May 18, 2018 Mary Gates Hall
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May 18, 2018 Mary Gates Hall Are All Herbivores Created Equal? Linking Diet to SESSION 1A Morphology in Phytophagous Pacus Jonathan Michael Huie, Junior, Aquatic & Fishery Sciences Mary Gates Scholar, UW Honors Program BUSINESS TOPICS RELATED TO Mentor: Adam Summers, Biology EARNINGS,FINANCE, AND Mentor: Matthew Kolmann, Friday Harbor Labs MARKETING Herbivorous fishes feed on stems, leaves, flowers, seeds, Session Moderator: Weili Ge, Accounting fruits, and nuts of diverse aquatic plants, as well as algae. MGH 074 In the Neotropics, many of these fishes have intricately tied 12:30 PM to 2:15 PM ecologies with their prey plant’s life history and facilitate seed * Note: Titles in order of presentation. dispersal; including the herbivorous cousins of piranhas, pa- cus. Most pacus experience fluctuation in their diet that re- Optimal Dynamic Pricing of Inventories with Stochastic flects the changes in seasonality and plant part availability. A Demand Functions for Online Fashion Retailers few species of pacus, however, exhibit a specialized feeding Xiangjun (Aileen) Yang, Senior, Economics, Applied & strategy known as phytophagy; solely consuming the plant Computational Mathematical Sciences (Mathematical material of Podostemaceae (riverweed). This trend of dietary Economics) specialization may be paralleled by a similar shift, away from UW Honors Program general herbivory, and towards a specialized phytophage mor- Mentor: Michelle Turnovsky, Economics phology. To investigate the link between diet and morphol- Mentor: Matthew Lorig, Applied Mathematics ogy within the greater scope of herbivory, we examined four coexisting species including: the seemingly specialized phy- This research deals with the specific dynamic pricing strategy tophage, Ossubtus xinguense; the generalized phytophages, of fashion products sold online. The pricing method works Tometes kranponhah and Tometes ancylorhynchus; and a fac- under the condition of a pre-determined quantity of inventory ultative phytophage, Myloplus rhomboidalis. We compared with stochastic demand functions on a limited time horizon, the gross morphology of these species with several other which is formulated as an optimization problem. To achieve serrasalmids using micro-computed tomography scanning to the maximized profit, it is essential to balance between the ex- measure functional jaw characteristics, as well as using geo- tra marginal revenue earned by setting a high selling price and metric morphometrics to compare body shapes. Jaw biome- the cost lost from unsold items. In order to find the solution, chanics indicate that O. xinguense produces the weakest jaw we first develop and estimate a pricing model that captures leverage potentially as a result of its sub-terminal mouth. the important characteristics of the fashion apparel market. However, we also concluded that the phytophagous species Afterwards, we use data from a leading Taiwanese fashion as a group, do not overtly differ from the more generalized retailer to examine the accuracy of our model. The final pur- herbivorous pacus in terms of jaw mechanics (but remain dis- pose of this research is to provide an insightful conclusion of tinct from the piscivorous piranhas). Body shape analyses the dynamic pricing policies that would generate the highest also show little divergence among phytophage and herbivore retailer revenues. body shapes, suggesting that many herbivores share a similar bauplan adapted for fast flowing waters. With the exception SESSION 1D of O. xinguense, phytophagous pacus appear to be equipped with a general herbivory feeding morphology sufficient for a specialized diet. This suggests that phytophagy is not a par- MARINE ECOLOGY AND FOOD WEBS ticularly challenging feeding strategy, but performance may Session Moderator: Bonnie Becker, Academic Affairs be augmented by additional morphological specialization. (Tacoma) MGH 228 12:30 PM to 2:15 PM * Note: Titles in order of presentation. Undergraduate Research Program 1 www.uw.edu/undergradresearch Risk Assessment of Phytophthora alni in Washington SESSION 1G State Brandon E. Voelker, Junior, Environmental Science, UW Tacoma TOWARDS BETTER UNDERSTANDING Mentor: Matthew Kelley, Urban Studies OF HUMAN DISEASES THROUGH Phytophthora alni is a species complex of pathogenic MOLECULAR BIOCHEMISTRY oomycetes (water molds) that can cause lethal disease in Session Moderator: Valerie Daggett, Bioengineering alder trees, Alnus spp. One variant, P. alni subsp. alni, is MGH 238 widespread across Europe, devastating stands of alder since 12:30 PM to 2:15 PM the 1990s. One less lethal member of the species complex, P. * Note: Titles in order of presentation. alni subsp. uniformis, has already been found in the wild in Alaska and