The ability to regulate emotion does not develop completely until young adulthood, meaning teenagers are at risk for disorders associated with difficulties in regulating emotions. Identifying one’s emotions is essential for taking active steps towards regulating them; thus emotion differentiation is an essential skill that facilitates psychological well being. Although there have been multiple questionnaires developed to assess emotion differentiation, there are limitations of self-report. Behavioral tasks provide an opportunity to observe an individual’s ability to identify emotions. The Photo Emotion Differentiation (PED) task is a computer task designed to assess emotional differentiation, validated predominantly in adult populations. Participants are shown 20 standardized emotional images and are asked to report the intensity with which they experience each of the 19 listed emotions. The limitation to this method is that it has only been used once in child populations. We aim to validate the PED for use in adolescents by comparing it to a self-report questionnaire [the Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale for Children (LEAS-C)] that assesses emotion differentiation. The instructions for the LEAS-C ask youth to respond to 12 scenarios by indicating how they might feel and how the other person in the scenario might feel. A validated scoring system is used applying specific criteria to the emotion words used in the response. This is an ongoing study and we have currently recruited 14 participants from ages 13 to 16 who will come for a lab visit and complete both the PED and the LEAS-C. A positive correlation between the scores from the PED and LEAS-C will show that the PED is measuring the construct of emotion differentiation and can be used to obtain valid assessment in youth in subsequent studies. With this information, the PED can be used to examine the relationship between pain and emotion differentiation in adolescents.

Using a climate model, we changed the Earth’s rotation direction from counter-clockwise to clockwise, keeping the period of 24 hours the same. The purpose of this experiment was to better understand how various climate variables are affected by Earth’s rotation. The results give insight into patterns of today’s climate, and help to frame discussion of future climate changes. The model used was GFDL CM2c, a course climate model that utilizes coupled ocean-atmosphere physics. The model was run for a 100-year control simulation, followed by a 700-year reverse rotation simulation. Model output revealed drastic changes in many of Earth’s climate variables. The main effect was that atmospheric flow pattern switched directions, with westerlies becoming easterlies, and vice versa. Because of this, ocean currents switched to opposite sides of ocean basins and there was a new distribution of sea surface temperature. As a result of these changes, global precipitation and temperature patterns were greatly affected. Some dry areas, such as the Sahara Desert, were now wetter, and some wet areas, such as the southeastern U.S., were now deserts. Albedo and ice coverage increased in the Northern hemisphere, possibly due to the ocean circulation changes. Unexpectedly, the thermohaline circulation weakened significantly in the Atlantic Ocean while a similar circulation developed and strengthened in the Pacific Ocean. These results are fascinating and important for testing current knowledge of the climate system.

Digital media and mobile applications used for leisure have become increasingly interwoven into people’s daily lives. Although playful mobile applications and their effects on society have been studied from a psychological, business, and computer science perspective, they have not been heavily engaged in the field of geography. Using Pokémon GO as a case study, this work aims to explore the ties between the corporate history and digital data of Niantic (the company that made Pokémon GO) and the effect it imposes on the “real world”. It aims to conduct a spatial analysis of pokéstops and pokégyms in King County, Washington. In order to do this, a discourse analysis of online documents from Niantic, newspapers, social media, and fan websites recounting the company's history with previous applications and press interviews was conducted. In addition, a hotspot spatial analysis of Pokémon GO (pokéstops and pokégyms) overlaid on American Community Survey data was created. The purpose of this analysis is to see potential spatial inequalities that the application may have created. The findings show Niantic’s lack of ethical consideration by how it deals with users data and privacy and as a result shows how the users have responded to issues in the past. The results also illustrate the skewing of data toward urban tech centers and the relative sparsity in rural areas, rendering use of the app pointless for certain users. Pokémon GO is the first location-based augmented reality mobile application to garner worldwide attention, and many application developers will likely use it as a point of reference when creating their own applications. It is imperative that developers and researchers learn from this application’s successes as well as its failures.

