New Faculty Seed Grant

Cecilia Rodriguez-Furlan (School of Biological Sciences) – Agriculture Sciences/Environment emphasis 

Title: Plant stress responses revealed by protein interaction maps 

Worldwide crop yield loss due to environmental stress is around US$5 billion per year. Agriculture and food security depend on our ability to learn how increasingly challenging environments impact plant growth. Plants deal with stress at the cellular level by activating two degradative pathways known as endocytosis and autophagy. The RAB7 proteins control the endocytic and autophagic pathways by acting as ON/OFF switches. RAB7 permanently ON interacts with many proteins that execute various biological processes, and the whole plant becomes resistant to different stresses. To understand how RAB7 regulates whole-plant stress responses, it is essential to map its interactions. Despite this, invitro methods have only identified a few RAB7-interacting proteins. Therefore, this project proposes a novel approach to label RAB7-specific interactors in-planta, facilitating identification. These results will shape a “RAB7-specific interactome.” This information will bring us one step closer to producing stress-resilient crops that can withstand the effects of climate change. 

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Kristina Borrman (School of Design and Construction) – Arts/Fine Arts emphasis 

Title: Banking by Design: Paul Revere Williams and the Architectures of Financial Activism 

Paul Revere Williams was the first Black member of the American Institute of Architects, and he rose to prominence designing houses for Hollywood celebrities. For this reason, scholarship has focused on the grand homes that Williams designed for famous clients such as Frank Sinatra and Lucille Ball. Until recently, scholars had scant evidence for Williams’s life-long commitment to financial equity, which he demonstrated in his design and management of Black-owned banks. Evidence for Williams’s financial activism was buried in the architect’s archive, acquired by the Getty Research Institute in 2020 and previously believed to have been lost to fire during the 1992 Los Angeles civil unrest. “Banking by Design: Paul Revere Williams and the Architectures of Financial Activism” recovers new evidence in the life and career of the famous architect to offer the first extended scholarly study of his struggle against redlining, detailing his partnership with Black-owned banks and advancing an understanding of the possibilities and limitations of financial activism at midcentury. 

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Marlene Gaynair (History) – Arts/Fine Arts emphasis 

Title: Jamaican Diasporic Histories: Toronto and New York City 

From Yaad to Abroad: Jamaican Cultures, Identities, and Belonging in New York and Toronto is a social, cultural, and political comparative history of Jamaican communities in both cities during the twentieth century. It argues that the specific local influences that shaped a unique Jamaican experience through community building, also created a sense of belonging and form of resistance from the British, American, and Canadian nation-state(s). By focusing on Jamaicans in both cities, this study challenges the way we understand the construction of race, identity, and citizenship, both in Canada and the United States, and the Atlantic world. Through the examination of a small business class, a national airline, and a second-generation youth culture, the study of Jamaican communities facilitates a better understanding of immigrants in urban spaces, which brings their contributions from the margins and into the center of our histories and collective memories. My second research project investigates the cultural and social history of food and drink in the Atlantic world. This builds upon my interests in transnational histories to understand how colonialism, imperialism, and migration transfer and develop our culinary practices and how we are connected and defined through our local and national cuisines. 

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Nicole Scalise (Department of Human Development) – Education emphasis 

Title: Better Together? The Effects of Socially Interactive Early Mathematics Activities 

Children’s understanding of numbers at the beginning of kindergarten lays the foundation for their later mathematics success. Previous research has shown that playing number games can lead to improvements in preschoolers’ abilities to count, name written numerals, and compare numbers to say which is more. Theories of playful learning suggest that social interactions with other people while playing games are key to helping children learn. However, it is unclear whether these types of learning games have to involve social interactions with another person to benefit children, or whether children can learn just as well from playing the game independently on a tablet app. The proposed study will test whether children who play a number card game on a tablet with a researcher learn more, are more engaged, and talk more about math than children who play the same number card game on a tablet independently. The results will inform best practices for supporting children’s early math skills.

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Pouria Bahmani (Civil and Environmental Engineering) – Engineering emphasis 

Title: Codifying the Use of Timber-Concrete Composite (TCC) Floor Systems in the United States 

Mass timber structures, and in particular, cross-laminated timber (CLT) products have been gaining traction in the U.S. due to its low carbon footprint, use of sustainable materials, and relatively high mechanical properties and structural performance. CLT panels can serve as a flooring system; however, one drawback of using them as a flooring system is that they are not strong or stiff enough to span long distances. One way to strengthen and stiffen the CLT panels to enable them to span longer distances is to add a layer of concrete on top of them. Concrete offers high compressive strength and can improve the structural performance of the floor. However, to use concrete and take advantage of its strength, both the CLT panel and the concrete layer must work together as a single member, called composite behavior. If both materials work together, their cumulative strength will be much higher than summation of strength of each material individually. This study aims to close practical gaps in the implementation of Timber-Concrete Composite (TCC) floors by investigating composite actions, and eventually, developing a design guideline for practitioners in the U.S. 

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Jia Li (Civil and Environmental Engineering) – Engineering emphasis 

Title: Human-like or not? Cooperative driving behavior design for autonomous vehicles 

How driving behaviors of autonomous vehicles (AVs) should be designed is an open problem, which has critical impacts on the safety and efficiency of mixed autonomy traffic flow. Solving this problem needs to thoroughly address the complex interactions between human-driven vehicles (HVs) with AVs and devise proper objective functions. Recent studies commonly argues that AVs should be “human- like” and adopt various machine learning techniques and human-driving data to achieve the purpose. The proposed research postulates that human-like driving behaviors are not necessarily optimal and non-human-like behaviors may achieve better individual and system performance. To verify this hypothesis, we consider three driving behaviors with increasing level of information sharing among traffic agents and coordination, but all assume the AVs are self-interested. We will develop a deep reinforcement learning framework to train AV behaviors in these scenarios. Performance of these three designs will be evaluated against human-like AV driving behavior using the open-source SUMO microscopic traffic simulation platform. 

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Anjali Sharma (Chemistry) – Health / Life Science emphasis 

Title: PSMA-Targeted Dendrimer Nanomedicines for Prostate Cancer 

Advanced prostate cancer (PCa) is a second leading cause of cancer-related deaths among men in the United States. Despite advances in cancer care, treatment options for advanced prostate cancer patients remain limited due to challenges associated with effective and selective drug delivery to PCa cells. Therefore, there is a critical need to develop drug delivery platforms capable of selective intracellular delivery of high amounts of potent chemotherapeutics and their combinations to PCa cells, while exhibiting no or minimal negative-side effects to healthy cells. Our targeted glycodendrimer nanoplatform (TgDN) proposed here has the potential to fill this critical gap in PCa clinical care. The TgDN technology is designed to simultaneously achieve selective targeting of high drug payloads to PCa cells, low immunogenicity, stability in the body, water solubility, ease of scalable production, and flexibility in combination therapy for PCa treatment. If successful, our technology shall fill in the longstanding technology gap for the treatment of prostate cancer, an unmet medical need. 

