May 3, 2024 | Digital Showcase | Humboldt Library
All Presenters & Abstracts
Controlled Fires
Presentation Year: 2019
For our creative project we decided to create a poster explaining the relationionships between controled fires and forests. While participating in our Native American Studies class, we spoke breifly about how Native Americans used controlled fires to better the vegagtaion within their land. As biology (the study of life) and botnay (the study of plants) majors, the idea of controlled fires helping forests become more suitable for the life surronding it was an increcribly intresting topic for our research poster. Throughout our presentation we will be taking a closer look at how exactly controlled fires are able to help plants grow back stronger and healthier in the years after the fire.
Creating Awareness About Traumatic Brain Injuries
Presentation Year: 2019
The focus of my project was to address the lack of knowledge pertaining to Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI) and to let locals know. This included Bear River Rancheria, Eureka Police Department, Making Headway Center, and some other local locations. Pamphlets were dispersed with information regarding TBIs and were culturally appropriate for whichever population that they were dispersed to.
Creating Methodology for Classroom Materials using Correlations between Childhood and Adulthood Literacy
Presentation Year: 2019
Kindergarten reading habits are expected to persist into adulthood; however, for many adults in Washtenaw County this is not the case. This population will rise as half of their children will become illiterate themselves. Survey responses of 76 teachers regarding selection of reading materials based on grammar, syntax, and reading topics were collected in the fall of 2018. Teachers commonly selected pre-leveled reading materials regarding grammar with minor focus on topical matter. These materials did not correlate with topical-matter focused adult reading materials. This study suggests renovation of adult reading materials to help combat the ongoing cycle of illiteracy in Washtenaw County.
Crisis Pregnancy Centers: Helpful or Harmful?
Presentation Year: 2019
Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPC) are nonprofit organizations whose purpose is to provide free resources to pregnant women. Currently, there is much controversy over CPCs and their legitimacy as a nonprofit resource for women. To ascertain the prevailing perceptions of CPCs, a literature review was conducted. Materials were analyzed and synthesized to produce a comprehensive view of current feelings about CPCs. Trends reveal a negative characterization of CPCs as dishonest. Several articles call for new legislation that would either restrict or compel speech for CPCs. This study examines the conflict between reproductive rights and free speech laws and how it emerged.
Cultivating Environmental Education Through School Gardens
Presentation Year: 2019
In a moment when there is a need to increase social knowledge and skills for addressing environmental issues, gardens are an important resource. Garden programs address multiple learning styles, help physical development and provide opportunities for interdisciplinary lessons for children. Within these programs, kids practice locomotor skills, patience, and responsibility. In this study, we looked at accessibility to gardens within elementary schools in Arcata & McKinleyville. In addition to observing accessibility, we looked at the limiting factors for schools that do not have access to gardens and see if there are correlations to social implications such as class and wealth.
Culture Differences in Nonverbal Communication
Presentation Year: 2019
This poster illustrates nonverbal communication in different cultures through the examination of facial behaviors and emotional expression.
Defending the Environment: From Grassroots to a Business
Presentation Year: 2019
A common practice through the waves of environmental movements is for grassroots organizations to eventually form a non-profit that continues to support the environment. This was clearly observed at the Environmental Protection Information Center in Arcata, California. The study of this nonprofit and others like it have painted a clearer picture about how environmental nonprofits organize and mobilize. EPIC follows the patterns of other organizations, being a 45 year old environmental nonprofit, it has seen a lot of changes from its original grassroots mobilization. The focus is now on how to best fulfill its mission statement and maintain a complex membership based business.
Deliberative Democracy for Climate Resilience: Can this Make a Difference?
Presentation Year: 2019
Considering how climate change is an ongoing issue, the basis of the project will explore the concept of deliberative democracy and it's potential effects on climate resilience. Deliberative democracy essentially focuses on how citizens engage with issues and the deliberation aspect of it can help make otherwise complicated political issues easier to comprehend. The research for this project will include a forum on this topic at HSU as well as an analysis of countries employing this strategy and its effectiveness.
Delving into the Significance
Presentation Year: 2019
Understanding the significance of basket weaving such as the materials that are used and the importance that it holds for indigenous communities.
Design of a ChiA surface expression system for enhanced biofuel feedstocks.
Presentation Year: 2019
The ChiA protein from Serratia marcescens is responsible for the hydrolysis of 1,4 glycosidic bonds in N-acetyl-glucosamine chains, that comprise chitin. Chitin, being the second most abundant polymer, has untouched potential as a source for biofuel feedstocks. Here we aim to enhance chitinase activity through displaying the ChiA on the surface layer proteins (S-layers) of Caulobacter vibrioides. The S-layer of C. vibrioides is a nanometer scale hexagonal 2-D crystalline lattice composed of a single protein, RsaA, and covers the entire surface of the organism. In this study, the chiA gene isolated from S. marcescens was designed and amplified for expression in the C. vibrioides S-layer.
Developing Interdisciplinary Anti-Violence Pedagogy
Presentation Year: 2019
The Students for Violence Prevention first year experience program faculty cohort will present key strategies learned in developing interdisciplinary anti-violence pedagogy. The faculty will cover strategies for community building, how classroom work weaves with activist strategies, and tactics for supporting students in trauma.