Ethnic and religious violence on the border of western Myanmar’s Rakhine State and Bangladesh displaced approximately 647,000 Rohingya (residents), a stateless Muslim minority in Myanmar since August 25, 2017. The fact that this crisis has not been fully addressed by the Burmese majority is very alarming especially under the administration of Aung San Suu Kyi, the prominent political figure of Myanmar. Hence, the initial purpose of my research was to examine the factors contributing to this humanitarian crisis by conducting interviews, oral histories, and online surveys among resettled Rohingya women in the Greater Seattle area. I employed a transformative feminist theoretical framework to understand the relationships between political subjectivity and gender violence and colonialism, military dictatorship, and patriarchy. However, while recruiting participants for my project, I encountered silence and reticence rather than enthusiasm from the Rohingya community. This wall of silence and the absence of Rohingya community even among the small Burmese populations in Greater Seattle Area has been a significant turning point in my research. Perhaps this silence itself indicates Rohingya fears that even the researcher-researched relationship could expose them to further racism and discrimination from Burmese here in Seattle on top of their sufferings from political trauma and sexual violence in Myanmar. Therefore, I am currently implementing an auto-ethnographic approach to excavate the role my own and other majority Burmese immigrants' perceptions of and ways of representing the Rohingya, and how this has contributed to the current distrust, silence and fear between women in two communities who have both experienced sexualized military violence. By doing so, I hope my research will begin a process of facing Burmese internalized racism, sexism, and religious discrimination towards the Rohingya community and serve as the stepping stone towards inclusive community-building with cultural humility here and in Myanmar.

Some spionid polychaetes can burrow into the shells of bivalves, creating unsightly mud blisters. Because they are unappealing to consumer and can burst, fouling oyster flesh, these blisters are an economic burden on affected oyster half-shell industries. Historical invasions by the spionid Polydora websteri have resulted in the collapse of aquaculture operations in Australia, New Zealand, and Hawaii, USA. Recent sightings of mud blisters on Pacific oysters (Crassostrea gigas) in Puget Sound, Washington, USA suggest that the area might be experiencing a spionid polychaete invasion. To determine whether P. websteri is the polychaete creating the mud blisters recently observed in Puget Sound, we obtained 170 Pacific oysters from six locations and examined for blisters and burrows. Polychaetes were extracted from the shells and vouchered for molecular analyses. We used mitochondrial (cytochrome c oxidase I [COI] and cytochrome b) and nuclear (18S rRNA) genes for species-level identification. Positive identification of P. websteri found in the mud blisters of Puget Sound Pacific oysters will be the first confirmed sighting in Washington, USA. This study is the foundation for advising the Washington shellfish industry on strategies for mitigating the economic impacts of this invasive polychaete.

Breast Cancer type 1 gene (BRCA1) was first linked to a high risk for breast and ovarian cancer over two decades ago, yet much remains elusive about its functional mechanism and how inheritance of a variant of the ubiquitously-expressed gene can lead to markedly increased risk for tissue-specific cancers. A gene found in the nematode C. elegans was demonstrated to be homologous to human BRCA1 including at the protein product level. Its protein product was shown to have the same type of enzymatic activity as the human protein product of BRCA1, and to be involved in the same DNA repair pathway. Using purified protein products and both structural analysis via Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and in vitro biochemical enzyme activity assays, I have shown that the C. elegans and human BRCA1 share some structural similarities and that the enzymatic activity is conserved. These results suggest that C. elegans could be developed into a model system that would allow for experimentation to directly move between in vitro biochemical studies and in vivo genomic/genetic studies. My current work has focused on furthering the development of the C. elegans model system by using it to identify other protein-protein interactions, including the identification of new protein targets. Additionally, my work explores the effect that cancer associated variants have on the enzymatic activity of the C. elegans BRCA1. The development of C. elegans as a model system could lead to new insights into conserved functions of BRCA1 and a fuller understanding of its biological and developmental importance.

The development of tubes is a conserved process observed in a wide variety of species; tubes contribute to structures such as neural tubes, digestive systems, and vascular systems. For a tube to form correctly, individual cells within a sheet of cells (epithelium) must move and change shape in very specific ways. My goal is to understand what controls this movement. Polarity proteins help to establish the directional identity of cells and tissues. This identity is important to ensure that cells coordinate their behaviors. I hypothesize that the proteins that help establish polarity also play key roles in the development of tubes, including in proper closing of the tubes and correct directional elongation. To study the involvement of polarity proteins during tube formation, I am using the dorsal appendages (DAs) on Drosophila melanogaster egg shells. Because the appendages form as a direct readout of morphology, I can see how tissues developed earlier on. These appendages, which provide the developing laid egg with oxygen, are formed from an epithelium that wraps and elongates into a tube, then fills with eggshell protein; the initial epithelium sloughs off, leaving the appendages as a visualization of the earlier tube formation. To test my hypothesis, I am using RNA interference (RNAi) to knock down the expression impact of various proteins and evaluate the impact on DA formation. The RNAi system induces transcript loss, eventually revealing the impact of protein loss. I am using RNAi in epithelial follicle cells to test 20 candidate polarity genes. This analysis will help me identify a few genes to then characterize further. These results will inform future studies and add to the knowledge of the role of polarity proteins in the patterning and subsequent growth of epithelial tubes across many species.

