flow detection strip will be compared to cell culture and RT-qPCR. We anticipate that RT-RPA will show a similar limit of detection when compared to traditional methods and will be suitable as a rapid screening test for environmental concentrates. Future work will include determining the specificity of RT-RPA. Rapid PV detection with RT-RPA may streamline environmental surveillance methods, improve outbreak detection, and provide data for certification of polio-free status and global eradication.

Serotonin is a key player in the regulation of anxiety, fear, and stress. While acute stress is associated with increased activity in serotonergic neurons, chronic stress is characterized by the transition to decreased serotonergic neuron activity, the desensitization of serotonin autoreceptors, and the development of maladaptive emotional behaviors. We hypothesize that chronic stress causes dysregulation of serotonergic neuron excitability, and that these adaptations affect emotional responses to future exposure to stressful and hedonic stimuli. The goal of this study is to determine if alterations to serotonergic neuron excitability can alter the effects of stress on subsequent emotional behavior. We predict that reducing or intensifying the excitability of serotoninergic neurons will decrease and increase maladaptive behavioral responses to chronic stress, respectively. We expose experimental groups of wild type and transgenic mice expressing either excitatory or inhibitory DREADDs (Designer Receptors Exclusively Activated by Designer Drugs) to chronic stress. The mice undergo 5 consecutive days of social defeat stress, during which they receive injections of saline or clozapine-N-oxide (the ligand for DREADDs). Following chronic exposure to stress, behavioral responses are measured through sucrose preference, social interaction, and immobility during forced swim tests. Mice expressing inhibitory DREADDs are anticipated to exhibit greater hedonic responses (increased sucrose preference), improved sociability, and decreased immobility during forced swim, compared to wild-type mice. Mice expressing excitatory DREADDS are anticipated to show decreased sucrose preference, decreased sociability, and increased mobility during forced swim. By altering the activity of serotonergic neurons, we can potentially modify the emotional and behavioral effects of stress. This study could provide new insight into the role of the serotonergic system in behavioral responses to chronic stress, and yield new therapeutic targets for conditions such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

In the past few years, cholera has caused many outbreaks of disease. Many studies have been done on its transmission pathways and its effect on non-pregnant patients. This literature review focused on the application of research to discover the preferred recommendations for pregnant women in an outbreak of cholera. This project explored research in academic journals and other professional publications with keywords such as “cholera and pregnancy” and “cholera transmission.” We explored existing transmission pathways of cholera, as well as current recommendations for these specific cases. Such recommendations would be to prevent maternal illness and death, as well as diminishing the risk of fetal demise. It was found that cholera is present in biofilms and endemic in certain regions. Its contamination can be prevented through sewage, chlorination of water, and proper food preparation. This review used the disciplinary lenses of microbiology, clinical medicine, epidemiology, and public health. The information concerning cholera in pregnancy is conflicting regarding fetal demise pertaining to first or third trimester outcomes. However, there is overwhelming evidence pointing to the recommendation to vaccinate in the circumstances of an epidemic. Literature suggests that women who are pregnant are not at a higher risk of getting infected with cholera, however given a change in immune response, the fetus is at a higher mortality risk due to the mother’s emesis and dehydration. This review will suggest implementation in regards to vaccination and treatment options.

Women are underrepresented in STEM (Sciences, Technology, Engineering and Math) fields in U.S. contexts. In this study, I investigate whether the prominence of the “follow your passion” ideology in choosing careers may be one factor that contributes to the gender discrepancy in STEM fields. Passion ideology is the idea that people choose their career mainly according to their idealistic personal interest. Previous research has shown that in terms of career preference, women tend to choose feminine stereotyped careers and are less interested in masculine stereotyped careers, and vice versa for men. STEM fields are masculine stereotyped. Therefore when U.S. society in general advocates for the priority of personal interest in career choice, we hypothesize that passion ideology mediates the relations between gender and interest in STEM fields, where women are less likely to develop interest in STEM. Considering passion ideology is less popular in Asian culture, in the current study, I primed Asian American women with either their American identity or Asian identity by using leading questions. Then I measured how interested participants are in engineering careers and art careers and how much participants agree that people should either follow their passions or be practical when choosing a career using a questionnaire. Following predictions are made: participants primed with American identity will be less interested in engineering careers than those primed with Asian identity, but not for art careers; participants primed with American identity will express stronger beliefs in the passion ideology than those primed with Asian identity; weaker interest in engineering careers when primed with their American identity will be mediated by stronger beliefs in the passion ideology. If these predictions stand, it suggests that, in U.S. context, these culture factors can partially explain the gender discrepancy in STEM fields.

In fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster), grooming is an innate behavior comprised of sequential movements of particular legs over specific regions of the body. However, we know little about the neural circuits that control the locations, durations, or behavioral transitions of grooming. We sought to identify neurons in the central nervous system that control these aspects. To investigate this, we used optogenetics, which involves expressing light sensitive ion channels in defined neurons, allowing us to activate them with red light. We then recorded videos of the flies as we stimulated them with red (625nm) light for various durations (0.5, 1, 5 seconds). Finally, we manually annotated the videos by assigning binary tags to specific behaviors and aggregated the results to see trends across flies. We were able to identify neurons in the brain that influenced head grooming, neurons in the ventral nerve cord that influenced hind leg grooming as well as additional neurons that influenced other behaviors. Identifying these neurons opens up new opportunities to dissect neural circuits controlling grooming behaviors and, in the future, to understand how these circuits interact to control sequential behaviors.

The lateral habenula (LHb) is a structure in the epithalamus that encodes aversive states and accumulating evidence indicates that the LHb exhibits hyperactivity during depressive-like states. Previously, we have shown that inhibition of the LHb using Gi-coupled designer receptors exclusively activated by designer drugs (DREADDS; hM4Di) can produce antidepressant effects. The LHb is known to project to several midbrain nuclei, including the ventral tegmental area (VTA), the rostral medial tegmental nucleus (RMTG) and the dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN). In this study, we seek to determine which lateral habenula output pathway may give rise to the previously observed antidepressant effect in rats. We are separately testing inhibition of the three output pathways of the LHb to the VTA, RMTG and DRN, using intersectional expression of a floxed hM4Di-DREADD in LHb neurons that project exclusively to these target regions. Using stereotaxic surgery, an AAV viral vector containing floxed-hM4Di is infused into the lateral habenula of a rat, while CAV2-CRE is injected into the respective target region. CAV2-CRE travels retrograde up the axons of neurons and produces the CRE-enzyme, allowing DREADD expression to be restricted to neurons that project from the LHb to each respective target region. After a recovery period, rats are either administered Clozapine-N-Oxide (CNO), which activates the DREADDS, or a control vehicle, and then undergo the modified forced swim test (FST), which is a validated behavioral measure of antidepressant effects in rats. High escape behavior in the FST indicates anti-depressant effects. After experimental testing, the rats are sacrificed and their brains examined histologically to confirm expression of the DREADDs within each pathway. By identifying which LHb pathways confer an antidepressant effect, this research could lead to future treatments of depression that act directly on those pathways.

The ion exchanger monosodium titanate (MST) has been proposed to therapeutically deliver calcium ions in dental situations that require calcium. However, previous results suggest that MST limits cell growth in vitro by mechanisms that remain obscure. It is critical to understand these mechanisms for any successful therapeutic use of MST. The current study tested the hypothesis that MST limits cell growth in vitro by binding to culture polystyrene, reducing attachments sites available to cells, thereby limiting cell culture growth. MST was added to culture wells (8 concentrations between 0 and 200 mg/L) either 24 h after addition of L929 fibroblasts/OSC2 osteoblasts or prior to cell addition. Cell cultures (n = 8/condition) were left in contact with the MST for 72 h, after which cell growth was assessed using Cell TiterBlue®. Control groups received no MST; statistical differences were detected using ANOVA with Tukey post-hoc tests (α = 0.05). When MST was added after plating of the cells, cell growth was inhibited in a dose-dependent fashion to a maximum of 40% (p < 0.05 compared to no-MST controls). Yet when MST was added prior to the cells, the maximal inhibition of growth was 80% vs. controls. (p < 0.05). The addition of MST before cells significantly decreased growth in the cultures (relative to conditions where cells were established first). Microscopic inspection of the culture wells revealed more attachment of the MST to the culture polystyrene than when cells were added first. These results and observations are consistent with our hypothesis that the MST attaches the polystyrene and reduces the ability of cells to attach and proliferate. Further testing with other cell types and additional cell densities is in progress.

