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Seattle fish research could shake up global tire industry

Electric vehicles have clear environmental benefits over gas-powered cars, yet all cars and trucks are polluters when it comes to their tires.

Research in Seattle-area creeks has discovered tire bits shedding lethal amounts of a little-known, salmon-killing chemical called 6PPD-quinone.

That research has led California officials to start regulating 6PPD, the tire-rubber stabilizer that degrades into toxic 6PPD-quinone, with consequences that could reverberate around the world.

The California Department of Toxic Substances Control is expected to issue a draft rule in May requiring tire manufacturers to look for alternatives to 6PPD.

Jenifer McIntyre.
McIntyre

“6PPD-quinone is among the most toxic chemicals that we know of for aquatic life,” Jenifer McIntyre, an ecotoxicologist in the School of the Environment at Washington State University in Puyallup, said at the Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference in April.

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KUOW

Everyday Heroes: Class of 2022 at WSU Vancouver includes 81-year-old

Close to a thousand students took that walk across the stage to become WSU Vancouver’s official graduating class of 2022.

Some of those graduates feel like that day was a long time coming.

Marilou Cassidy.
Cassidy

The last time Marilou Cassidy wore a cap and gown was during her high school graduation in 1959.

Sixty-three years later, Marilou just earned her BA degree in Humanities from WSU Vancouver at the age of 81.

“I wanted to finally be a college graduate. I am surrounded by them. My grandkids, my husband and children are all college grads. I decided that it was time to complete that BA,” she says.

Marilou attended Clark College and Marylhurst over the years. She got halfway to earning a degree. After the long break, she jumped back into classes in the summer of 2019.

“It was the learning that I really started enjoying. I liked the entire learning process. It was hard, but I was dedicated to it.”

It was in her women’s studies and art history classes where Marilou found her passion for learning.

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KATU
NW Crimson & Gray

AI Predicts Infant Age and Gender Based on Temperament

It’s hard to tell the difference between a newborn boy and girl based solely on temperament characteristics such as the baby’s propensity to display fear, smile or laugh. But once babies reach around a year old that begins to change.

A new study in PLOS ONE used machine learning to analyze temperament data on 4,438 babies in an attempt to classify the infants by gender and age.

The results indicate it is far easier for computer algorithms to determine the age of a baby than it is for them to decipher a baby’s gender based off temperament data during the infant’s first 48 weeks of life.

However, once the babies passed 48 weeks of age, gender classification improved for the multiple algorithms considered, suggesting gender differences in infancy become more accentuated around this time.

Masha Maria Gartstein.
Gartstein

“It is at least suggestive of a picture where temperament begins to differentiate by gender in a more powerful way around age one,” said Maria Gartstein, lead author of the study and a professor of psychology at Washington State University.

Previous research has investigated age and gender-based temperament differences in babies, but few if any studies have looked at the two variables together.

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Neuroscience News
India Times
Mirage
WSU Insider

Two WSU Faculty Members Named to National Academy of Sciences

Tim Kohler.
Kohler

Washington State University Biochemistry Professor John Browse and anthropology Professor Tim Kohler have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences in recognition of their achievements in original research, the college announced Sunday.

Browse and Kohler are among 150 new members named to the National Academy of Sciences on May 3.

The National Academy of Sciences, which was first established in 1863 by U.S. Congress and then President Abraham Lincoln, is a nonprofit society of scholars charged with providing independent, objective advice about science and technology to the nation.

According to the university, Kohler studies the social dynamics of prehistoric cultures, specializing in the U.S. Southwest. His research explores the relationships among demography, violence, wealth inequality, social evolution, and climate variability.

Kohler’s current projects include the SKOPE project to make interpreted paleoenvironmental data widely accessible, and another National Science Foundation-funded project to generate and analyze measures of wealth inequality in societies around the world over the last 10,000 years.

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Big Country News
WSU Insider

 

History lecturer selected for Excellence in Online Teaching Award

Karl Krotke-Crandall.
Krotke-Crandall

Karl Krotke-Crandall, lecturer for Washington State University’s Department of History, is the winner of the 2021-22 Excellence in Online Teaching Award. The student-nominated annual award is sponsored by WSU Academic Outreach and Innovation.

The award, now in its sixth year, seeks to acknowledge and reward Washington State University faculty members teaching Global Campus courses who employ best practices to engage, inspire, support, and show care for students in an online environment. Krotke-Crandall will receive $3,000 in faculty development funds and a trophy in recognition of his win.

“I’m honored to be selected, and a little surprised. It can be challenging to know what type of impact I make as an educator in an online environment,” said Krotke-Crandall. “To see the comments from my students is heartwarming and validates my aims to provide them with an engaging learning environment.”

Krotke-Crandall earned his Ph.D. in Russian history from WSU in 2021 and began teaching Global Campus courses that same year. He was one of 40 online instructors nominated for the award.

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WSU Insider