Parasite burden can vary over time due to a variety of factors, including environmental change, competition, and niche differentiation. Clavinema mariae is a parasitic “blood worm” nematode that affects several species of commercially important fishes in Puget Sound, living below their skin and feeding on their blood. C. mariae burden increased dramatically in English sole, Parophrys vetulus, from 1930 to 2016, but it is unclear whether this same pattern affected other host species, including the southern rock sole, Lepidopsetta bilineata. I used rock sole specimens from the Burke Museum’s Ichthyology Collection to determine whether the burden of C. mariae changed over time in this host species. I examined preserved specimens that were collected from various locations in Puget Sound in the period of 1930 to 2016, taking note of the abundance of C. mariae in each individual. Creating a timeline of the parasite’s abundance helps us to narrow in on the various factors, such as fishing pressure, climate change, and nutrient pollution, that may influence C. mariae abundance. Parasite burden can negatively impact commercial fisheries and the overall health of the environment, making this study important for both economic and conservation purposes.

Flatfishes of Puget Sound commonly host Clavinema mariae nematode “blood worms”, which reside in the subcutaneous tissue of the host, rendering them unmarketable. Recently, we observed C. mariae in blackbelly eelpout, Lycodes pacificus, which has never before been reported to carry this parasite. Because blackbelly eelpouts have no economic importance, there may have been little incentive for reporting this infection in the past; whether our recent observations of eelpout infection represent a new development or a long-standing host–parasite relationship is therefore unclear. To estimate C. mariae burden in eelpouts from Puget Sound, I am counting subcutaneous parasites in preserved specimens collected between 1911 and 2014, from the University of Washington Ichthyology Collection. If C. mariae appear only in eelpout collected recently, this may indicate a host switch from flatfishes to eelpouts. In the future, DNA sequence analysis will be conducted to determine if C. mariae from flatfishes and eelpouts are indeed the same species. Our work will reveal whether the recent appearance of C. mariae in eelpout is due to host-switching, parasite spillover, or improved observation and reporting.

Antiretroviral therapy (ART) is the standard of care for treating human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and suppresses virus levels but cannot eliminate latent HIV reservoirs. Latently infected cells are a barrier to HIV cure. “Shock and kill” is a strategy that uses latency-reversing agents (LRAs) to reactivate latently infected cells under suppressive ART, making the cells vulnerable for removal by host immune responses or other strategies. However, “shock and kill” fails in clinical studies due to the low potency and high toxicity of LRAs. Here we have developed a lipid-polymer nanoparticle platform that addresses “shock and kill” limitations by incorporating multiple LRAs to increase potency and to reduce toxicity by targeting HIV reservoirs in lymphatic tissues. We have shown that ~200nm nanoparticles sustain LRA release and induce latency reversal in a human T-cell line in vitro. To target lymph nodes, we have synthesized nanoparticles smaller than 100nm in diameter, which literature shows enhances lymph node targeting following subcutaneous injection. By adjusting the polymer and lipid concentrations as well as the organic to aqueous solvent ratio during formulation, we obtained an ultrasmall particle of ~100nm. Ex vivo organ imaging from mice subcutaneously administered these ultrasmall particles shows successful targeting to draining lymph nodes as well as other HIV reservoir locations, including the spleen and the gut-associated lymphatic tissue. The ultrasmall nanoparticles also show similar drug release and latency reversal properties as our previous formulations. The nanoparticle platform demonstrated here is able to target latent HIV reservoirs in multiple areas of the body, which is crucial for eliminating latent HIV reservoirs and achieving a cure.

Osteocalcin is a protein implicated in bone growth and bone reconstruction in several vertebrates, including humans. In this project, we analyzed the decarboxylated form of osteocalcin’s first alpha helix (hOC-a1) using circular dichroism and isotherms. Circular dichroism spectroscopy uses polarized light to determine whether the peptide fragment forms alpha helices or beta sheets. Using adsorption isotherm experiments will determine the protein’s ability to bind onto hydroxyapatite, silica, and titania mineral surfaces. Osteocalcin is known to change conformation and form a helical structure in the presence of calcium ions and adsorb onto HAP. Previous studies attributed these characteristics to the gamma-carboxyglutamic acid (Gla) residues at positions 17, 21, and 24, which lie within its first of three alpha helices. However, a mutant form of osteocalcin which has its Gla residues reduced to glutamic acid has also been shown to adsorb onto HAP. It is unknown why the protein containing glutamic acid in place of Gla can adsorb onto the mineral surface. Using circular dichroism, the experiment showed that the decarboxylated hOC-a1 peptide fragment was a random coil and unable to form a helical structure with or without the presence of calcium ions. Isotherms determined the peptide fragment’s ability to non-cooperatively bind onto HAP, as well as silica and titania. This project determined that the decarboxylated peptide fragment could adsorb onto the mineral surfaces as a random coil, suggesting there are alternative mechanisms of adsorption in comparison to the native protein. The Drobny Group intends to continue studies of the peptide fragment by labeling residues and performing experiments using solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (ssNMR).

