2016 Projects
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Item Open Access Assessing the variability of snow surfaces(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Thomas, Eric, author; Fassnacht, Steven, authorVariability in snow surface roughness is rarely incorporated into climate or hydrological models, yet it has the potential to have a large impact on both latent and sensible heat for a snow dominated system. We looked at the spatial variability of snow surface roughness using the data collected by the NASA Cold Land Processes Experiment (CLPX) during the winters of 2002 and 2003 for nine 1 km2 study sites across northern Colorado. Black boards were placed perpendicularly into the snow to create a contrast so that pictures could be taken of the surface. The surfaces digitally extracted and the surfaces were detrended to remove random data acquisition biases. The datasets for each board within a study site were then assigned a value based on variability in the surface, standard deviation and categorized based on location. These roughness metrics were then analyzed geospatially to understand their spatial variability and the driving processes.Item Open Access Chemotherapeutic responses in canine lymphoma models after treatment with the CHOP protocol(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Ramirez, Dominique, author; Wittenburg, Luke, authorIn both human and veterinary oncology, multi-drug resistance is a phenomenon where a cancer gains a cyto-protective effect against chemotherapeutics. Resistance is often witnessed when remitted cancers relapse and become untreatable. As an example, canine lymphomas are notorious for relapsing after treatment with the multi-drug CHOP protocol. While canonical drug efflux transporters have been implicated with the chemo-resistance phenotype, there are other transporters which might also contribute. Recent research has demonstrated that exposure to chemotherapeutics results in epigenetic changes to transporter gene expression; this could be a possible route for acquiring the resistance phenotype. What is still unknown, however, is a mechanistic understanding of the chemotherapy-transporter expression relationship. To address this void, we are focusing our research on three questions: 1) What are the temporal fluctuations in transporter expression following exposure to multi-drug regimens? 2) What patterns of epigenetic markers on transporter genes promote altered expression? 3) How does transporter expression correlate to protein levels in chemo-resistant lymphomas? We will address each of these questions using a panel of four chemo-sensitive canine lymphomas as our models, and the CHOP protocol as our drug regimen. We will expose the lymphomas to combinations of the CHOP protocol to mimic short- and long-term treatments, and monitor transporter expression via QT-PCR, and epigenetic changes via ChIP-assays. Additionally, protein levels will be monitored with LC-MS/MS methods to correlate expression with translation. We hypothesize that changes in transporter expression exhibit temporal and drug-dependent patterns.Item Open Access Coping with a negative social interaction: the role of age and depressive symptoms(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Wilson, Samantha, author; Luong, Gloria, authorInterpersonal stressors, such as arguments and disagreements, are among the most distressing types of daily experiences. It is therefore important to understand how people cope with such stressors. Previous studies suggest that older adults are more likely to use emotion-focused, avoidant, and passive coping strategies during interpersonal tensions (e.g., Birditt & Fingerman, 2003), which are among the most effective strategies for these types of stressors (e.g., Blanchard-Fields et al., 2007). Individuals with greater depressive symptoms also tend to use similar coping strategies and yet, they often exhibit lower efficacy (Coyne, Aldwin, & Lazarus, 1981). The current study investigates how age correlates with depressive symptoms and coping styles in response to a controlled negative interpersonal stressor. Younger adult (18-35 years old) and older adult (60+ years old) participants (N = 159) discussed hypothetical dilemmas with an age-group, gender, and cultural group matched confederate who was scripted to act unfriendly and disagreeable. As expected, individuals with greater depressive symptoms were less likely to engage in active coping and more likely to self-blame, use behavioral disengagement, and be in denial about the negative social interaction with the confederate. Moreover, there was an interaction effect such that with increasing depressive symptoms, older adults were less likely to vent (i.e., express negative affect) with the confederate whereas for younger adults, greater depressive symptoms was associated with greater venting. However, it was also found that depressive symptoms were more likely to be found in the young adult participants than the older adult participants. These findings suggest the importance of considering how the association between depressive symptoms and coping strategies may depend on age and other possible motivational factors.Item Open Access CURC 2016(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Colorado State University. JUR Press, publisherItem Open Access Mothering behind bars: how addiction, recovery, and incarceration affect mothering(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Willkomm, Larissa A., author; Miller, Katelyn, author; Jacobi, Tobi, authorThe goal of this project is to create a collaborative essay focusing on the experiences of mothering, addiction, and recovery that incarcerated women face. Too often imprisoned women are ignored or criticized, relegated to an untenable space as a statistic or an unnamed casualty (Enos, 2000; Solinger et al, 2010; Haney, 2010; Jacobi and Stanford, 2014). The essay will be co-authored by three women who co-facilitate writing workshops through the Community Literacy Center at a county jail and four women who are held at the jail. This core group will offer their own views, their own definitions of addiction, their own experiences with mothering, and what these terms mean to them. The group will begin with stories, stories that unfold through their essay and that have been published in the SpeakOut journals that emerge twice annually across more than a