Oregon, but not in Washington State. Recently, Design of an Alpha-Sheet Peptide for the Inhibition of it has been detected in potted alders in nurseries in Pierce Aggregation in AL Amyloidosis County. It is currently unknown whether any member of the Lauren Nicole Martini, Senior, Computer Engineering, P. alni species complex is in the wild in Washington, either Bioengineering naturally or through introduction from nursery plants. To be- Mary Gates Scholar gin efforts to detect Phytophthora alni in Washington State, Mentor: Valerie Daggett, Bioengineering a risk assessment map will be created using Geographic In- Mentor: Matthew Childers, Bioengineering formation System (GIS) techniques. The spatial analysis will involve examining the environmental factors that increase in- The misfolding and aggregation of free light-chains into amy- fection susceptibility, such as slope, soil grain size, and flood- loid fibrils is the hallmark of antibody light-chain (AL) amy- ing, and correlating with the distribution of alders. Important loidosis, a fatal disease associated with the accumulation of questions that could be revealed are whether high risk areas amyloid species in tissues throughout the body, including are upstream, where infection could spread, or downstream, the heart and kidneys. Current treatment options, including and whether high risk areas correlate with urban or agricul- chemotherapy and bone marrow transplant, do not address tural land use. The risk assessment will provide a starting the causes of aggregation on a molecular level. Molecular dy- point for choosing sampling sites, which is the next step in de- namics (MD) simulations were used to investigate misfolding tecting the existence of P. alni. Additionally, the final analysis pathways in the aggregation of two light chain monomers, Jto will inform forest management practices, as the highest risk and Wil. These simulations showed that under amyloidogenic areas could be inspected for symptomatic alders and mitiga- conditions, conversion from beta-sheet to alpha-sheet sec- tion measures could be enacted if any are found. The assess- ondary structure was observed in both Jto and Wil. Misfolded ment will also have implications for restoration sites, where conformations, obtained from the MD simulations, were used native trees such as alder are planted from nursery stock. to guide the design of alpha-sheet peptides, which have been used previously to inhibit amyloid formation in diverse sys- tems. The designed peptides were evaluated computationally SESSION 1M by docking them against misfolded conformations of Wil, and the best performing peptide was chosen for future experimen- IFE AND EATH IN THE CEAN tal work to explore its potential to limit aggregation. L D O Session Moderator: Virginia Armbrust, Oceanography MGH 284 SESSION 1L 12:30 PM to 2:15 PM * Note: Titles in order of presentation. SOUND TO MOUNTAINS:WATER, Use It or Lose It: Three Ways That Snailfishes LIFE, AND CLIMATE IN THE SALISH (Liparidae) Reduce Their Skeleton in the Deep Abigail (Abby) Von Hagel, Senior, Biology (Molecular, SEA Cellular & Developmental), Neurobiology Session Moderator: Peter Selkin, School of Interdisciplinary Mary Gates Scholar, UW Honors Program Arts & Sciences Mentor: Adam Summers, Biology MGH 271 Mentor: Stacy Farina, Friday Harbor Laboratories 12:30 PM to 2:15 PM Mentor: Mackenzie Gerringer, Friday Harbor Labs * Note: Titles in order of presentation. Mentor: Matthew Kolmann, Friday Harbor Labs Skeletal reduction is a common feature among deep-sea 2 fishes that have diversified from shallow-water relatives, such (TLR7)—an innate immune receptor in airway epithelium as snailfishes. These skeletal reductions may be an adapta- that responds to single-stranded RNA viruses (like influenza) tion to environmental conditions of high pressures, low tem- and triggers an immune response to infection. TLR7 is also peratures, declining luminosity and limited food availability. expressed on airway sensory nerves, but its specific role is Snailfishes (family Liparidae) are found across a large bathy- unknown. Here, I tested the role of TLR7 on sensory nerves metric range (0 –>8,000 m), with intertidal ancestors giving and identified which sensory nerve populations express TLR7 rise to a large clade of deep-sea species. We used micro- using nerves isolated from dorsal root ganglia from female computed tomography (micro-CT) to estimate average bone Hartley guinea pigs (˜400 g). Ganglia were isolated, plated mineral density and examine jaw, pectoral girdle, and neuro- onto matrigel, and treated with a TLR7 agonist R837 (0.1- cranium morphology. Our results suggest at least three mech- 100 microM) for 16 hours. Neurite number per cell was not anisms of skeletal reduction: (1) reduction of bone size, (2) changed by stimulating TLR7,