Geographers generally define sense of place as the meaning an individual ascribes to a particular location. Collectively, sense of place creates the identity and character of a region and is represented through culinary, literary, visual, and many other forms of art unique to the local culture. Technological advancements in communication have changed sense of place by affecting how these cultural differences are maintained, but also offer new ways of capturing and sharing sense of place. What elements and by which means individuals choose to capture personal representations of an environment shape the way communities as a whole perceive, ascribe meaning to, and amass their own descriptions and representations of that place. My project explores this iterative relationship between visual representation and written description of place. I have selected a collection of crowd-sourced pictures of the local landscape using an app that pulls up publicly posted Instagram images that have been geotagged near the location of the user. I consider these pictures to be modern forms of landscape folk art and conducted visual content analysis to code the images with descriptive terms. I have also created an in-person, crowd-sourced cartography installation consisting of three simplified maps of Seattle that was placed in a gallery where patrons were asked to write, directly on the maps, descriptions of their own sense of place associated with the locations. I then compared the language from the installation to that from the analysis of the Instagram images. Strong similarities between the two suggest the possibility of using crowd-sourced visual representations of place from social media to offer a greater understanding of how natural and built environments evolve and what they mean to the people who inhabit them.

There is a health crisis of unusually high rates of suicidal ideation, alcohol abuse, and other problems of identity and, in turn, mental health among Filipinx Americans today. These indicators of individual and community suffering can be attributed to historical trauma—a concept initially used among Indigenous scholars to describe the psychological trauma and other embodied impacts of centuries of colonization and oppression—which in the Philippines, has meant colonization by several nations and the ongoing imperialism and military presence of the United States. Outside of traditional healthcare, music culture has provided Filipinx Americans a safe space for healing, resistance, and resilience through creative expression and identity development. In the face of US imperialist policies, racism, and other oppressions, Filipinx Americans have had significant contributions to music culture and radical political movements that largely go underrepresented in US history and contemporary studies, including Seattle’s rich narratives of social justice and art. As a self-identified Filipinx American queer femme, DJ, artist, and social justice advocate, I conducted oral life histories and collaborative art projects among Filipinx musicians, artists, activists, and community organizers. Preliminary findings suggest several themes, including (1) relations between Filipinx American music culture, identity development, and health; (2) sociocultural anthropology research’s potential to support radical political movements for Philippine independence and collective liberation; and, (3) the role collectivism can play in building power among Seattle’s Filipinxs and people of color and their art scenes, so that we may compensate and duly recognize the city’s marginalized communities. This work advocates for anti-imperialist action among Filipinx artists and activists through a framework of personal healing, community relationships, and collective movements for justice. Overall, my research supports my journeys of identity, health, and art alongside ongoing legacies of music as a significant political resistance tool in Seattle and the greater Filipinx American diaspora.

Racism on college campuses is an unfortunate issue in higher education, and the UW system is not immune from this issue. Analysis of qualitative data from the longitudinal Social Issues Study (SIS) at UWT identified that some UW students experience racism on campus. To understand how to address students’ experiences of racism, I will conduct a substudy in Wave 3 of the SIS investigating students’ experiences of caregiver ethnic-racial socialization (e.g. discussion of stereotypes facing their racial/ethnic group) and its relation to racial attitudes, respect for diversity, and critical consciousness (CC). CC is defined as becoming aware of inequalities in society (i.e., critical reflection (CR)) and taking actions to address them (i.e., critical action (CA)). Ethnic-racial socialization and its relation to CC has infrequently been investigated in psychology. However, research on ethnic-racial socialization suggests it may be linked to CR and, possibly, to CA (as well as to more positive interactions with diverse groups). There is also a need to identify factors that can help explain the common finding that people who are high in CR are often low in CA. Furthermore, previous studies of caregiver ethnic-racial socialization have thus far taken a racialized approach in participant samples. In the proposed study, ethnic-racial socialization, CR, CA, racial attitudes, and respect for diversity will be quantitatively assessed in a diverse sample of UWT students (43% Caucasian; 21% Asian; 13% Hispanic/Latino; 10% African American; 2% Hawaiian/Pacific Islander; 2% American Indian; 6% International) (n=140). Qualitative interviews (n=20) will also be used to explore students’ racial ideology formation and their relation to CC. Implications regarding promoting positive cross-cultural relationships on campus and CC, as a potential means for addressing racism, will be discussed.