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Change Liu (Psychology) – Social Science / Business emphasis 

Title: Stress and Wellbeing During the Transition to College Among Minority Students 

The transition to college can be a challenging time for first-year students from racially minoritized groups, who may experience higher levels of stress, including racism-related stress and academic, interpersonal, and financial stress, compared to their White counterparts. Heightened stress exposure can further lead to disparities in mental and physical health, as well as academic outcomes. To help reduce disparities in higher educational and health, this study aims to recruit 60 first-year racially minoritized students to participate in a 14-day Ecological 

Momentary Assessment study during their first semester and examine the processes underlying which real-time perceived stressors (i.e., racism, interpersonal, academic, and financial) and promotive factors (i.e., positive health, self-beliefs, and social support) influence the daily life experiences and psychological wellbeing of racially minoritized students; and whether real-time perceived stressors and promotive factors predict the end of first-year adjustment vs. maladjustment. The results of the proposed study will provide guidance for the development of intervention programs focused on enhancing promotive factors that help racially minoritized students overcome the undesirable consequences of stress and improve their health and wellbeing. 

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Hillary Mellinger (Criminal Justice and Criminology) – Social Science / Business emphasis 

Title: Navigating Language Barriers: A Pilot Study of Police & Spanish Speakers in WA 

The ability to effectively communicate is necessary for law enforcement to function and for community members to request assistance. Consequently, interpretation and other language services are a crucial resource for many law enforcement agencies. Unfortunately, we currently have little to no reliable data regarding when, why, and how officers provide language services. This project’s main objective is to analyze and understand interpretation, language access, and cultural communication challenges that confront law enforcement agencies and the communities they serve. The theoretical framework is informed by color-blind racial ideology and intersectionality. I theorize that law enforcement officers may partly assess an individual’s English proficiency based on their perceived racial or ethnic appearance, and that this may influence an officer’s decision regarding whether or not to provide an interpreter. This project analyzes qualitative data collected in a mid-sized agrarian area in Washington in which Spanish 

is the second most spoken language after English. Data includes (1) interviews with law enforcement officers, (2) focus groups with Spanish-speaking community members, and (3) police ride-alongs. 

Marcos Marcondes (Department of Animal Sciences) – Agriculture/Environment emphasis

Title: Use of rbST in heifers to control negative impacts of early breeding on mammary gland development mammary gland development

Adequate mammary gland (MG) development is essential for heifers to achieve optimal lactation performance. During pre-puberty and puberty, the mammary gland grows faster than the body (allometric) from birth to around 9-11 months of age, when puberty is attained. Thereafter, the MG grows at the same rate as body growth (isometric) until she conceives. Therefore, dairy producers increase the gain rates of replacement heifers to achieve earlier age at calving and increase profit. However, high gain interacts with the animals’ physiological status, frequently resulting in impaired MG development, thereby impacting milk production potential. Moreover, dairy producers seek strategies to overcome detriments to the MG provoked by high gain and early breeding management (breeding heifer with 11-12 months and adequate body weight). Preliminary results from our group present foundational evidence that bovine somatotropin rbST can be used to avoid MG growth impairment caused by the high average daily gain in heifers during the prepubertal phase. We observed an increase in the MG structures and gene expression of genes responsible for producing milk when heifers were given rBST during the prepubertal period. Therefore, rbST may overcome the possible negative effects of early breeding in MG development of prepubertal dairy heifers submitted to high daily gain rates. However, no study has yet been performed to test the potential for rbST use during pre-puberty to positively modulate MG development. The proposed study aims to evaluate mammary gland development and lactation performance of dairy heifers submitted to rbST injections during pre-puberty compared to traditional management. We hypothesized that heifers treated with rbST during pre-puberty will exhibit improved MG development with an increased proportion of secretory tissue. These results will be the first indication of the impact of early breeding on MG development, which could be used to improve nutritional and management practices for heifers.

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Andra Chastain (Department of History) – Arts/Fine Arts emphasis

Title: Global Urban Histories in the Americas: Santiago, Chile

Chile Underground: The Santiago Metro and the Struggle for a Rational City is a social, cultural, and political history of the Santiago metro system, the largest subway in South America and a result of sustained French-Chilean collaboration since the 1960s. It argues that the metro became a key site of political and social struggle: it was a tool for state-building across democracy and dictatorship, as well as a site for grassroots actors to critique dictatorship and inequality. By focusing on French-Chilean relations, this study decenters the United States in histories of the Latin American Cold War and shifts attention toward Western Europe as an alternative source of development aid. In addition, the metro’s history illuminates the rise of neoliberal policies and the entanglement of the state and private interests. Lastly, Chile Underground argues for the importance of writing urban transportation into histories of the Cold War, neoliberalism, and development. My second major project builds on my interest in global urban history to investigate the social and cultural history of smog in the Americas. With planned case studies of Santiago, Mexico City, and Los Angeles, I aim to research how urban air pollution was represented, experienced, and ultimately understood as a public health crisis.

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Jacqueline Wilson (School of Music) – Arts/Fine Arts emphasis

Title: Wya’uyɬá: The Music of Indigenous Solidarity

Building on her work championing the music of Native American composers, Yakama bassoonist Jacqueline Wilson will embark on an international Indigenous artistic collaboration with Māori composers Te Ahukaramū Charles Royal, Takerei Komene, and Phillip Brownlee. Wilson will commission each composer to write a new piece for the bassoon and travel to New Zealand for in person

rehearsals with each to develop an accurate musical interpretation of their pieces and gain exposure to traditional Māori instruments. The project will culminate in the creation of an album of works for the bassoon by Māori composers to bring new depth to the Indigenous representation in the bassoon repertoire, combat monolithic racial depictions, and promote artistic sovereignty.

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Jeff Walls (Department of Educational Leadership and Sport Management) – Education emphasis 

Title: Moral Distress and Ethical Climate in Schools: Understanding the Professional Values of Educators

Educators face competing demands every day, such as balancing attention to academic content with caring for students’ and colleagues’ basic safety and emotional needs. The ethical climate of the school and district in which they work affects educators’ experience of these competing demands. Today’s disrupted schooling and the concomitant social inequities further heighten these challenges. This project will explore the ethical basis of decision-making in schools through the lens of organizational ethical climate and teachers’ experience of moral distress. Teachers face difficult ethical choices when they confront tensions between organizational norms and rules and their own sense of what is right. We will examine the patterned ethical climates that characterize schools, as well as the main sources of moral distress that educators experience in their work. This research will elucidate why personal beliefs do not always align with organizational ethics in school settings and how the ethical backdrop of educators’ work shapes their collaborative work and classroom practice.

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Alana Pulay (School of Design and Construction) – Education emphasis

Title: Measuring the Effect of LED Classroom Lighting on Pre-K Student Learning

Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) influence on student’s behavior, learning and academic success is unknown since limited lighting studies have been performed in actual classroom environments. As more schools’ switch to LED lighting due to their energy efficiency and cost savings, there is a critical need to determine LED’s influence on student behavior, learning and academic success. Our long-term goal is to identify the appropriate correlated color temperature (CCT) of LED lighting to install in classrooms since CCT levels are not specified in

architectural codes. The CCT refers to the temperature of the light from warm to cool (IES, 2014). This study uses a within-subjects design in a pre-K classroom. Non-participant observations will examine how students’ interactions with teachers, peers, and tasks under cool CCT LED lighting compared to their interactions under warm CCT LED lighting. Data will be collected utilizing the Individualized Classroom Assessment Scoring System (inCLASS), input into SPSS, and analyzed. The expected outcomes will determine the appropriate CCT level of lighting to specify for classrooms. Study results will inform current design practices and aid policymakers in developing recommendations about appropriate lighting.

