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Quantifying Effects of Natural Genetic Variation on Lifespan of Saccharomyces cerevisiae Isolates
No full textAging is a fundamental biological process and a major risk factor for a wide range of human diseases. Understanding the genetic and molecular basis of aging remains a key challenge in biology. The budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae serves as a powerful model for aging research, particularly for studying replicative lifespan, the number of times a cell divides before senescence. This thesis presents the development and validation of a scalable, high-throughput platform for aging analysis in yeast using Miniature Aging Devices, magnetic labeling, and fluorescence-based phenotyping. We optimized key components of this system, including strategies for flocculation mitigation, magnetic bead-based mother cell retention, and dual staining for cell age and viability. Our preliminary aging assays reveal strain-specific differences in aging phenotypes between S288c and YJM145 backgrounds and demonstrate the feasibility of integrating MADs with flow cytometry-based quantification. Additionally, gene deletions targeting FLO1 and FLO9, intended to reduce cell aggregation, unexpectedly increased flocculation, emphasizing the complexity of adhesion phenotypes. These results establish the MAD-based workflow as a robust experimental platform for future quantitative trait locus mapping using FACS-BSAseq. Ultimately, this work lays the groundwork for dissecting the genetic architecture of replicative aging and understanding how genetic networks controlling lifespan and aberrant gene expression evolve throughout the aging process
Investigating Models of Metamorphic Sole Preservation through Thermometry and Phase Equilibrium Modeling of the Easton Metamorphic Suite, Northwest Cascades, Washington
No full textExhumed subduction complexes are critical for understanding the tectonic history of convergent margins and the thermal evolution of early subduction processes. Thin slivers of high-grade rocks, often called metamorphic soles, preserved in many subduction complexes are formed during subduction initiation when the down going slab is heated and accreted to the overlying mantle wedge. Two primary mechanisms have been proposed to preserve these high-grade assemblages during continued subduction: 1) subduction refrigeration that cools and preserves the high-grade rocks at depth and 2) rapid exhumation which brings the high-grade assemblages to cooler and shallower levels. The Easton metamorphic suite of the Northwest Cascades is a Jurassic-Cretaceous subduction complex with an inverted metamorphic gradient of older accreted high-grade rocks above younger regional blueschist assemblages. Conventional thermometry and phase equilibrium modeling, combined with published geochronology, show that the peak temperatures of the high-grade assemblages decrease with age structurally downward, but at approximately constant pressure for ~20 Ma. The oldest rocks consist of blocks of Grt ± Cpx amphibolite that were metamorphosed at 700-760 °C (9-12 kbar) circa 203 Ma. These blocks are contained within foliated amphibolite that records peak metamorphic conditions of 630-700 °C (8-11 kbar) at 183 Ma. The foliated amphibolite is underlain by a highgrade blueschist that was metamorphosed at 500-550 °C (9-10 kbar) at ~ 173 Ma. Previous studies on the structurally lower regional Shuksan Greenschist indicate the unit was metamorphosed at 350-400 °C (7-8 kbar) between 140-136 Ma. The combined P-T-t history within the metamorphic sole of Easton metamorphic suite experienced a two stage cooling history that consisted of early subduction refrigeration at 10 kbar from ~183 Ma to 162 Ma that was followed exhumation to approximately 7-8 kbar by 148 Ma, followed by underplating of v regional blueschist units. The results from the Easton metamorphic suite suggest that both subduction refrigeration and exhumation-driven cooling were critical but temporally distinct mechanisms in the thermal evolution of early subduction complexes
WWU Toxicology Research Assistant
No full textMy internship occurred over fall quarter, from October 21st to December 12th. I had the opportunity to work in Dr. Sofield’s laboratory as a Research Assistant. The work was done under the supervision of her and her Research Technician, Katie Knaub. The work itself was the digestion and analysis of dried seaweed samples collected across the Puget Sound to analyze the trace metal content that has accumulated within them. Working as a Research Assistant under Dr. Sofield allowed me to apply my skills learned as an Environmental Science, Toxicology Emphasis student to a toxicology-related research project
NSEA Future Leaders of Whatcom Intern
No full textAs a community program intern i was responsible for educating classes of Whatcom county school district 4th graders in Salmon ecology and environmental restoration topics during NSEA’s “Students for Salmon” program, in addition to helping facilitate community “work party” environmental restoration events attended by community members from around Bellingham and elsewhere in Whatcom county. During my participation in the “Students for Salmon” program I was responsible for leading groups of 4th grade students through three different educational stations, educating them on topics of water quality, stream macroinvertebrates, and native plant identification
City Sprouts Farm Intern