This study explores the use of media to construct social valuation and devaluation in racial discourse on the internet. The use of social media and on-line platforms contribute to complex power relations that mediate social and racial difference. I am investigating how both news sources and social media are used in relation to the Black Lives Matter movement and All Lives Matter campaign to expose the relational construction of value, race, and the “other.” Through an inductive content and discourse analysis of primary movement resources, news media, and Twitter, I reveal the controversial ways in which the value of Black lives is affirmed and challenged on public platforms. This project is significant for understanding how social media and online news sources have created new opportunities for protest as well as new revelations of how the process of “othering” racialized groups persists in the twenty-first century.

Despite the intense coverage of the Syrian Civil War in US media, consensus about what started the Syrian Civil War is highly debated. The variety of explanations cited as leading to the Syrian Civil War range from: corruption, protests, sectarianism, climate change, and drought. My mixed methods research begins by exploring whether certain conflict explanations like the Arab Spring Protests are overrepresented in discourse whereas conflict explanations using climate change are underrepresented. A manifest content analysis of 134 American newspaper articles of causes for the conflict from the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal yielded that they did indeed favor Arab Spring protests but that the results varied by newspaper. The right-leaning Wall Street Journal failed to mention climate change in a statistically significant manner whereas the Washington Post repeatedly mentioned climate change as a major factor for the Syrian Civil War. Interpretations and analysis of the same conflict produced different ideas about what started the conflict. The second part of my research involved an inductive latent content analysis of these news sources to truly understand the perceptions that drove news organizations to report the way they did. Here I report two key findings: a better understanding of how causal factors for conflict are explained in American media and how media organizations justify and convey narratives of importance to them. Such research is important because climate change and conflict is an issue that is important to the stability of the globe. Understanding how and why it’s importance is overrepresented and underrepresented in news sources can help determine how popular geopolitics shapes perceptions and how to make discussions of climate change in the lens of conflict more acceptable.

Marine mammals are federally-protected species of interest, however their parasites are vastly unexamined. A lack of data regarding this host-parasite relationship hinders the understanding of ecosystem interactions, which poses consequences for successful conservation and management of marine mammals. To better understand the impacts of parasites on their marine mammal hosts, my research assessed the intestinal parasite burden of harbor seals (Phoca vitulina richardsi) in south Puget Sound. Harbor seal scats were collected under permit from the Commencement Bay floating dock haul-out site each month during and after the pupping timeframe. Non-invasive fecal floatation methods were used on scats to quantify the abundance and diversity of parasites from July 2017 to February 2018. An increase in prevalence of parasites within the population is expected following the weaning of seal pups as they begin feeding on invertebrates and fish implicated in parasite lifecycles. This research establishes baseline data on the intestinal parasite assemblage of Pacific harbor seals within Puget Sound, and the data will later be used in conjunction with molecular diet analysis to deduce the source of parasitic infection. My research can be used to assist with conservation efforts of harbor seals and can be broadly applied to other marine mammals within and outside of Puget Sound, serving as an example for future studies that consider the relationship between marine mammal hosts and their parasites.

Non-vascular epiphytes have been determined to grow in a non-random distribution in the canopies of Acer macrophyllum in the Hoh Rainforest, Washington. Nitrogen (N) source has been suggested as a potention driver of the distribution, and stable isotopic analyses were used to consider the influence of this factor. Three epiphyte species, the lycophyte Selaginella oregana, and bryophytes Rhytidiadelphus loreus, and Neckera douglasii, and four trunk dwelling species, Selaginella oregana, and the bryophytes Hypnum subimponens, Leucolepis acanthoneuron, and Metaneckera menziesii, were selected for analyses on the basis of their distribution on five host trees. Samples of plant tissues, as well as canopy and trunk soil were analyzed using isotope ratio mass spectrometry to identify the N source of each species. N source varied significantly by species and growing location. δ¹⁵N values of all bryophyte species confirmed an atmospheric N source. Results for the lycophyte S. oregana varied significantly in response to its relationship with R. loreus, which grows above it in mats in the inner canopy. Selaginella oregana appears to use canopy soil N in the presence of R. loreus, and atmospheric N in its absence on the trunk. These findings suggest the role of niche partitioning in the coexistence of S. oregana and R. loreus within the canopy, and illustrate the likely ability of S. oregana to vary its N source based on competition for the resource. No study of this kind has been conducted in the Hoh Rainforest to date, and this work highlights the intersection of abiotic and biotic factors in determining epiphyte species distributional patterns in the temperate forest ecosystem. 

