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Biscuits and Gravey: A Pilot Cartoon
Get PDFBiscuits and Gravey is a pilot cartoon and a thesis film that follows a young waitress named Bella Cadvere as she is introduced to her new life among the dead. The singular episode will reach a time between fifteen to twenty minutes presenting the ideas of acceptance of death, femicide, and how death can be presented in a humorous light. The purpose of the pilot itself is to be pitched later and turned into a full television series for young adults. The project will go into the most effective way to create a 2D animated pilot, that is appealing both visually and story wise with the goal of creating a full animatic with sound, creative writing, and dynamic visual storytelling. To do this, there will be studies on both the techniques from veteran animators and implementing 2D materials for the backgrounds and for occasional creepy effects
Economic Indicators of the College Station-Bryan MSA, August 2024
No full textThe Business-Cycle Index increased 0.08% from May 2024 to June 2024. The local unemployment rate for June 2024 was 3.2%, up from 3.1% in May. Local nonfarm employment increased by 0.5% from May to June 2024. Inflation-adjusted taxable sales increased by 1.9% from May 2024 to June 2024. Average real (inflation-adjusted) hourly earnings in College Station-Bryan in June 2024 were 8.2% lower than in February 2020. Nationwide, average real hourly earnings were 0.6% higher over this same period
Ecological Interactions and Novel Control Interventions Among Hosts, Parasites, and Neglected Arthropod Vectors in Texas
No full textVector-borne diseases are a common cause of infectious disease globally, and several vector-borne diseases are considered to be neglected, lacking awareness and knowledge. Tick-borne relapsing fever (TBRF) is vectored by soft ticks and can cause severe disease in humans and dogs. Chagas disease is an underrecognized health concern for both humans and domestic animals in the Americas, where triatomine (���kissing bug���) vectors are endemic. Infections with Trypanosoma cruzi can cause heart disease leading to death. The ecology of both TBRF and Chagas disease transmission is complex, with interactions varying with local vector species, host populations, and parasite strains. This dissertation aims to advance our understanding of host-vector-parasite interactions in a population of soft ticks and within the Chagas disease system at large dog kennels in Texas with the ultimate goal of protecting human and canine health. Identifying the hosts that maintain soft tick populations in Texas can help us understand this elusive vector and its potential role in transmitting TBRF and other emerging pathogens. By focusing on large kennel environments in high transmission areas, we describe the epidemiology and veterinary implications of Chagas disease when dogs and triatomines have high rates of contact while also investigating potential interventions. By testing triatomines collected around dog kennels for T. cruzi infections and bloodmeal hosts, we found dogs are a key bloodmeal source for triatomines. Additionally, we tracked naturally infected and uninfected dogs over time to characterize cardiac abnormalities. We found many dogs in kennels may have ECG abnormalities in the absence of clinical signs, and monitoring T. cruzi positive dogs over time may allow detection of specific ECG abnormalities before they experience symptomatic cardiac disease. Interested in disease intervention, we identified several currently available canine flea and tick prevention products that also kill triatomines when given to dogs. Follow-up mathematical models investigating the kennel-wide impact on infection dynamics and local triatomine populations over time suggest, under some conditions, new canine and triatomine infections are reduced when dogs are routinely treated with flea and tick prevention. This work will not only improve canine health but may reduce triatomine populations and thus protect nearby humans