No full textThe original internship plan was to spend my 90 hours at City Sprouts Farm, on site doing agriculture work or conducting community outreach. However, City Sprouts Farm resides on land owned by Kulshan Community Land Trust. In January, Ellie was notified that City Sprouts Farm would be losing around ¼ of its property to low-income housing; because of this there would be limited hours that a group of interns could spend on the farm, so we had to find alternative methods to work in food justice and community resilience. There were extremely frustrating days where we had to build new fences and reshape the farm in compliance with what Kulshan land trust asked. It was hard to allow areas that obviously had hours of time poured into clearing them to get overgrown with weeds knowing it would soon become a parking lot. Overall, this is a complex issue because the goal of the farm is to combat social and environmental injustices. Building necessary low-income housing is crucial, so we all learned how to balance our feelings of frustration with losing parts of the farm alongside understanding the need for affordable housing
Reclaiming Resilience: Adapting Stoicism for the modern age
No full textStoicism has had a resurgence in popularity in recent times for its practical applications of philosophy. With this praise comes a wide variety of modern stoic movements from amorphous stoic communities on Reddit, to deep discussions proposing changes to stoicism, to “manosphere” people using stoicism as self help and encouraging sexism. This paper will start with defining stoicism, discuss criticisms of stoicism, talk about how those issues led to its co-option, then figure out how to adapt Stoicism to make it more resilient to co-option and more applicable to the modern day, and finally ending with a reflection of how I want to take stoicism with me into my life moving forward
How The Petroleum Industry Affects the Triple Bottom Line of The Dominican Republic
No full textThe triple bottom line is a term that refers to viewing the impacts of a company or industry through the lens of the effects it has on the three p’s: people, profit and planet. This term views the impacts in a holistic, approachable, and measurable way by looking at the effects it has on the three main prominent factors surrounding a business or industry. When talking about a country, the focus should be on the effects the industry and its individual companies have on the environment around them. This means the economic impact of the operations on the country and how that contributes to continued economic growth of the country and their people. Also, the effects the operations have on the surrounding environment and the flora and fauna found in the country. And lastly, it seeks to find out how the operations impact the people and communities around them. This impact can be negative but can be fixed through remediation efforts, environmental laws and reforms, and lastly job creation and support for local communities. The petroleum industry has substantial negative environmental and social impacts, but in response they have developed safeguards and parameters to regulate these impacts. These include zoning and environmental laws, cultural, academic and medical support for local communities, job creation, and a vast positive economic impact on the country
Bird Flu and You
No full textThough the H5N1 strain of HPAI (or \u27bird flu\u27) has been around for decades, only recently has the epidemic begun circulating within the United States. Domestic poultry, wild birds, dairy cows and other mammals (including humans) have been impacted by the virus to various extents. This project looks at key representative narratives of bird flu outbreaks within the U.S. to piece together the wider story around bird flu, culminating in the bigger picture showing what this disease reveals about the relationships between animals, humans and disease. The first case looks at an outbreak at a duck farm in Long Island that had to cull their entire flock. The second case covers the state of emergency declared in California over H5N1 in dairy farms. Finally, H5N1 is situated within the wider fields of zoonotic and emergent diseases, examining the history of disease to tie together the animal-human connection
Science as a Creative Endeavor
No full textThe common societal perception of science is that it is formulaic, logical, and essentially void of creativity. Although scientists must connect their ideas with logic, real science is a very creative process that includes using the imagination to generate questions and solve problems. Unfortunately, how we teach science lines up with the societal misperception. This in turn can negatively impact our students’ perception of science, as well as their interest in science and most likely their confidence in science. Luckily, there are many strategies that can be implemented to support students in developing scientific creativity as well as scientific literacy—avoiding memorization, encouraging a sense of wonder, making science personal, creating a collaborative classroom, sharing scientist stories, and mindful integration. Included is a series of activities and a full lesson plan that showcase the highlighted strategies within elementary science
If/Then
No full textA poetry collection exploring personal history and genealogy, as well as all the ways one decision could\u27ve resulted in a different outcome. The collection touches on themes of Asian American identity, the way truth changes in storytelling, and who we are at the core of ourselves