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Kaiyan Qiu (School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering) – Engineering emphasis

Title: 3D-Printed Biomimetic Sharkskin for Underwater Applications

The objective for this project is to design, fabricate, test, and optimize a flexible 3D-printed biomimetic sharkskin with drag reducing attributes and antimicrobial properties for underwater applications. Drag reducing and antimicrobial capabilities of real sharkskin have been widely documented. Protrusions on sharkskin, known as denticles, are key to these properties. Attempts at recreating sharkskin denticle attributes on flexible foils has proven difficult, due to the small resolution required. In order to see the full benefit of a biomimetic sharkskin, the individual denticles must be in the 100-micron range. Biomimetic sharkskin made with hard plastics has been successful recently using SLA, but this method limits the use of multiple customized and flexible materials on free-form surfaces for complex geometries to achieve optimized properties. Our 3D-printing technology enables to remove these limitations and follow the device contour for fabrication at the 100-micron scale. Near term return of this research will be applied to underwater soft robots and clothing to achieve faster locomotion and antimicrobial function. Eventually, these findings will help propel future work in biomimetic devices.

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Pilar Fernandez (Paul G. Allen School for Global Animal Health) – Health/Life Science emphasis

Title: Characterizing the socio-ecological spillover interface in agroecosystems in WA

Our ability to predict and control zoonotic pathogen spillover from wildlife to humans, domestic animals and livestock is hindered by our limited understanding of the relationships between biodiversity, land use patterns, and the transmission of zoonotic pathogens in wildlife. In the context of global change, anthropogenic landscapes can change mammalian biodiversity, which can have cascading effects on the transmission of these pathogens in wildlife. In this project we aim to characterize the spillover interface in agricultural landscapes of eastern Washington, by focusing on three zoonotic pathogens that have rodents as their main reservoir host: Hantavirus, Leptospira spp. and Rickettsia spp. Rodents are known reservoirs for several zoonotic pathogens and are key hosts when studying the zoonotic hazard in agroecosystems. We aim to answer how is the agricultural landscape influencing microbial diversity among rodents and structuring the interactions with other relevant host species or rodent predators that can affect the rodent population and the transmission of these zoonotic pathogens? This research represents the first step to assess the threat represented by the pathogens circulating in rodents and how this threat might translate to disease risk to humans.

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Shikha Prashad (Department of Kinesiology and Educational Psychology) – Health/Life Science emphasis

Title: Role of Working Memory in Motor Skill Learning Processes

Motor learning is critical for performing activities of daily living, interacting with others and the environment, engaging in activities that bring life meaning and joy (e.g., playing sports or musical instruments), and maintaining an independent lifestyle. Age-related declines in cognition, however, can impact motor learning and consequently, quality of life. The primary goal of this study is to examine the role of age-related decline in working memory on two specific processes that underlie motor skill acquisition (i.e., online and offline learning). We will assess working memory capacity and motor learning processes using cognitive tasks, motor tasks, and by measuring electrical brain activity via EEG in adults between the ages of 55-75 years and 18-30 years. This project will lay the foundation to understand the factors that underlie motor skill learning impairment and will lead to the development of effective interventions to facilitate independent living and improve the quality of life of older adults.

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John Blong (Department of Anthropology) – Social Science emphasis

Title: The impact of climate change on prehistoric food systems

This study will apply a novel suite of methods to investigate how prehistoric people in the Great Basin region of western North America maintained food systems over millennia of climate change. This study will synthesize multiple lines of dietary evidence from preserved human feces found at archaeological sites in the Great Basin spanning 12,900 to 6,000 years ago. The resulting data will provide a comprehensive picture of prehistoric hunter-gatherer dietary practices including plant and animal foods consumed, nutrition, and food availability. Dietary data will be integrated with climate data to assess the impact of climate change on prehistoric food systems. This interdisciplinary study of prehistoric food practices will be used to better understand changes in prehistoric food systems over time.

Jenny Zambrano – School of Biological Sciences (College of Arts and Sciences)
Title: Is forest loss and fragmentation leading to plant functional homogenization?

Burgeoning human populations int tropical regions have accelerated deforestation, threatening biodiversity and adding uncertainty to the response of these forests to future changes. Forest loss often results in habitat fragmentation or the degradation of a continuous forest into several small isolated patches. Forest loss and fragmentation affect key community or ecosystem functions by selecting species with a set of traits suitable to survival, growth and reproduction in the remaining forest. Unfortunately, generalizations of the effects of forest loss and fragmentation have been hindered by limitations of currently used approaches that tend to omit the scale-dependency of these processes. The overall objective of this study is to link patterns of variation in ecosystem functioning in response to fragmentation observed from remote sensing to processes of community-level changes observed in fine-scale morphological and physiological traits. The project aims to advance the development of integrative strategies to detect and assess changes in ecosystem functioning due to changes in functional diversity as a result of forest fragmentation.

Christopher Dickey – School of Music (College of Arts and Sciences) 
Title: Music from the Margins

Christopher Dickey (PI) will commission, record, and perform works written by women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ individuals. First, the PI will commission tuba and piano music written by composers holding marginalized identities, including Katahj Copley (Black American composer), Juantio Becenti (Diné/Navajo composer), and Wayne Lu (Chinese American composer). Second, the PI will record the newly commissioned works in addition to previously composed works by Kay Lovingood, Zachery Meier, Amy Dunker, and Wan-Yun Liang. The third goal involves a lecture recital tour in which the PI will perform all these works and lead discussions at university music schools about inclusive programming and the power of representation in music. This project will result in the addition of new pieces, the discussion of the compositions, and the national and international recognition of the works through publications, reviews, recordings, and live performances.

Lauren Bruno – Department of Teaching & Learning  (College of Education)
Title: Validating the TASTT to Enhance Teachers’ Use of Transition Practices

The primary objective of this research project is to establish content and construct validity of the TASTT, a self-report instrument developed to evaluate teacher’s self-efficacy regarding the use of evidence-based transition practices (EBTPs) while also determining what transition-specific professional development (PD) are offered to secondary special educators. Past research has suggested that secondary special educators enter the profession with limited knowledge and skills to provide effective EBTPs to students with disabilities (SWDs). Therefore, the use of well-developed educational surveys is needed and can provide significant evidence for policymakers, researchers, and practitioners. By validating the TASTT, we can better understand what types of PD are being offered to secondary special educators, the quality of the PD, and teachers’ abilities to implement and utilize EBTPs that can lead to enhanced transition outcomes for SWDs in employment and postsecondary education. The goals of this project are to further develop and modify the TASTT, utilize confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses to assess the reliability and validity of the TASTT, and analyze the results of the TASTT to address gaps in the literature and investigate the relationship between variables.

