Campus Voter Initiatie

Based on information collected from the US Census Bureau, young Americans are the least likely demographic to vote. According to Common Cause, North Carolina, not only were students at ECU less likely to vote, ECU ranked nineteenth in voter turnout of all schools in North Carolina. Because of this, our honors group concluded that this was an issue that needed to be addressed. After the group found that classic get-out-to vote drives often yielded the best results for campaigns, our research group concluded that in order to increase voter participation among ECU’s students, we would use grassroots techniques to spur them to vote. This included as much face-to-face interaction as possible, centered around tabling events, registration drives, and bringing candidates on campus to interact directly with students. In order to achieve this, we founded the Camps Voter Initiative, and ran some events as well as a debate on ECU’s campus during the Fall of 2019 and Spring of 2020. However due to the COVID-19 pandemic, unforeseen hurdles were created. Thusly, the Campus Voter Initiative, in an effort to make some sort of impact on the 2020 election, partnered with the Association of Mexicans in Eastern North Carolina, and recruited the help of other campus organizations to run a Safe Site at the Willis Building, where we disseminated PPE, water, and voter guides

The Effects of a Heel Lift on Gait Parameters during Ambulation for People with Hemipareses

People with hemiparesis can have difficulty weight-bearing through their involved lower extremity. This can lead to asymmetry during static standing and dynamic activities including gait. Previous research has shown improved symmetry in static standing when a heel lift is inserted under the non-paretic lower extremity. The purpose of this study is to determine if a heel lift can improve symmetry during dynamic gait in people with hemiparesis. Five subjects (1 female, 4 male) with unilateral hemiparesis were recruited from the community. All demonstrated greater than 55% of weight-bearing on the non-paretic limb in static standing. Hemiparesis resulted from either a stroke or a brain tumor. Gait parameters were measured using the GAITRite® walkway system. Subjects ambulated a minimum of 20 steps both with and without a 9.5 mm heel lift inserted. Gait velocity, step length, single limb support time, and swing time were analyzed for each test condition. Subjects could not be compared due to the variation between them. A series of five case studies are presented based on individual findings as measured by percent change. A heel lift under the non-paretic limb showed greater weight shifting onto the paretic limb for one subject. Improved gait velocity and symmetry in step length were noted for this subject. Another subject subjectively reported that the heel lift insert made ambulation easier for him, even though analysis of the gait parameters showed little change in his gait symmetry. Use of the heel lift successfully improved gait symmetry in one subject and was subjectively beneficial to another subject. No definite conclusion can be made overall, but it does appear that use of a 9.5 mm heel lift may improve weight -bearing onto the paretic lower extremity and subsequently lead to greater symmetry during dynamic gait activities in certain subjects with hemiparesis

The Role of Notch3 in Self-Renewal of Adipose Derived Stem Cells

Hannah Logan is an undergraduate student in Biology at Louisiana Tech University. Avery Bryan is an undergraduate student in Biology at Louisiana Tech University. Mengcheng Liu is a graduate student in Biology at Louisiana Tech University. Jamie Newman is an Assistant Professor in Biological Sciences at Louisiana Tech University

Determining Expression Levels of the Notch Signaling Pathway in Self-Renewing hASCs

The abstract for this presentation can be downloaded by clicking on the blue download button

Investigating Expression Levels of the Notch Pathway in Self-Renewing hASCs

Chris Miller and Mengcheng Lieu are graduate students in Molecular Science and Nanotechnology at Louisiana Tech University. Avery Bryan and John Bradley Cart are undergraduate students in the School of Biological Sciences at Louisiana Tech University. Dr. Jamie Newman is an Assistant Professor in the School of Biological Sciences at Louisiana Tech University. The abstract for this presentation can be downloaded by clicking on the blue download button

The Role of NOTCH3 in Determining Adipose Derived Stem Cell Fate

Jacob Cambre, Hannah Logan, Avery Bryan, and Demi Sandel are undergraduate students in Biology at Louisiana Tech University. Mengcheng Liu and Ngozi Ogbonnaya are graduate students in Biology at Louisiana Tech University. Jamie Newman is a Professor in Biological Sciences at Louisiana Tech University