Today, volatile gas anesthetics are commonly used in medicine for various procedures. While they are effective and safe for most adults, multiple or long exposures of anesthesia to young children and infants is thought to carry the risks of neurodevelopmental defects due to the well-established neurotoxic effects of anesthetics on the developing nervous system, referred to as anesthesia induced neurotoxicity (AIN). If the mechanisms of anesthesia and AIN can be studied and better understood, strategies to prevent defects associated with AIN can potentially be developed. At the Seattle Children’s Research Institute, I am assisting as an undergraduate researcher in a project to better understand AIN. My project specifically involves using C. elegans, a laboratory invertebrate species, to study the effects of anesthesia on neurotoxicity in specific developmental stages, including programmed cell death (apoptosis). The short life span and rapid reproductive cycle of these nematodes make them great models for this study because isoflurane exposure has been observed to induce AIN in these organisms. I am working to research the specific developmental stages of C. elegans that isoflurane affects the most. In lab, I am culturing worms to known stages of development, using green flourescent protein (GFP) reporter strains as markers to study apoptosis (specifically in the apoptoic proteins ced-3, ced-1, and ced-10), and exposing worms to isoflurane during these stages. Using PCR, western-blotting, and imaging techniques, I am analyzing the proteins, neurons, and developmental stage(s) impacted by AIN. This should provide new insight into the proteins and specific neurons that anesthesia induced neurotoxicity targets. By carefully analyzing the mechanisms of AIN, I hope to gain knowledge about how it can damage normal neuronal function in C. Elegans that can eventually be applied to humans.

Studies have shown that isoflurane, a common anesthetic agent, can negatively impact lifespan in Caenorhabditis elegans, and repeated or extended isoflurane exposure causes neurotoxicity and neurological defects in mammals, including mice and human. In an effort to counteract the effects of anesthesia, rapamycin, one of the most popularly studied drug in ageing, may provide a good candidate. Its inhibition of the mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) has proven to modulate pathways in ageing and mitochondrial diseases, and recent data from the Morgan and Sedensky laboratory at Seattle Children’s Research Institute suggests it may prevent the detrimental effects of isoflurane on neuronal function. We are studying the impact of isoflurane treatment and rapamycin using C. elegans, a multicellular eukaryote that has proven to be an exceptional research model in the study of lifespan and health during aging. C. elegans has been used to study pathways involved in aging for decades, and the first genes regulating lifespan in mammals were discovered in these microscopic worms. C. elegans can be grown on solid media plates and their lifespan measured through synchronized growth and plate counts. We treated wild-type and various GFP reporter worm strains with isoflurane and/or rapamycin and assessed their effects on lifespan using various techniques to measure age-related changes, including fluorescence microscopy for the accumulation of autofluorescent pigment lipofuscin, western blotting, and lifespan curves. We anticipate that these experiments will open the door toward further studies on the effects of anesthesia on aging.

Aneuploidy is an irregular number of chromosomes caused by errors in cell division. Down syndrome is a common disease resulting from aneuploidy, where there are three copies of chromosome 21. I am in interested in why these errors occur and the mechanism that corrects them. Prior to anaphase, an attachment of microtubule fibers to chromosomes must occur to allow chromosomes to segregate properly. The attachments form by trial-and-error. Microtubule fibers will continue to attach and detach to chromosomes until stability is achieved. In the 1960s, Dr. Bruce Nicklas manipulated individual chromosomes using a microneedle to physically misalign chromosomes and pull on chromosome attachments to create artificial tension. The Asbury Lab is interested in recreating his experiments using tools that were not available at the time, such as small molecule inhibitors, to determine whether certain molecules such as Aurora B kinase are necessary for chromosomes to correct themselves. I use drugs such as ZM, an Aurora B kinase inhibitor, and Taxol, a microtubule polymerizer and common chemotherapy agent. I treat live cricket cells with drugs such as these, and record the treatment’s effect on meiosis. One common phenotype we are expecting is a delayed transition from metaphase to anaphase due to inhibition of a protein required to allow the cell to continue into anaphase. Once my research determines whether the drugs delay cell division and the effective concentrations, the lab can test the importance of the drug’s molecular targets in the error correction mechanism. Further research into the mechanisms of chromosome segregation has implications for understanding what causes aneuploidy, the mechanistic and biophysical mysteries of cell division, and the rising of cancerous cells.