S-STEM/TRAIN Scholar Kimberly Merrill's Blog

 Hello again, friends! I'd like to start by saying welcome to all the new people who have joined. I'm fairly new myself, but am starting to feel really comfortable and more confident in my work. The blogs I've seen so far are really interesting and I can't wait to see all the different research. STEM is really amazing and can reach so many different facets and learners.  The rough draft of the paper is due next week. My sentiments about that include anxious deep breaths. In all seriousness, my goal is for it to be very clear, logical, and worthy of the topic.  I am removing population density of humans and rodents from my variable table. The data is more inconsistent in rodents and the mammals vary so much in species, reproduction styles and rates, and community distance proximity. The pursuit was not fruitless and I learned a lot about flea carriers and disease spread in the process. However, I think the prospect of population density data was short-sighted and not wel...

Hello again to all!   One significant point of focus in my research is Madagascar. I know I have mentioned this country in previous blog posts. However, the more I learn about incidence of Plague, the more Madagascar dominates the average rates of infection.  Also, this week I found some interesting information provided by the Republic of South Africa's Health Department in their publication of National Plague Control Guidelines . For example, more than 80% of worldwide Plague cases occur in South African countries, most notably Madagascar. This remains true and representative of the last three decades. Hence, I think we can agree we need to look really closely about what's going on with this island.  Here is a simple statement from Dr. M. E. Tshabalala-Msimang in the manual that made me ecstatic:  "The ecology of plague is highly variable as there is a complex interaction between the hosts, vectors and the plague bacilli that is influenced by factors such as ho...

 Midterms are done! Well, my midterms are complete. Here's a quick update of what I have been working on this week. I didn't get as much done as I like, but I made great headway and eliminated a lot of unnecessary data and journals and wrote quick, review-style notes on some really helpful notes.  I'm finding that I may have to tweak some elements of my research, but I remain optimistic.  Despite not making as much progress as I would have liked this week, I have learned a lot about my topic. I am finding a lot of evidence that supports my hypothesis. However, I am searching for information that doesn't support my hypothesis just to see if I am way off base or not.  The biggest challenge has been trying to narrow in on the data that I want to include in my graphs. It's there, but needs to be organized.  Also, I am not happy about my project background. I didn't feel good about it so I am inserting, deleting, and revising some things until I feel like it's so...

 Hello Everyone! Midterms are here and I have heard a lot of concern about workload. I can 100% sympathize with all of you. My chemistry lab kit just showed up last week (due to delayed processing) but we are six labs in. I have been experimenting my days away to catch up.  Hence, I haven't put as much evaluation into my project background as I like. Currently, I am putting my final touches on it before submission. I find myself struggling to organize the mass amounts of information there are into the background. My first step, after finishing reading and annotating the scholarly journals, was deciding what was relevant and should be mentioned and what was seemingly insignificant and could be omitted.  When it comes to an infectious disease, is any information about it invaluable, though? Aside from the project background, my main focus of research has been population densities of rodents in areas where the highest amount of cases occur. So far, it seems that deer mice ar...

  Happy October!   We have completed approximately 83% of 2020, but there's plenty of time to get much more research done. This week, I discovered I overdid the background quite a bit in my research proposal. Fortunately, I did learn that it will come in helpful for my final paper.  Due to current circumstances, my research method will consist of literary reviews, data analysis, and trend observation. My goal is to find out if there is a correlation between climate and case numbers of Plague. Many infectious diseases have a seasonality. It is already established that Yersinia pestis thrives in a moderate climate and cannot withstand extremely high or low temperatures. However, I am currently searching to see if warmer climates promote rodent and flea reproduction, which then in turn could lead to a higher rate of spread and human transmission. Initially, I was curious about humidity, but thought that it might not be a huge factor in mammal reproduction. Also, the map I s...