Virtually the Same? Evaluating the Effectiveness of Remote Undergraduate Research Experiences.

In-person undergraduate research experiences (UREs) promote students' integration into careers in life science research. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic prompted institutions hosting summer URE programs to offer them remotely, raising questions about whether undergraduates who participate in remote research can experience scientific integration and whether they might perceive doing research less favorably (i.e.

"How Do We Do This at a Distance?!" A Descriptive Study of Remote Undergraduate Research Programs during COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic shut down undergraduate research programs across the United States. A group of 23 colleges, universities, and research institutes hosted remote undergraduate research programs in the life sciences during Summer 2020. Given the unprecedented offering of remote programs, we carried out a study to describe and evaluate them.

The Artificial Sweetener, Erythritol, Has Insecticidal Properties Against Pear Psylla (Hemiptera: Psyllidae).

Erythritol is a dietary sweetener that is used for low-calorie or diabetic diets. Although safe for human consumption, erythritol is lethal to certain Dipteran pests, but insecticidal effects of erythritol on phloem-feeding insects have yet to be examined. Our goal was to determine whether erythritol has insecticidal activity against pear psylla, Cacopsylla pyricola (Foerster) (Hemiptera: Psyllidae).

Glial cell ecology in zebrafish development and regeneration.

Zebrafish have been found to be the premier model organism in biological and biomedical research, specifically offering many advantages in developmental biology and genetics. The zebrafish () has the ability to regenerate its spinal cord after injury. However, the complete molecular and cellular mechanisms behind glial bridge formation in zebrafish remains unclear.

Beyond the lab bench: Pathways in inclusion, equity, and diversity in biology education and social justice.

Over the past six years, I describe my personal journey into promoting inclusion, equity, and diversity in biology education and social justice. In my personal journey, I will describe how I found my passion in mentoring and teaching Native American, Latinx, and non-traditional undergraduates in cell and developmental biology. I will also describe how Dr.

Organic-Inorganic Solid-State Hybridization with High-Strength and Anti-Hydrolysis Interface.

Organic-inorganic material hybridization at the solid-state level is indispensable for the integration of IoT applications, but still remains a challenging issue. Existing bonding strategies in the field of electronic packaging tend to employ vacuum or ultrahigh temperature; however, these can cause process complications and material deterioration. Here we report an easy-to-tune method to achieve hybrid bonding at the solid-state level and under the ambient atmosphere.

Fast Atom Beam- and Vacuum-Ultraviolet-Activated Sites for Low-Temperature Hybrid Integration.

The evolution of surface chemical structures of polyimide induced by Ar fast atom beam (Ar-FAB) bombardment and vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) irradiation was investigated using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) to clarify the activated sites for low-temperature hybrid bonding. These sites in molecular chains are considered corresponding to the bonding sites. They affect interfacial properties.

Novel Self-shrinking Mask for Sub-3 nm Pattern Fabrication.

It is very difficult to realize sub-3 nm patterns using conventional lithography for next-generation high-performance nanosensing, photonic, and computing devices. Here we propose a completely original and novel concept, termed self-shrinking dielectric mask (SDM), to fabricate sub-3 nm patterns. Instead of focusing the electron and ion beams or light to an extreme scale, the SDM method relies on a hard dielectric mask which shrinks the critical dimension of nanopatterns during the ion irradiation.

Pbx4 is Required for the Temporal Onset of Zebrafish Myocardial Differentiation.

Proper control of the temporal onset of cellular differentiation is critical for regulating cell lineage decisions and morphogenesis during development. Pbx homeodomain transcription factors have emerged as important regulators of cellular differentiation. We previously showed, by using antisense morpholino knockdown, that Pbx factors are needed for the timely activation of myocardial differentiation in zebrafish.

Of Heart & Kidneys: Hands-On Activities for Demonstrating Organ Function & Repair.

A major challenge in teaching organ development and disease is deconstructing a complex choreography of molecular and cellular changes over time into a linear stepwise process for students. As an entry toward learning developmental concepts, I propose two inexpensive hands-on activities to help facilitate learning of (1) how to identify defects in heart and kidneys and (2) what evolutionarily conserved strategies from organ development can be applied to understand how to repair these defects. The ease of assembling these activities, combined with traffic flow as a metaphor for physiological function of heart and kidneys, provides students the opportunity to explore and discover biological concepts in organ formation and disease.

The luminal connection: from animal development to lumopathies.

Interconnection of epithelial tubules is a crucial process during organogenesis. Organisms have evolved sets of molecular and cellular strategies to generate an interconnected tubular network during animal development. Spatiotemporal control of common cellular strategies includes dissolution of the basement membrane, apoptosis, rearrangements of cell adhesion junctions, and mesenchymal-like invasive cellular behaviors prior to tubular interconnection.

Invasion of distal nephron precursors associates with tubular interconnection during nephrogenesis.

Formation of a functional renal network requires the interconnection of two epithelial tubes: the nephron, which arises from kidney mesenchyme, and the collecting system, which originates from the branching ureteric epithelium. How this connection occurs, however, is incompletely understood. Here, we used high-resolution image analysis in conjunction with genetic labeling of epithelia to visualize and characterize this process.