Sun Ung Kim – School of Engineering and Computer Science (VCEA – Vancouver)
Title: 3D Design of Thick Sulfur Electrode Microstructure Enabling Practically Useful LiS Cells

Lithium/sulfur (Li/S) batteries are attracting attentions as a next-generation battery to replace Li-ion batteries for electric vehicles due to the low price and high specific energy density of sulfur. However, to make this Li/S battery economically appealing, we should increase the energy density at the cell level, which requires increasing the amount of sulfur in the electrode. But this much sulfur causes the electrode to become thick and generally drastically degrades the performance of good small laboratory-scale Li/S cells. Recently, novel experimental methods of adjusting the microstructure to increase the performance of this thick electrodes have begun to be proposed, but the exact cause has not been identified yet. In this project, 2D/3D physics-based cell-level Li/S batteries will be developed. Then, the model will reveal the theoretical reason why good performance was maintained although the Li/S electrode with this controlled microstructure was thick. Finally, a novel 3D structure of a Li/S electrode with better performance and its key control parameters will be presented. Preliminary model results of a 3D structure have already explained that non-uniform phenomena within the electrode.

Ganapati Bhat – School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science – (VCEA)
Title: Transforming Digital Healthcare with Self-Powered Wearable Devices

Wearable sensors, along with smart home technologies, have the potential to transform healthcare by enabling cost-effective, reliable, continuous, and data-driven monitoring of users in a free-living environment. Despite the impressive potential of wearable technology, widespread adoption of wearable devices has been limited due to several technology and adaptation challenges, including form factor, incompatibility, and energy constraints. This has led to multiple health societies, including the Movement Disorders Society Task Force on Technology, stating that solving these challenges is crucial to improve the adoption of wearable devices. This proposal addresses the challenges by building a holistic hardware-software design flow for multi-modal wearable device design. The design flow uses a ground-up methodology that integrates user and doctor inputs, application specifications, energy harvesting, and thermal management to enable robust multi-modal wearable devices. A successful outcome in the project will lead to the widespread adoption of self sustainable wearable devices that provide accurate early diagnosis and health monitoring.

Claire Richards – Nursing (College of Nursing)
Title: Exposure to Co-existing Power Outages, Extreme Heat and Wildfire Smoke

Power outages, extreme heat, and wildfires have become more frequent and severe on the west coast of the United States due to climate change. These hazards often occur together because they share causes (e.g., extreme heat, wind) and because of wildfire prevention activities. Their coexistence represents a new public health threat, the extent of which is unclear and for which emergency response systems are poorly prepared. We are uniquely positioned because of our relationships with Urbanova smart cities initiative, a local energy utility company, and other collaborators to conduct preliminary research characterizing exposure for populations to these co-existing hazards in Washington state. Throughout, we will engage multi-sector stakeholders across health, environmental justice, and energy sectors to guide the analysis and establishment of research priorities and methodologies. The results will inform approaches in future studies on preparedness and response activities and evaluation of exposure to these co-existing hazards in broader geographical areas.

Kristen Delevich – Integrative Physiology and Neuroscience (College of Veterinary Medicine) 
Title: Coming of age in the frontal cortex: the role of puberty in synaptic pruning

Adolescence is widely recognized as a developmental period when cognitive and affective processing matures and there is heightened risk for psychiatric disease. This developmental period is accompanied by significant synaptic reorganization in the frontal cortex, including the elimination of synapses referred to as spine pruning. Identifying whether the maturation of specific cell types within the frontal cortex is sensitive to puberty will be important for understanding the association between adolescence and the risk of psychiatric disease onset. By combining pubertal manipulations, pathway-specific neuroanatomical labeling, confocal imaging, and slice electrophysiology we will directly compare the effects of age, sex, and pubertal status on dendritic spine pruning and synaptic physiology on two major frontal cortical pyramidal neuron types. We hypothesize cortico-cortical projection neurons will exhibit more extensive and puberty-sensitive dendritic spine pruning during adolescence compared to brainstem-projecting neurons. These studies will identify promising cellular targets for future investigation of adolescent onset psychiatric disease.

Liane Moreau – Department of Chemistry (College of Arts and Sciences) 
Title: Electrochemical synthesis of U(IV): investigating nuclear waste-stream evolution

Environmental remediation in the case of radioactive material contamination is an important consideration in enabling nuclear energy as an alternative to fossil fuels and lower CO2 emissions for a cleaner atmosphere. Unfortunately, this is a difficult problem to solve due to the variation in environmental conditions that represent current and future waste storage or nuclear incident sites. This has led to a variation in speciation of the radioactive uranium that has been found in such sites, making it difficult to propose strategies to remove the radioactive contamination. We propose to overcome this challenge by using a laboratory-based approach to study how specific environmental factors change the speciation of uranium using a technique called electrochemistry and thorough characterization using X-ray methods. This would provide design rules for which environmental factors lead uranium to be in a mobile vs. immobile form. By comparing the environmental conditions at a specific waste site to how those conditions affect the speciation that we have discovered, this will enable us to propose effective site-specific strategies towards mitigating nuclear contamination.

Elizabeth Canning – Psychology (College of Arts and Sciences) 
Title: Improving student success and equity with growth mindset interventions

Despite efforts to diversify science, students who are the first in their family to attend college and Persons Excluded due to Ethnicity or Race (PEERs) continue to experience worse academic outcomes and leave science at higher rates than their classmates. One promising solution is growth mindset interventions, which teach students that ability is malleable, rather than fixed. Although successful growth mindset interventions have yielded impressive outcomes (e.g., increasing persistence and closing achievement gaps), there has been considerable variability in their success. This indicates that encouraging students to adopt a growth mindset might not be enough on its own if the environment does not support or reinforce this mindset. In an experiment with Introductory Biology students (N=1500) enrolled at a large Historically Black University, I propose to test how mindset messages from instructors enhance the effectiveness of interventions directed at students. Mindset interventions have shown great potential to address large-scale educational inequities in logistically simple, cost-effective ways. This project will capitalize on this potential by investigating an important moderator of their success for stigmatized groups: instructors’ growth mindset messages.

Michael Phelps – Animal Science (CAHNRS)
Title: Pathway focused genomics to identify fundamental muscle growth traits in fish

Muscle growth in mammals is regulated by myostatin and activin A. Loss of function of either of these genes in mammals results in large increases in muscle growth that is termed “double muscling”. While myostatin has been suggested to have a similar function in fish, the role of activin A in fish muscle growth is a mystery. The proposed research will study the function of activin A in rainbow trout, an important aquaculture species. We will examine when and where activin A is produced, to determine how it is controlled in specific tissues or at different life stages. The research will also use genome editing technology to destroy activin A in trout to examine the effect of losing activin A function on fish muscle growth. These studies will establish the resources necessary to determine how this important muscle  growth gene functions in fish which will have important implications for understanding the  evolution of skeletal muscle in animals and how we can use this information to increase meat production in finfish aquaculture.

Hallie Meredith – Fine Arts (College of Arts and Sciences) 
Title: Integrating Ancient Fragments: Connecting Production, Inscription, Image and Use 

Using a four-fold approach, my overall objective in this project is to examine the creativity of the ancient maker. In this project, I will employ an innovative, multidisciplinary approach to study ancient Roman archaeological fragments with a focus on their production and use, and an emphasis on blending inscriptions and imagery. The significance of my proposed project consists of its potential to redefine the study of ancient processes and inscriptions along cross-disciplinary lines (for example, archaeology, art history, classics, economic history). To this end, the three main objectives of my project are to: 1) Establish the use of words and symbols as imagery on 4th-8thcentury double-sided jewelry; 2) Synthesize evidence of carving production by examining 4th-8th century archaeological sites, associated artefacts and archives; and 3) Examine mid-6th century architectural alterations of appropriated early 6th century inscriptions, imagery, production and use. This project requires physical examination of archaeological sites, documentation of unpublished artefactual material, consultation with site specialists, library and archival research in Europe, Turkey and the US.

