S-STEM/TRAIN Scholar Kimberly Merrill's Blog

 I feel now that I am working on two research questions, I should have two parts to my blog. Part One: For the bat project, I picked up the echolocator this week. I haven't used it quite yet mainly because I got the COVID-19 vaccine on Tuesday evening and have been dealing with some of the side effects. Also, last evening it was extremely windy and cold in my area and I'm not sure it's a great idea to take the device out in those weather conditions, nor would it probably be a successful time to find bats. I believe my research question for the bats will be something along the lines of: Why do bats harbor so many diseases? To understand the cycles and transmissions, I started at looking at some of the main zoonotic diseases that bats carry. The image below is from the article, "Why bats are the source of so many disease outbreaks, "  by Anjishnu Das. The artilce was published in Februrary of 2020 on Times of India via  http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow...

 Hello! This week I decided to look into bats. Matt has been really helpful and extended the opportunity to use one of the data collectors for the bat project. To get a good idea of a new research topic, I focused on reading about bats and their importance in varying ecosystems. I learned a lot about how they attain huge importance in moderating pest populations and increase soil enrichment.  It was suggested since my last project was on a zoonotic disease, that I carry that knowledge of the research process into diseases that bats carry. There are likely many factors involved in their involvement as hosts and vectors. This coming week, I plan to look into those factors and hopefully develop a question around that. First, I want to get an understanding of bats in general, including their diet, migrations, and physical make-up. Then, I want to learn what diseases they carry besides the obvious. Lastly, I want to look at the disease cycles and see what's happening there.  A...

 Welcome/welcome back everyone! I hope everyone had a safe, wonderful winter break.  Last semester, I left off with an open ended research project. The Plague vs Temperature analysis was causing many difficulties. Fortunately, I am getting some help on what to do with messy, inconsistent data. I still won't give up on the project and plan to continue on with it this semester. Seeing it through and finding substantial or insignificant results is still the goal. I think I pretty much know the conclusion before the data is even put together. I just need a little help putting it together. Also, I'm in the process of developing a simultaneous research question to involve bats of sometime, while I help collect bat data for Matt and peer STEM/TRAIN students. I am really excited about that.  During winter break, I did a lot. My mum is selling my childhood home/farm so I've been going through all my old stuff that one often leaves at their parents house, such as year books, sports...

This week I have worked on cleaning up my paper. I submitted it and just need to finished my results and conclusion.  My results section looks really weak or empty. However, I have the data for two of my locations, which is Madagascar and the Democratic Republic of Congo. However, Peru is proving difficult to find credible climate data and substantial number of cases. I chose it because the CDC and WHO mentioned it is one of the top countries endemic with Plague.  However, with available data it seems like portions of the US have more cases than Peru. The difficulty with the US is deciding where to draw the parameters. Madagascar and the Democratic Republic of Congo have relatively smaller land mass. It wouldn't be consistent to use the entire US. To choose certain states within the US will take me much more time to collect data. I can't use the entire US, also, because temperatures vary significantly across the country.  I plan to incorporate all my data into results whe...

I have a lot going on this week, as I'm sure many do approaching the end of the semester.  First, I found out some information that put me in a bind. Due to switching majors and some ill-advise from an advisor, I thought I wasn't supposed to graduate and transfer until Fall of 2022. However, it came to my attention that I am finished with my Associates of Arts and can technically graduate now. I don't have all the courses done on my MAPP but, I have enough done that it will waste my financial aid to stay at PC just for the 2 chemistry courses I need. Graduating now doesn't give me enough time to get my things in order. Therefore, this week has primarily consisted of talking to advisors to try to figure out what to do. I am not prepared to transfer, so I will most likely graduate this spring from PC and transfer to ASU in the fall. I'm still talking to advisors and transfer reps. Unfortunately, because it was unexpected and I thought I would have time, I will be one ...

It is almost turkey times, friends! I cannot wait for some stuffing (it's my favorite). First, I'd like to say I am having issues commenting on my own blog. I have seen your comments and appreciate the support, encouragement, and advice. Hopefully, I will have these technical issues resolved soon so that I can respond and send my warm regards.  I have done a little statistics in some of my science classes, but have not taken the class, yet. I believe it's on my schedule for one of the upcoming semesters. Therefore, I don't fully know about the types of statistical comparisons.  My week has been organizing my data into neat little tables that make sense. Also, I have had to collect some more climate data for one of my regions. I need to have a meeting with a mentor to help me understand statistically and graphically. I love math, but my least favorite part is making the graphs. Well, just complicated ones are challenging. Really my goal is to have the data really clearly...

  Belated Happy Veteran's Day to everyone and thank you for your service to any vets in the program. My paper didn't turn out as plan. The more research I've done, the farther down the rabbit hole I've gone. As I've mentioned before, my research question involves two variables, which are temperature and Plague cases.  However, in the grand scheme of things, which I touched on in my last post, temperature does affect incidence of Plague and in many ways. It was very easy to go down many paths of the how's, but it made it extremely hard to express any results and specifically answer the question. For example, host activity and breeding differs in different climate. Flea reproduction varies at changing temperatures and increased rainfall. I could go on, but it is really not necessary because although it contributes to my topic it does not pertain directly to my research question.  As I was writing my paper, I was racking my brain and thinking, "how the heck do...