Hydrodynamical Simulations of the Lyman Alpha Forest: Model Comparisons

We investigate the properties of the Lyman alpha forest as predicted by numerical simulations for a range of currently viable cosmological models. This is done in order to understand the dependencies of the forest on cosmological parameters. Focusing on the redshift range from two to four, we show that: (1) most of the evolution in the distributions of optical depth, flux and column density can be understood by simple scaling relations, (2) the shape of optical depth distribution is a sensitive probe of the amplitude of density fluctuations on scales of a few hundred kpc, (3) the mean of the b distribution (a measure of the width of the absorption lines) is also very sensitive to fluctuations on these scales, and decreases as they increase. We perform a preliminary comparison to observations, where available. A number of other properties are also examined, including the evolution in the number of lines, the two-point flux distribution and the HeII opacity.Comment: 37 pages, 21 figures, submitted to Ap

Mojave desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) thermal ecology and reproductive success along a rainfall cline

Desert resource environments (e.g. microclimates, food) are tied to limited, highly localized rainfall regimes which generate microgeographic variation in the life histories of inhabitants. Typically, enhanced growth rates, reproduction and survivorship are observed in response to increased resource availability in a variety of desert plants and short‐lived animals. We examined the thermal ecology and reproduction of US federally threatened Mojave desert tortoises (Gopherus agassizii), long‐lived and large‐bodied ectotherms, at opposite ends of a 250‐m elevation‐related rainfall cline within Ivanpah Valley in the eastern Mojave Desert, California, USA. Biophysical operative environments in both the upper‐elevation, “Cima,” and the lower‐elevation, “Pumphouse,” plots corresponded with daily and seasonal patterns of incident solar radiation. Cima received 22% more rainfall and contained greater perennial vegetative cover, which conferred 5°C‐cooler daytime shaded temperatures. In a monitored average rainfall year, Cima tortoises had longer potential activity periods by up to several hours and greater ephemeral forage. Enhanced resource availability in Cima was associated with larger‐bodied females producing larger eggs, while still producing the same number of eggs as Pumphouse females. However, reproductive success was lower in Cima because 90% of eggs were depredated versus 11% in Pumphouse, indicating that predatory interactions produced counter‐gradient variation in reproductive success across the rainfall cline. Land‐use impacts on deserts (e.g. solar energy generation) are increasing rapidly, and conservation strategies designed to protect and recover threatened desert inhabitants, such as desert tortoises, should incorporate these strong ecosystem‐level responses to regional resource variation in assessments of habitat for prospective development and mitigation efforts.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/111753/1/inz212132.pd

The impact of helium reionization on the structure of the intergalactic medium

We examine the impact of helium reionization on the structure of the intergalactic medium (IGM). We model the reionization using a radiative transfer (RT) code coupled to the combined gravity hydrodynamics code Enzo. Neutral hydrogen and helium are initially ionized by a starburst spectrum, which is allowed to gradually evolve into a power law spectrum over the redshift interval 3 < z < 4. The temperature-density relation of the gas is found to fan out and flatten following HeII reionization, with an inversion for overdensities above 5. Peculiar velocities of up to 10 km/s are induced by the increased pressure, with the gas density field distorted over large coherent regions by 10-20%, and the dark matter by levels of 1%. The photoionization-induced flows may thus distort the matter power spectrum at comoving wavenumbers k > 0.5 h/Mpc by a few percent by z = 2. Absorption spectra for HI and HeII are drawn from the simulations, and absorption lines are fit to the spectra. A median Doppler parameter of 35 km/s is obtained for the HI absorption systems at z = 3. Dividing into subsamples optically thick and optically thin at line centre reveals that the optically thick systems undergo only mild evolution while the optically thin systems evolve rapidly following HeII reionization. A comparison between HeII and HI absorption features shows a broad distribution in the HeII and HI column density ratio, peaking near the measured value and only slightly narrower than measured. A comparison with approximate simulation methods shows moderately good agreement in the absorption line properties, but not to the precision to which they may be measured.Comment: 19 pages, 25 figures. Submitted to MNRA