David Jenson – Speech & Hearing Sciences (College of Medicine)
Title: Physiologic markers of sensorimotor processing in stuttering and autism

This study examines the EEG mu rhythm and pupillometry to probe cortical and subcortical contributions to sensorimotor processing, respectively, in matched cohorts of people who stutter (PWS), individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and typical controls. The goals of the proposed work are to 1) clarify how differential impairment to the same underlying sensorimotor mechanism produces distinct clinical entities; 2) identify the site of neural deficit in PWS and ASD; and3) clarify the influence of cortical and subcortical sensorimotor processes on behavior. Experimental procedures will employ the McGurk paradigm, in which visual information alters perception of a concurrent, mismatched auditory signal. Findings will be evaluated within the theoretical framework governing the McGurk paradigm to identify objective, disorder-specific markers characterizing the core neural impairments in people who stutter (PWS) and those with ASD.

William Hall – Mathematics & Statistics (College of Arts and Sciences)
Title: Investigating the Professional Identity of Preservice Secondary Mathematics Teachers 

Teacher turnover in U.S. schools is of vital interest for teacher educators. Among the reasons early-career teachers leave the profession prematurely is the emotional turmoil from adjusting to the realities of the classroom. Teachers’ professional identity, how they view themselves and how they feel others view them in the context of their profession, can play a role in buffering teachers from such challenges. Therefore, examining ways to engage preservice teachers in developing their professional identity is a valuable research endeavor. In this project, I aim to better understand how traveling to a mathematics education conference influences preservice secondary mathematics teachers’ (PSMTs)sense of professional identity. PSMTs will attend sessions on teaching math and have opportunities to interact with professional educators from the Pacific Northwest. In this qualitative study, I will analyze observations of the students at the conference, participant reflections, interviews, and a novel data source for mathematics education: autoethnographies. Results of this study will further our understanding of PSMTs’ professional identity and directly benefit PSMT preparation.

Aravind Sukumaran Rajam – School of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science (VCEA)
Title: Rethinking abstractions for heterogenous computing 

High-performance software development is an arduous task, especially for users who are not familiar with programming. Nevertheless, specialists from various domains require high-performance software to process huge volumes of data. The state-of-the-art solutions to this problem include software libraries and enhanced general-purpose compilers. While these approaches potentially lower the entry bar for heterogeneous computing (e.g., CPUs, GPUs), they suffer from either one or more of the user requirements —   high performance, ability to easily develop and customize code, the ability of the same code to run on different architectures (portability), etc. Some of these challenges can be alleviated using domain-specific languages (DSLs) — languages customized for each domain. DSLs allow the domain experts to use domain-specific notations to express the algorithms, which boosts productivity. However, a custom DSL solution to tackle each problem is not a feasible and manageable solution. This proposal aims to build a unified DSL framework for heterogeneous platforms that target performance, portability, productivity, scalability, and generality.

Mariana Amorim – Department of Sociology (College of Arts and Sciences)
Title: Universal Basic Income, Financial-Decision Making, and Socioeconomic Inequalities 

Universal Basic Income (UBI) has recently come to the center of the poverty debate in the U.S. and around the world. UBI policies propose to combat poverty using regular cash-transfers to all people with no strings attached. Despite excitement about UBI in some policy and academic circles, the impacts real-life impact of these unconditional cash-transfers on families’ financial decision-making is not known, especially how UBI use varies by socioeconomic classes. Disparities in poor and affluent families’ financial decision-making after receiving UBI payouts may actually contribute to exacerbating social and economic inequalities on the long run, defeating the purpose of the UBI policy.  In this qualitative research project, I will study the only UBI program existing in the western world today, the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend, and analyze the financial decisions made by affluent and poor Alaskans after receiving payouts. By focusing on socioeconomic differences in financial decision-making, this research will help determine how scaling UBI programs may contribute to mitigating or exacerbating poverty and economic inequalities.

Shanthi Manian – School of Environmental Sciences (CAHNRS) / Allen School (College of Vet Med)
Title:  Agricultural seasonality, women’s empowerment, and nutrition in Western Kenya 

Women’s empowerment – the ability to exercise control in their household, community, and economy – has far-reaching effects wellbeing and global development outcomes. Challenges in measuring women’s empowerment make it difficult to understand how to promote empowerment or how empowerment changes over time. We make several contributions to measure and interpretation of women’s empowerment. We identify, refine, and validate several existing measures of women’s empowerment. We use focus groups to refine these tools for the local context, and then use psychometric methods to assess the performance of each tool. We then introduce a new survey module into an ongoing longitudinal survey of 1,500 households in Western Kenya managed by the Paul G. Allen School for Global Animal Health. Using the new data, we identify the measures that best predict nutrition outcomes. We then study the impact of seasonality in income, a fundamental feature of life for poor, agriculture-dependent households, on women’s empowerment. Our results will improve measurement in future studies and inform the design of interventions to promote empowerment.

Xiaofeng Guo – Chemistry (College of Arts and Sciences) 
Title: Structure-thermodynamics of fuel molten salts under reactor conditions

Renewed interest in molten salt nuclear reactors (MSR) as sources of electrical energy and/or process heat has amplified the need for experimentally determined thermodynamic and thermophysical property data to enable the design, construction, and operation of these new advanced nuclear energy systems. To date significant experimental data exists for simple coolant salt systems such as FLiBe, FLiNak, or LiCl-NaCl-MgCl2, yet little experimental or predicted data are available for molten fuel salts, especially chloride-based fuel salts, including the simple binary (NaCl-UCl3 and KCl-UCl3) salts. However, it is at present still unknown how the presence of solutes that emerge during reactor operation (including fission products, corrosion products, and transuranics) affect the properties of the fuel salt matrices. Thus, to understand, predict, and optimize the physical properties, structure and dynamics of chloride-based actinide fuel molten salts, this project will apply the high temperature thermodynamic techniques innovatively coupled with spectroscopy and synchrotron X-ray techniques to address those knowledge gaps.

Dr. Deirdre Griffin – Department of Crop & Soil Sciences (CAHNRS)
Title: Improving potato system sustainability through locally-relevant soil health indicators

The long-term sustainability and productivity of global cropping systems depend in large part on the health of the soil. Like human health, soil health describes the ability of a system to fight diseases, efficiently cycle nutrients, and continually rebuild strong structure. Soil health indicators, akin to taking blood pressure or body mass index, provide a benchmark for assessment of aspects of health. However, soil types vary substantially, and national benchmarks are not always locally-relevant. This project will conduct a soil health survey of potato systems in northwest Washington to 1) establish baseline soil health values showing the current condition of these soils, 2) connect soil management practices, particularly cover cropping, to changes in soil health, 3) develop a roadmap and key soil health indicators to improve and track progress of sustainable soil management. This effort will be a gateway to developing a state-wide soil health database that strengthens our understanding of soil functioning in agriculture and how to maximize soil services, such as filtering water, supplying nutrients, supporting vegetation, and suppressing disease.