decade of dedicated writing workshops. The writers are committed to collaborative authorship and will use a range of participatory methods to invite imprisoned mothers to co-author this story. They will distribute a call for contributions in the housing unit and invite the lead co-authors to engage in both reflection and autoethnographic/lifewriting. As a team the writers will review selected published poems and writing from the Speak/Out Journal in order to understand the breadth of experience that women have chosen to document. This essay will not only offer up those voices, but will actively engage currently incarcerated women in the shaping and crafting of the writing and perspectives the writers offer.Item Open Access My definition(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Fountain, Rachel, authorItem Open Access Prejudice about stroke survivors in the workplace(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Zhu, Bing, author; Gibbons, Alyssa M., advisorRecovering from a major health challenge, such as a cancer diagnosis or a stroke, is difficult in itself, but survivors may face additional obstacles in returning to work beyond their physical health. A recent study by Martinez, White, Shapiro, & Hebl (2015) found that cancer survivors are perceived as a warmer, but less competent, than normal employees in the workplace, and that job applicants who disclosed a history of cancer were treated less well and were less likely to be called back for an interview. This high-warmth/low-competence stereotype profile is often associated with paternalistic prejudice (Fiske, Cuddy Glick, and Xu, 2002). We replicated and extended Martinez and colleagues' study by comparing perceptions of cancer survivors and stroke survivors. We conducted an anonymous online survey in which participants rated how they think others would perceive stroke survivors in the workplace. This approach has been used successfully in the past to identify shared stereotypes while avoiding social desirability effects. We expected that stroke survivors would be perceived as warmer than other widely stereotyped social groups (Fiske et al.), but as even less competent than cancer survivors.Item Open Access Rainbow lorikeet(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Semsak, Cienna, authorItem Open Access Reduction of UDP-glucose diphosphorylase(UGP2) gene expression does not reduce accumulation of the diatom storage sugar chrysolaminarinin Phaeodactylum tricornutum(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Zhang, Yun, author; Caballero, Michael, author; Peers, Graham, authorDiatoms are ecologically significant microalgae, responsible for 40% of the ocean's primary productivity. Diatoms distribute fixed carbon into metabolic pools such as carbohydrate, lipid, and protein. We are interested in exploring the unusual storage carbohydrate of diatoms, chrysolaminarin, which has the same composition and function as starch from plants, but a different structure (‘-1,3 and ‘-1,4 linked glucans, respectively). Decreasing carbon partitioning into chrysolaminarin may increase diatom lipid productivity for biofuels. The synthesis and degradation pathways for chrysolaminarin are unknown. Biochemical evidence suggests that making UDP glucose is the first step of chrysolaminarin synthesis. The sequenced genome of the model diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum encodes tow predicted gene products that may make UDP glucose (UGP1, UGP2). We investigate the contribution of UGP2 to diatom carbohydrate accumulation using an RNAi approach by constructing two independent antisense knockdown vectors with unique, non-overlapping amplicons from UGP2. We identified four UGP2 knockdown strains with reduced gene expression levels by a qRT-PCR screen. These mutants did not have different growth rates of chrysolaminarin per cell compared to wild-type controls. These data suggest the UGP2 does not significantly contribute to chrysolaminarin metabolism. However, partial gene knockdowns may be adequate to reduce chrysolaminarin syntheses. Therefore, UGP2 CRISPR/Cas9 knockouts are in development to study the role of UGP2 in chrysolaminarin biology. These studies improve our understanding of diatom central carbon metabolism, which may inform bioengineering strategies to produce biofuels.Item Open Access Sex role behavioral differences in parental alienation(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Chen, Qi, author; Ratajack, Ellen, author; Harman, Jennifer, authorMen and women deal with conflicts in different ways and sex differences have been demonstrated in terms of aggressive behaviors. The purpose of the current study is to examine if gender differences exist in the context of divorce, particularly when children are involved when parental alienation occurs. We hypothesized that men are more likely to use direct aggression to prevent a mother from seeing her children while women would employ more indirect aggression to assist with the alienation.Item Open Access Sustainability vs. profitability: does socially responsible investing correlate to increased profits?(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Michel, Malia, authorI am analyzing the link between companies who utilize sustainability practices in their business and the positive influence that can have on earnings. Specifically, looking at Bloomberg's Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) scores and the companies earning announcements. I am trying to prove the significance of doing good for the planet will positively correlate to an increase in profits.Item Open Access The rabbit in the Moon Palace(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Liang, Haiyin, authorItem Open Access The woman who wanted to be a soldier(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Leskanich, Ivana, authorThis essay serves as a character analysis for Desdemona in William Shakespeare's Othello. It argues that Desdemona primarily wishes to be a soldier rather than acquiescing to her wifely role. She faces greater disadvantages than her husband Othello due to the fact that she is, first and foremost, a woman and cannot command multiple roles.Item Open Access When does grit predict job performance?(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Su, Qiuyu, author; Gibbons, Alyssa M., authorThe researchers analyze grit as a good predictor for job performance.