Public transit is a quasi-public space between the public and private, acting as a fabric connecting the lives of many different types of people. Working within a framework of feminist urban geographies, this research seeks to understand how fear, safety, and emotion are constructed and interpreted within transit space in the city. With a particular focus on the experiences of women and queer individuals, I questioned how geographies of fear and safety impact movement and behavior in the city. Additionally, I examined the role of city officials and policy makers in creating safer transit spaces. Using a synthesis of qualitative research, media analysis, and autoethnography, I present the policies and practices that have, and have not, been successful in cities across the United States. The results of this research have shown that women and queer people consistently report feelings of insecurity and lack of safety in urban spaces. Policies and campaigns introduced in major cities such as New York and Los Angeles have had measurable success in combating harassment and violence, while smaller cities such as Seattle have yet to implement policies to do the same. This research is intended to contribute to the larger discourse surrounding feminist geographies and urban studies.

Conventional diagnostics for tuberculosis use the patient’s sputum, mucus from the lower airways, as the primary sample type. Collecting sputum can be difficult and hazardous and for some patients, especially pediatric cases, sputum must be induced through an invasive procedure. An alternative to sputum samples is oral swabs, which have been used to detect the presence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis DNA in clinical trials. However, the current threshold of oral swabs is not yet sufficient for widespread implementation. In a new phase of assessing the viability of oral swab samples, nine different swab types were compared to improve DNA yield and subsequent qPCR readouts. The comparison was based on qPCR Cq values after spiking the swabs with mTB DNA, and analysis of each swab’s suitability for culturing. Earlier results suggest that oral swabs are a feasible alternative to sputum samples when using swabs that are heavily “flocked”, meaning that they have many small fiber particles deposited across a surface. Moreover, samples performed with dissolvable swabs may be better suited for further molecular and microbiological analysis.

Posttranslational modification with the small protein ubiquitin (Ub) is an essential process in various regulatory pathways of eukaryotes, such as protein degradation, DNA repair, and the cell cycle. Misregulation of ubiquitylation has been associated with diseases such as cancer and neurodegenerative disorders. Ubiquitylation is accomplished by an enzymatic cascade that involves a family of ~40 ubiquitin conjugating enzymes (E2), which form thioester intermediates with Ub, called E2~Ub conjugates. In most ubiquitylation reactions, it is the E2 that covalently attaches Ub to substrate proteins. While the overwhelming majority of E2s ubiquitylate the ε-amino group of substrates’ lysine residues, important exceptions have recently been discovered. For example, Ube2W has been identified as the only human E2 that exclusively ubiquitylates the α-amino group of substrates’ unstructured N-termini. Knockout of Ube2W in mice leads to severe developmental abnormalities, suggesting its importance for early postnatal survival. Little is known about the molecular mechanism of Ube2W’s unusual specificity and structural insights to the catalytically-relevant species, the Ube2W~Ub conjugate, are lacking. Here, I report the formation and purification of the first stable Ube2W~Ub conjugate mimic. Using a combination of biochemical techniques and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), I characterized atomic-level changes within the Ube2W~Ub conjugate during substrate recognition and catalysis. This investigation will expand our mechanistic understanding of E2s and establish insights to a biochemically fascinating and biologically relevant enzyme.

Oral swab analysis (OSA) is a possible alternative sample type for tuberculosis diagnostics. It has been observed that tongue swabs contain greater amounts of Mycobacterium tuberculosis DNA than cheek swabs (p<0.0001). This project investigates whether other oral microbiota follow the same pattern by analyzing oral swabs from healthy controls and TB patients from South Africa. To determine the oral bacterial load, the first step was to optimize a universal bacterial PCR protocol that could be used on real samples. The Com1/769R primer set that amplifies the 16s region of prokaryotic DNA (Dorn-In, 2017) was selected after a literature review and tests with DNA from 5 different bacterial species at known amounts to compare sensitivity. Next, samples were collected from 5 healthy volunteers from Seattle. They provided two swabs each, one from their tongue and one from their cheek, which we then analyzed by PCR. Oral swab samples from South Africa were also analyzed by PCR. We found that the tongue swabs contained greater amounts of total bacterial DNA than the cheek swabs. For the healthy Seattle volunteers, the tongue swabs had an average of 294 times more DNA than the cheek swabs. For the South African samples, the tongue swabs had an average of 13.2 times more DNA than the cheek swabs. Our results suggest that there may be more prokaryotic DNA on the tongue than cheek. Our next steps are to test additional samples from South African subjects. This research could impact the development of future diagnostic tests that detect pathogens within the oral cavity.