Dr. Deepti Singh – School of the Environment (CAS)
Title: Climate factors influencing direct and secondary wildfire impacts in the Pacific Northwest

The western U.S. is experiencing a growing risk of large and severe wildfires. Wildfires have impacts on lives, infrastructure, and ecosystems. Damages associated with recent wildfires have amounted to billions of dollars. Increasing anthropogenic activities are leading to multifaceted changes in our climate including warming temperatures, reduced snowpack, and enhanced droughts that are likely to amplify the risk of wildfires. Two main impacts from wildfires include worsening air quality due to pollutants released from fires and changes in access to water resources due to post-fire debris flows, both of which are strongly influenced by meteorological conditions. Management of these impacts associated with wildfires requires a better understanding of the climatic factors that govern their impacts, their changing risks in a warming climate, and the region’s vulnerability. This project will examine the influence of multiple climate factors that govern the extent, severity and duration of the impacts on air quality and water resources. Variations in the impacts across communities in the region, with a focus on indigenous areas and the expanding wildland-urban interface will be evaluated to evaluate regional vulnerabilities to changing climate conditions.

Dr. Joe Hedges – Department of Fine Arts (CAS)
Title: Hyper Combines

Artists have long experimented by combining a two or more media to create new forms, such as combining moving pictures and sound to create film. This experimentation is sometimes called intermedia. In the contemporary art gallery, the “combine” is part sculpture and part painting. This proposal discusses the creation and exhibition of a new body of innovative intermedia art works that combine oil painting and new media objects such as flatscreen televisions and tablets. These Hyper Combines engage two fields that are frequently presented as separate: oil painting and new media art. By combining a distinctive painting ability with a contemplative but playful approach to new media art, these works obfuscate the physical and conceptual boundaries between media to make comments on specific challenges of the digital age. Funds from the New Faculty Seed Grant would fund both the creation and exhibition of these works. In 2019 and 2020, Hyper Combines will be exhibited in Pullman, WA, Loveland, CO and Spokane, WA, exposing the pieces to several distinct audiences.

Dr. Shenghai Dai – Educational Psychology Program (College of Education)
Title: Advancing Education Research Using Large-Scale Assessment Data

Although large-scale assessments provide education researchers with opportunities to study various aspects of student learning without the astronomical expense of data collection, they are still largely under-utilized from research to policy. This project is aimed to advance education research using largescale assessment data through implementing advanced data analytic and psychometrics methods and tools. Explicitly, we propose two research inquiries. For the first inquiry, we will use advanced feature selection techniques such as the random forest approach to identify protective factors for Native American student learning in mathematics. The purpose is to take advantage of the thousands of contextual variables from NAEP and look for meaningful factors that support learning and development of Native American students. For the second inquiry, we will use newly developed psychometric models to investigate whether students’ math performance on specific skills such as problem solving are captured by NAEP and identify connections between students’ performance on such skills and school curricula as well as other contextual factors.

Mona Ghandi – Architecture in the School of Design & Construction (VCEA)
Title: Compassionate Deployable Spaces Using Biosignals of Occupants for Disaster and Stress

In Addition to natural disasters’ financial loss, the psychological impact of them is critical. They are particularly insidious because they tend to traumatize large populations of people at once, and can result in epidemics of Survivor’s Guilt and other PTSD symptoms. Studies show that there is a 30-60% increase in suicide death after the natural disaster that indicates the importance of mental health in those situations. Providing effective disaster housing, that can respond to both physical and mental health of the people as a critical step to long-term recovery, is a gap this project aims to address. It aims to create a prototype of a lightweight, reconfigurable, adaptive, and smart shelter for emergency housing that can reconfigure its shapes based on the psychological and physiological needs of their occupants to lower the level of PTSD symptoms. Using affective computing (i.e., artificial emotional intelligence), the emotional status of the user will be detected from biosignals (e.g., heartbeat, perspiration, and skin conductance) and the reconfigurable shelter changes itself according to the programmatic needs and emotional data and helps the occupant heal. By modifying atmospheric conditions (e.g., natural light, changing the color) it decreases the level of stress. In addition to the treatment role, it has a preventative role in informing caregivers about inflictions before they happen.

Mirada Bernhardt – Center for Reproductive Biology (College of Vet Med)
Title: Improved artificial oocyte activation for somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT)

Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT or “cloning”) is a powerful technology with important applications in gene editing and agriculture. Health problems in animals produced using SCNT may be related to culture conditions and treatments during very early development. SCNT embryos are produced by fusing a body cell or nucleus with an enucleated oocyte. Because the oocyte does not undergo normal fertilization, it must be triggered to begin embryo development, or activated, artificially. This project will test a novel oocyte activation method in porcine oocytes to determine whether embryo development and embryo quality can be improved following SCNT. Current activation protocols use chemicals or electric pulses to raise intracellular calcium levels. The novel method tested here triggers a more natural pattern of calcium oscillations by stimulating the same signaling pathway as sperm. Based on preliminary data, this method is effective for mouse oocytes. This proposal outlines experiments to test this novel G-protein-based artificial oocyte activation method in porcine oocytes and to determine whether it improves porcine SCNT embryo health.

Andy Shu – Mechanical and Materials Engineering (VCEA)
Title: Development of a Novel Acoustic Technology for the Cryopreservation of Live Cells and Tissues

Cryopreservation of cells, tissues, and organs has been successfully applied in fundamental research and clinical practice, such as sperm bank, cellular therapy, and tissue/organ transplantation. However, the viability and functionality of biological materials can be damaged during cooling and thawing, majorly due to the lethal intracellular ice formation (IIF). To endure cells through cryopreservation, cryoprotective agents (CPAs, e.g., DMSO and sugar) should be added to the cells before cooling and removed after thawing. The CPA addition/removal process can cause osmotic injury to the cells as well. These major challenges severely hinder the better application of cryopreservation. In this work, a novel versatile system based on acoustic technique will be developed and optimized to address all the challenges mentioned above, including manipulating the phase transition of the cell suspension, loading nonpermeating CPAs into cells, and removing CPAs after thawing with minimal cell injury. This system and technology can be applied in many other engineering and biomedical fields, such as controlled crystallization in metallurgy and food processing, drug delivery, gene therapy, concentration and detection of rare target cells out of a mixture for the diagnosis of diseases, and others.

Lindsey Miller – Nutrition & Exercise Physiology (College of Medicine)
Title: Effect of methylsulfonylmethane on cardiometabolic health in prediabetic obese adults

Obesity is related to the development of multiple diseases, such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes. Development of these obesity-related diseases is linked to elevated levels of inflammation, oxidative stress, and metabolic dysfunction. Interventions to reduce inflammation and improve metabolic function hold promise for the prevention of obesity-related diseases. Methylsulfonylmethane (MSM) is a naturally occurring compound that demonstrates antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. Improvements in measures of metabolic health have been observed in mouse models of obesity and type 2 diabetes following MSM treatment. MSM is currently available as a common dietary supplement ‘generally recognized as safe’ by the Food and Drug Administration. However, the effect of MSM on obesity-related diseases in humans has not been investigated. Therefore, the purpose of this investigation will be to determine whether MSM supplementation improves metabolic health, and markers of inflammation and oxidative status.