Development and Stable Integration of Tetracycline Inducible Tools for Genome Editing and Genome Regulation in Cultured Human Embryonic Kidney Cells
Presentation Year: 2019
At Humboldt State University we aim to create a robust CRISPR/Cas9 toolkit which enables one to overexpress, repress, inhibit transcription and perform double strand DNA cuts allowing one to undertake research on genes associated with cancer, autophagy and neurological diseases. These tools will enable future students, private sector, and academia to investigate a wide range of biological questions. Currently in the CRISPR/Cas9 system there are inherent problems ranging from indel mutations, poor gene locus targeting, low efficiency, and in vivo applications.We built upon the knowledge in Dr. Steele’s lab and chose to perform Hi-Fi assembly to overcome technological limitations that lowered.
Deviant Leaders: Examining the Effect of Group Consensus on Individuals' Attitudes Towards a Leader's Position
Presentation Year: 2019
The current study investigates how high or low consensus around a leader who holds a deviant or normative position influences individual attitudes, all contingent on the perceived group’s attitude towards said position. We hypothesized that exposure to a leader with a deviant position who was elected by a landslide (high consensus) vs. marginally (low consensus) will convert individual attitudes to align with the perceived group attitude, which is supportive of the deviant position.
Digitizing the Lumberjack Newspaper at Humboldt State University
Presentation Year: 2019
The Lumberjack is the award-winning, student-run newspaper of Humboldt State University and has published continuously since 1929. In spring 2019, the HSU Library hired students to digitize editions of the newspaper and make the papers available online. These students scanned microfilm reels, applied Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to the scans, and uploaded the papers to the library’s Digital Commons website. This project will provide greater access to the history of HSU to researchers across the globe, creating opportunities for new and exploratory research.
Dissolved Trace Metal Depletion Anomalies and Hydrothermal Interaction in South Pacific Deep Water
Presentation Year: 2019
The array of metals obtained from the GEOTRACES cruise in 2013 provides evidence for anomalous metal behavior. Trace metals in the ocean can act as indicators of hydrothermal vents, providing evidence for iron and magnesium sources to the ocean. However, anomalies of other dissolved trace metals (DTM) have been observed at theoretical hydrothermal vent sites, specifically depletions of cerium, lanthanum, nickel, and yttrium. Initially, these depletions were thought to be the result of redox reactions, but this only partially explained the DTM deficiencies. Particulate scavenging through the formation of metal oxides from DTM is also a possible cause for anomalous depletion.
Distribution of Microplastics at the Surface and Within the Water Column in Humboldt Bay, Northern California
Presentation Year: 2019
This study focused on microplastic concentrations in and around Humboldt Bay, CA. Microplastics do not have a universal size class, but for the purpose of this study, microplastics were categorized as any plastic piece from 0.335 mm to 4.75 mm. Samples were taken on Humboldt State's research vessel "Coral Sea", and by foot on surrounding mudflats. Both water and sediment samples were collected and analyzed to find the amount of microplastic particles per mass sampled. Visual microscopy was utilized to create counts for each station.
Distribution of Western Thatching Ant Mounds and Their Effects on Soil Conditions in a Coastal Dune Ecosystem
Presentation Year: 2019
Western thatching ant (Formica obscuripes) mounds are a conspicuous feature in the coastal beach pine forests of the local Lanphere and Ma-le’l Dunes. We explored the mounds’ size and spatial distributions, and tested whether their mound-forming behaviors could impact soil nutrient conditions. In a 3-km segment, we found 346 mounds generally situated along the sand–forest interface. Furthermore, from soil samples of seven of the mounds, we found that the ants significantly concentrated the soils with nutrients necessary for plant growth. These findings suggest that the ants could have important implications for supporting plant populations in this nutrient-poor environment.
Does Women’s Interpersonal Anxiety Track Changes in Steroid Hormone Levels?
Presentation Year: 2019
Previous studies have suggested that women’s interpersonal anxiety will track changes in progesterone during the menstrual cycle. There have been few direct tests of this hypothesis. The present study used a longitudinal design to investigate whether interpersonal anxiety tracked changes in steroid hormones during the menstrual cycle. Women reported greater interpersonal sensitivity and anxiety in the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle compared to the follicular phase. More recent work did not replicate this effect of cycle phase on anxiety. Given results for attachment anxiety and progesterone, we predicted that women would report greater anxious jealousy when progesterone was high.
Dog World Dog Memes
Presentation Year: 2019
Memes, photographs or videos that are edited to be satirical and that makes fun of cultural ideologies, are passed rapidly through the internet and phone applications and can end up on hundreds of websites within hours. Methods employed included participant observation, literature review, and screenshot analysis from Facebook and Instagram. Patterns in the types of posts indicate that people of all ages actively seek out dog memes to reduce anxiety and that dog memes are more popular when they are humanized. Dog memes are an artifact of our generation that transcends age groups and allows us to research meme culture that reflects a virtual population.
Dragon Ecology
Presentation Year: 2019
Research focus is the resources and abiotic requirements 3 dragons ( from TV series Game of Thrones) need in order to survive different environments around the world.