Introduction The development and progression of Parkinson’s disease (PD) is associated with increased resistance of the joints to passive movement, termed rigidity. The severity of rigidity is thought to be different between people with PD depending upon the expression and level of abnormal muscle activity during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep (Postuma et al., 2019; Schenck et al., 2013).

Even after substantial divergence, gene flow can occur between plant subspecies coming back into sympatry. Genomic evidence suggests that this is common, and understanding how (sub)species remain distinct from each other even after coming into contact is a major goal of speciation research.

In the forearc region of subduction zones, the state of stress depends on the compression induced by the mechanical coupling between the converging tectonic plates and the competing tension induced by the gravitational collapse force on the sloped overriding plate. By quantifying the state of stress in the forearc, the relative strengths of these competing forces can be discerned. The focal mechanisms of earthquakes describe the orientation of the fault and the direction of the slip on the fault that generated the earthquake, and the direction of the slip depends on the state of stress.

This project examines how cold acclimation affects diel regulation of gene expression among physiologically similar Brassica rapa genotypes. Yellow Sarson cultivars within B. rapa are broadly referred to as “rapeseeds.” As a major crop worldwide, they compose roughly 13 percent of global oilseed production, and are responsible for over a third of non-soybean oilseed products. However, cold stress can strongly inhibit their health and productivity. I aim to uncover cold-responsive expression patterns that may underlie mechanisms of cold tolerance.

Pelobacter carbinolicus is a gram negative, non-spore forming bacterial species from the Geobacteraceae family. It is strictly anaerobic and commonly used in microbial experimentation. Its genome has been sequenced and is known to ferment substrates such as ethanolamine, ethanol, and propanediol into acetate and H2 or formate when grown syntrophically with a partner. Despite its wide use, a system for successful genetic transformation in P. carbinolicus has not yet been found.

The agriculture industry faces the issue of soil salinity. Plants exposed to high salt concentrations exhibit growth inhibition as it becomes difficult for roots to absorb water. Phytoremediation is a possible solution to help remove excess salt. The process involves the use of plants to remove pollutants from soil. One plant species that could be viable is beet (Beta vulgaris L.) due to their mild tolerance to salt. Beets after being grown in salty agricultural fields may possibly be used for sugar production and animal feed to maximize its usage.

Cortico-striatal circuits are central to several cognitive processes, including cognitive control: the ability to regulate and refrain from a learned behavior to achieve a specific goal. Deficits in this process are common in obsessive-compulsive disorder, major depression, and many other disorders. Compulsive behaviors are one such deficit l in which actions are performed persistently and repetitively without necessarily leading to rewards or goals.

Engineered Genetic Incompatibility (EGI) is a method to create postzygotic barriers to reproduction. One application for EGI is to use it as a threshold-dependent gene drive to replace a local population. This type of gene drive must exceed a critical threshold in order to spread to fixation and eliminate the wild-type genotype. Here, we created a method to estimate the release threshold for two EGI Drosophila melanogaster lines using one generation of gene drive data and a mathematical model. We found that both EGI lines, A3.7 and N17.1, had a threshold over 50%.

Galactic outflows are responsible for the mass expulsion of gas in galaxies into the medium surrounding the galaxy (the circumgalactic medium) and are common is starburst galaxies. This expelled gas is mainly hydrogen, but contains the presence of heavy elements, such as silicon, which can be used to map the gas' velocity. Through a semi-analytical method of analyzing the spectral features due to the presence of silicon, we were able to analyze the galactic outflow properties of the ultraviolet galaxies in the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph Legacy Archive Spectroscopic Survey (CLASSY).

Sexual dimorphism, or the physical and behavioral differences between sexes, can influence species behavior in ways that have ecological consequences. It is unclear how sexual dimorphism impacts certain species’ prioritization of finding food and/or avoiding predation, especially species with large life history differences. The medium-sized antelope, impala (Aepyceros melampus), is sexually dimorphic physically and behaviorally, and therefore an ideal study system.