The decriminalization of abortion has been a contentious issue in many countries throughout the world. Not only does the issue evoke religious debate, but a country's abortion laws also highlight the relationship between the state and women's bodies. The courts can have a considerable impact even in sensitive issues in society. Governments that have an independent judiciary as well as international courts in particular can provide a means for institutional change to occur. The purpose of this study is to understand the role that international courts' judicial policymaking plays in nations with restrictive abortion laws by examining the interactions between international courts and the domestic legal system. More specifically, the focus is on the case of Ireland due to its restrictive abortion laws and its increasingly independent judiciary as well as the fact that it is embedded in numerous international legal systems, such as the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). The HUDOC ECtHR Database, the Curia European Court of Justice Database, the Supreme Court of Ireland Judgement Database, as well as the Irish Statute Book were utilized in order to compare both domestic and international judicial rulings to Irish policy changes. Through examining the progression of the decriminalization of abortion in Ireland, the study concludes that international courts are in a unique position to provide incentive for countries to clarify ambiguity in their abortion policy and to institute domestic services. Although the focus is Ireland specifically, the study provides a general framework for the examination of international courts’ impact on other member states and contributes a more nuanced understanding of international courts' role in policymaking.

Increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) reduce the nutritional content of rice grains, particularly iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn). Rice serves as a staple food crop for more than two billion people across the world; substantial portions of these rice-dependent populations also suffer from iron and zinc deficiencies. In rice, the effect of increased CO2 on Fe and Zn differs between cultivars. With better mechanistic understanding as to why, informed plant breeding and cultivar selection is a likely path towards ameliorating this problem. Little is known about the mechanisms behind CO2-induced reduction of grain nutrition. Increased CO2 changes the pH of rice paddy soil, facilitating the release of cations (including Fe and Zn), which leads to increased uptake to above ground plant tissues. However, this does not result in increased concentrations of these compounds in the rice grain. Several explanations have been advanced for this paradox, but most work on the topic has relied on free-air carbon enrichment (FACE) installations, which cannot control many potentially important variables. In particular, reduced transpiration under elevated CO2 may obscure differences between CO2-induced carbohydrates. Additionally, the fine-scale impacts of elevated CO2 on the rice rhizosphere have been poorly studied. Our study is attempting to close these knowledge gaps: we have grown rice plants under elevated and current CO2 conditions, while maintaining even transpiration between treatments via controlled relative humidity. We have paired these experimental manipulations with oxygen optode-based visualizations of the undisturbed rice rhizosphere, which has directed accurate soil sampling of rhizosphere and bulk soil porewater samples for analysis of pH, redox, total organic carbon (TOC), and quantification of Fe, As, Ca, Mg, and Zn. Our study seeks to better understand the mechanistic role of increased CO2 on the rice rhizosphere, and its downstream effect on rice grain nutrient quality.

Automation instills fear due to implications that eventually it will steal everyone’s jobs and result in mass unemployment. However, this is a contested idea because automation, especially in manufacturing, may also increase employment due to increasing output as well as being a complement to skilled labor. This project’s purpose is to reveal the impact of increasing automation on the number of employees employed, as well as the average cost per employee and sales of a firm in the short run. I have acquired anonymous firm level panel data for the years 2014 and 2016 on manufacturing firms in Myanmar, which has been a target for growth by firms providing automation technology, from the World Bank Enterprise Surveys. With this data I have run fixed effect regressions, which take into account firm specific situations to control for them, in order to model the response of my variables of interest to the amount of capital purchased in the previous year, total capital, proportion of educated workers and whether a process innovation has been done in the past three years. I did this to see if newly purchased capital is significantly different from other capital they possess as well as how this interacts with the proportion of their educated workforce. My results revealed approximately a .01% increase in the number of employed workers in response to a 1% increase in newly purchased capital, while it does not significantly impact average labor cost per worker or sales. This implies that at least in the short run, the impacts on employment are small and output or wages should remain mostly unaffected. However, Myanmar possesses attributes such as poor infrastructure, low technological level and electricity concerns, which limit the applicability of my conclusions elsewhere. Furthermore, my model’s small sample size makes my results weaker overall.