Rock Mancini – Department of Chemistry (CAS)
Title: α,ω-Heterotelechelic Polymers Synthesized by Radical-Radical Recombination

Large molecules of biological origin (biomolecules) have immense potential for use as therapeutic drugs for diseases ranging from cancer to diabetes. However, using biomolecules in medicine is challenging because they have poor drug-like properties. Many therapeutically useful biomolecules are difficult to obtain in high purity, unstable, and rapidly deteriorate. An emerging approach to mitigate these challenges is to synthetically modify otherwise unstable biomolecules to generate synthetic-biologic hybrid molecules with significantly improved drug-like properties. Our research develops a new type of reaction to generate these synthetic-biologic hybrids. Our new reaction methodology exploits a phenomenon known as the Persistent Radical Effect; an effect that has been extensively studied in Chemistry, but never before applied to create molecules that contain both synthetic and biological components. We demonstrate that applying the Persistent Radical Effect to generate syntheticbiologic hybrid molecules, not only imparts improved drug-like properties to biomolecules, but also results in a synthesis that is higher yielding, and easier to purify than conventional techniques. We envision that advancing this type of reaction will enable the synthesis of many new biomolecule therapeutics.

Luciana Hebert – IREACH (Community Health)
Title: Reproductive Profile of AIAN women in the National Survey of Family Growth

American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) women and girls experience numerous heath challenges including unintended pregnancy, late entry into prenatal care, increased risk of sexual victimization, 3 and high rates of sexually transmitted infection. Evidence suggests fertility among AI/AN women is declining substantially. Dedicated analyses that examine pregnancy intentions, contraceptive use behaviors and fertility patterns among AI/AN women can illustrate the individual-level factors that underpin and shape population level trends. In the context of decreasing fertility, continued unintended pregnancy, and multiple reproductive health disparities, a detailed look at reproductive health indicators among AI/AN women using survey data is needed. This study will use data from the National Survey of Family Growth to 1) examine pregnancy intentions and fertility patterns among AI/AN women women; 2) examine contraceptive use behaviors and correlates among AI/AN women; and 3) evaluate differences in fertility, reproductive and contraceptive behaviors between urban and
rural AI/AN women.

Brianna Ewing, School of Food Science
Title: Strategic Yeast Nutrition Supplementation for Hard Cider Fermentation

Cider production and consumption has increased dramatically over the past decade, particularly in the Pacific Northwest. One area of interest to cidermakers in this region is how yeast nutrition during fermentation impacts aroma and flavor development in cider. One aroma, hydrogen sulfide, is responsible for a rotten-egg-like odor and is often produced as a response to yeast nutritional stress. Though much work has been done to evaluate the production of hydrogen sulfide during grape wine fermentation, there is a significant lack of research pertaining to cider fermentation.

Therefore, this research aims evaluate nutrient supplementation strategies during hard cider fermentation to reduce the occurrence of hydrogen sulfide formation by adding various forms of nitrogen and vitamins at different rates. This study will be the first in a multi-institutional effort to address yeast nutrition in cider fermentation to support the growing cider industry.

Sarah Hart, School of the Environment
Title: Fire-adaptive trait diversity across spatial scales: Consequences for productivity recovery following wildfire

Coincident with recent warm and dry conditions, ecosystems across the globe have experienced an increase in wildfire activity. Future changes in climate are widely anticipated to increase area burned and fire occurrence. In the context of anticipating the ecological consequences of altered fire regimes, a key challenge is understanding which systems may be most resilient, or able to recover their essential structure and function following disturbance. It is widely thought that resilience is greater in more diverse systems because any individual species lost to wildfire may be compensated for by another species that is functionally similar. Yet empirical evidence for the diversity-resilience relationship is lacking, particularly across complex landscapes. To address this knowledge gap, the proposed research seeks to quantify the effects of biodiversity and environmental conditions on resilience across spatial scales.

Sophia Tegart, School of Music
Title: Musical Ekphrasis in the Flute Works of Women Composers: A commissioning and recording project

Within the scope of this project, the PI, Sophia Tegart, will commission, record, and perform works by women composers for flute alone and flute and piano. Musical ekphrasis, or the representation of art, nature, and poetry in music will act as the unifying theme of the project. The commissioned, recorded, and performed works on the CD will exemplify musical ekphrasis. The CD will contain previously written works by composers Jean Ahn, Jessica Rudman, Laura Schwendinger, Sofia Gubaidulina, and Gabriela Lena Frank, as well as newly commissioned works by Canadian-born, Scottish-based composer Emily Doolittle and German-American composer Ingrid Stolzel. The PI will perform and record the works in collaboration with Washington State University School of Music faculty pianist, Michael Seregow. The eventual result of this project will be the addition of new creative works, preservation and dissemination of the works, and national and international recognition of the works through published scores and reviews, recordings, and musical performances.

Chanmi Hwang, Department of Apparel, Merchandising, Design & Textiles
Title: Towards Mass Production: Developing Functional Maternity Hospital Gown

In labor and delivery services, all women deserve good quality maternal health services for the wellbeing of themselves and their children. However, there has been an increase in patient dissatisfaction of current hospital maternity gowns since they are not fully functional for the healthcare practitioner and are physically and emotionally uncomfortable to the user. The purpose of this project is to conduct the research needed that informs development of economically feasible and functional hospital gowns that satisfy the needs of both patients and the practitioners throughout different stages of labor. The researcher will (a) identify key design attributes of patients and practitioners’ user needs through a nation-wide online survey and interviews conducted at Pullman Regional Hospital, and (b) determine a cost-effective design and sustainable supply chain of the maternity hospital gowns. This study extends the user-centered approach to a society-oriented focus through product innovation, product-service system innovation and socio-technical system innovation. Patients, healthcare practitioners, and health insurance organizations will benefit from the results.

Molly Kelton, Department of Teaching & Learning
Title: Health Education through Arts Learning: A STEM Partnership in Diverse Rural Communities

For many low-income and minority children living in US rural-agricultural regions, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) can seem out of reach. There is a pressing need to develop educational programs that allow underrepresented children to see themselves and their rural communities as a genuine part of the STEM landscape. This project will launch the Health-STEM Education through Arts-based Learning (HEAL) partnership. Emerging STEM-education scholars in WSU’s College of Education lead the HEAL partnership. Additional collaborators include faculty in CAHNRS, the College of Medicine, and the Franklin and Yakima Extension campuses, as well as community partners in rural Washington. HEAL’s long-term mission is to broaden minority and rural participation in STEM. This project will develop a novel educational program to teach children in grades 3-5 from predominantly-Latino populations in Central Washington about ecological dynamics and infectious diseases that affect rural-agricultural areas. This unique partnership will investigate innovative arts-based strategies to reveal diverse opportunities for students to engage in STEM fields.

Xiongzhi Chen, Mathematics & Statistics
Title: Large-scale multiple hypotheses testing: adaptivity, accuracy, stability and reproducibility

In many scientific endeavors including genomics, genetics, medical science and drug safety studies, researchers need to simultaneously compare one or more features of thousands or even millions of study subjects and then identify highly relevant ones for further investigations. This leads to large-scale multiple hypotheses testing for high-dimensional data. However, observations in such data usually follow heterogeneous distributions, are dependent on each other, and inherit various sources of uncertainty. This greatly affects the adaptivity, accuracy, stability and reproducibility of a statistical procedure. To date, these four issues have only been addressed for very special cases. Correspondingly, the proposed research will address them in general by developing testing procedures that adapt to the overall level of signals in data, classifying the type of dependence under which a statistical procedure is accurate and stable, and proposing reproducible and scalable statistical methods that account for heterogeneous sources of uncertainty in data.