Ca²⁺, or Calcium ions, are very important signaling molecules that are essential to normal eyesight. A light-sensitive layer in the eyes, called the retina, contain photoreceptors which require proper concentrations of Ca²⁺ for correct function. Mitochondria in the retina may help store Ca²⁺. To transport Ca²⁺, the mitochondria rely on Mitochondrial Calcium Uniporter proteins (MCU) and Mitochondrial Calcium Uptake 1 regulators (Micu1). This study hypothesizes that the Micu1 to MCU ratio influences the levels of Ca²⁺ in the photoreceptors and that an abnormal Micu1 to MCU ratio may compromise photoreceptor health. To analyze the Micu1 to MCU ratio, quantitative polymerase chain reactions (qPCR) are conducted. Retina cells are compared to other cell types, such as brain and heart cells, to determine the ratio of Micu1 to MCU relative to other tissue types. qPCR is also used to determine the Micu1 to MCU ratio in cells designed to express Micu1 or MCU abnormally. Current results suggest that the retina and brain express higher amounts of Micu1 than the heart, but the retina expresses the least MCU. It is hypothesized that most of the MCU channels in the retina are regulated by Micu1. On the other hand, heart tissue has more MCU and less Micu1, suggesting that the MCU channels are not regulated to the same extent. This makes sense because the retina and brain both contain large amounts of neurons, while the heart largely contains muscle. Therefore, different cell types with different functions express unique Micu1 to MCU ratios. Cells which are designed to express Micu1 or MCU abnormally have different ratios that may be insightful in addressing visual disorders. Further work may include manipulating the Micu1 to MCU ratio and observing the consequent effects on the photoreceptors.

 Studying the ground-strike force and acceleration of male and female runners can provide information about gait and foot strike patterns and can contribute to improved running efficiency in individual runners. Researchers at Southern Methodist University have showed that the motion of two anatomically discrete components of the body’s mass sufficiently explained the vertical ground reaction force-time waveform pattern observed during human running. The anatomical differences of male and female runners lower extremities were compared biomechanically by using force and acceleration data combined with video analysis to assess gait patterns. This experiment further examines the acceleration and force created by runners, while moving through their respective biomechanical patterns, by assessing the impact force and acceleration patterns of the lower limb joints. Acceleration data was collected at the ankle, knee, and hip of the runners to better understand the overall force distribution throughout the lower limbs. Preliminary data shows force differences between sprinters and distance runners, seen at each joint in the lower limb with the largest difference occurring at the hip. When comparing males versus females the preliminary data also shows differing force patterns through the observed reference points. This data will contribute to a better understanding of the biomechanical differences in male and female gait patterns when sprinting versus running for distance, which could lead to better injury recovery. Therapeutic evaluations of injured limb could be made by looking at the forces experienced throughout each limb during injury recovery to better personalize and appraise individual rehabilitation progress.

Gender disparities in healthcare are still prevalent in many societies today. Previous research has shown that women with heart disease are more likely to get misdiagnosed or diagnosed later than men. In fact, young women with heart disease have a mortality twice as high as young men. Because many medical conditions, heart disease included, present differing symptoms between men and women, (and so) they require gender-sensitive diagnostic and therapeutic strategies. In a case study at the UW, I will be observing and interviewing women’s healthcare internal medicine specialists. I aim to learn from participants what brought them to this specialty, what trajectories bring patients to these clinicians rather than general internal medicine specialists. I am also recording any gender-specific diagnostic and therapeutic approaches the clinicians used as well as giving an overview of the medical residents’ training in the women’s healthcare track. Hopefully, this data could help illustrate current strengths and limitations of having a women’s healthcare track within medical specialties, and the implications this track might have for reducing gender health disparities.

Paulo Freire (1970) conceptualized critical consciousness (CC) as including two components: critical reflection (CR), an individual’s awareness of societal inequities, and critical action (CA), the actions taken by the individual to change those inequities. However, scholarship has infrequently identified the mechanisms through which people who are critically reflective become engaged in actions to change their social conditions (Diemer & Rapa, 2016). In this poster, we will present two potential mediation models that will help to shed light on the mechanisms through which critical reflection predicts critical action. In the first set of analyses, we are examining if empathy (alpha=.874) may, in part, explain the relationship between CR (alpha=.769) and CA (alpha=.679) in our sample (n=141). Previous research has pointed to empathy as a potential mediator, suggesting that critical awareness alone may not be enough to motivate people to engage in actions aimed at challenging the status quo (Montero. 2009; Wallin-Rauchman, 2017) In preliminary analysis of our data, CR and CA were positively associated with one another (r = .306, p <.001), and empathy was positively associated with both CR (r=.268, p =.001), and CA (r = .238, p = .004). These results suggest that proceeding with mediation analysis may yield significant results. We will also be assessing Social Justice Identity as another potential mediating variable in the relationship between CR and CA in our sample. Initial analyses suggest that SJI is also related to both CR (r =.238, p =.004) and CA (r = .572, p <.001), and may account for some of the variance in this relationship. Results from these analyses will contribute to the knowledge base about how students go from being aware of social justice issues, to engaging in civic action to address those issues in order to create a more equitable society.