Idil Akin, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Title: Strength and stiffness of unsaturated clay in relation to internal stress state

Strength and stiffness of the soil are the two most important parameters in the design and analysis of geotechnical engineering structures (e.g., foundations, pavements, natural and man0made slopes, etc.). The traditional framework that is used in geotechnical engineering practice to determine the mechanical soil behavior is based on the assumption that the soil is fully saturated with water. The assumption simplifies the analysis by reducing the soil into a two-phase medium an considers the worst possible environmental conditions, however, cannot represent the true stress state of soil. More importantly, change in soil saturation results in a nonlinear change in internal stress state, and therefore to mechanical soil behavior, which cannot be captured by the current framework. This study is a step to develop a new framework to quantify mechanical behavior of soils in the entire range of saturation (i.e., from 0 to 100%). Soil stiffness is measured through resilient modulus and shear modulus tests in the entire range of saturation. The change in soil stiffness with saturation is explained through the change in internal stress components (i.e., adsorptive and capillary components) with saturation.

Ofer Amram, Nutrition & Exercise Physiology
Title: Access to Opioid Addiction Treatment and Overdose Risk in Spokane County

Regions throughout North America are experiencing unprecedented rates of morbidity and mortality associated with opioid overdoses (OD). In fact, the increase in OD-related death is attributed to have caused the first drop in US life expectancy since 1963 (0.1% between 2015 and 2017). Within Washington State, Spokane County had a 78% increase in opioid drug-related deaths in 2016 compared to 2014 (64 vs. 36 respectively). There is growing evidence that methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) is effective in reducing rates of OD and OD mortality. Therefore, the purpose of this project is to: 1.) examine the relationship between access to the only publicly-funded MMT clinic in Spokane county and both adherence to treatment and likelihood of OD and, 2.) to map locations (hotspots) within Spokane County where either high or low concentrations of MMT clients are found. A web-based mapping and visualization dashboard will display the results and provide an analysis platform for decision makers.

Lais Malavasi, Veterinary Clinical Sciences
Title: Effect of buprenorphine/bupivacaine in brachial plexus block for elbow arthroscopy in dogs.

Local anesthesia techniques have many advantages besides producing pain relief during surgery. It also promotes pain relief after surgery, better recovery from surgical procedures, and a faster healing time. Bupivacaine has been the agent of choice for local blocks due to its longer duration of time (6 h). Human research has shown that adding buprenorphine, a partial opioid, to a nerve block can increase the analgesia duration threefold. This could benefit patients undergoing surgeries by providing prolonged analgesia after discharge from the hospital. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of buprenorphine added to the local anesthetic (bupivacaine) for brachia! plexus block in dogs that will be subjected to elbow arthroscopy. The effect of this drug combination will be compared to the effects of brachia! plexus block given only the local anesthetic. Data collection will include intraoperative cardiorespiratory variables, postoperative pa_in and lameness scores, and opioid consumption postoperatively which will be given when any dog is showing signs of pain.

Ryan Driskell, School of Molecular Biosciences
Title: Investigating cellular heterogeneity during skin development in a porcine (pig) model.

Adult skin wounds in mammals heal via a reparative, rather than regenerative, process and, therefore results in fibrotic scarring. Small scars in the skin are not normally a problem for mammals, but fibrotic scars that cover large areas of the human body, such as burn wounds, can be debilitating. To fully regenerate a wound, re-formation of a complex micro-tissue-architecture including skin appendages, hair follicles and sweat glands is required. Fibroblasts are key cell types in regulating appendage formation during skin development and tissue repair. We have discovered that regulating the relative abundances of different fibroblast populations during wound repair in mice will direct skin regeneration instead of scarring. Here we intend to investigate fibroblasts during porcine (pig) skin development as a surrogate model for human skin, to lead to therapeutic strategies for human skin regeneration.

Julia Day, School of Design & Construction
Title: A mixed methods approach to understanding the human-building interface

As evidenced by a growing body of research, building interface design profoundly affects occupant comfort, building usability and energy use. However, there is limited research and practical guidance on residential building interface design. This project will use a set of novel surveys, interviews, and field studies to determine best practices for design considerations for common household interfaces (e.g. thermostats, light switches, windows, blind controls, and water fixtures). An online survey and interviews will be implemented to understand occupants’ perceptions of thermal and visual comfort, as well as respective adaptive opportunities and corresponding behaviors (e.g. opening/closing windows).

Ultimately, findings from this study will provide major insights about the importance of: (a) the human-building-interface, (b) design missteps and lessons learned, and (c) understanding the building context when implementing behavioral approaches. This research has the potential to greatly improve residential design and human-building interface controls. Results will be disseminated through a free webinar, journal and magazine article, and an illustrated user-friendly report of results.

Qiang Zhang, Department of Chemistry
Title: Design and Synthesis of Porous Smart Materials

The proposed research aims to design and synthesis porous smart materials for applications in sensing of toxic chemicals in air and water. These smart materials can change color when contacted with specific chemicals. We plan to use highly emissive organic ligands as building blocks to construct porous luminescent coordination polymers and porous organic polymers. On one hand, the feature of these materials is that the structure of the framework can change upon chemical or physical stimulation, for example, metal ions in water or external pressure. The change of structure will cause the color or emission color change, which can be recorded to identify the contacted species and calculate the concentration. On the other hand, the rigid framework can be constructed by using flexible organic ligands, in which there are functional groups that are not directly used to connect to the network. In this case, the free functional groups can interact with chemicals, which will change the relative conformation of the organic ligand, which will alter the color of the material. As the color of the material is very sensitive to the conformation, the detection of chemicals with very low concentration can be realized.

Jessica Willoughby, Communication
Title: The role of emotions and social media in young women’s tanning attitudes and behaviors

Melanoma, the deadliest type of skin cancer, is prevalent in young women. Melanoma kills one person every hour. Younger skin is particularly vulnerable to ultraviolet light that promotes skin cancer, making young women a prime target audience for prevention messaging. Messaging focused on increasing knowledge has not been found effective at changing behaviors. Our project will examine the role of psychosocial variables related to media use and emotional states in promoting or preventing skin damaging and skin protection behaviors through real-time data collected via ecological momentary assessment with young women in two states. Results of this research will provide us with valuable insights that can inform the development of an intervention to promote sun safety for young women. Additionally, it will provide preliminary data for external funding applications.

Richard Iles, School of Economic Sciences
Title: Human cognition in computer simulations: an evaluation of poverty alleviation.

The pattern of cyclical poverty is a frequent feature of households in poverty across low – middle income countries. Interventions may contribute to cyclical poverty when immediate gains don’t change household’s long-run productive capacity. The integration of economic theory with agent-based models to better understand the importance of micro-level assumptions on macro-level outcomes aligns to a complex systems framework. This same framework is appropriate to better understand long-term epidemiological and environmental dynamics associated with poverty alleviation and the use of livestock asset transfers. Two agent-based models will be built each with a different geographical and livestock asset focus. The simulation model requires two sets of human decisions: a) sale of livestock, and b) vaccination against infectious livestock disease. The contrasting assumed levels of information associated with persistent knowledge of the availability of livestock feed and limited information about livestock disease outbreaks provides natural contexts to test the effects of cognitive information processing costs.