Coelophysis (see-luh-fai-suhs) was an early theropod dinosaur that lived during the Triassic Period over 200 million years ago. Coelophysis has often been depicted as a creature that was scaly and lizard-like in appearance. However, recent paleontological evidence paints a different picture of this early dinosaur. This sculptural rendition of Coelophysis includes round pupils, feathered insulation, and even varied color patterns, all based on possibilities generated from current scientific findings. This hypothetical model was created to stretch popular assumptions about the appearance of early dinosaurs.

Humans can influence wildlife populations and behavior through structural and behavioral disturbances, which can be particularly pronounced along the gradient of urbanization. Importantly, although anthropogenetic structural characteristics are relatively static along the gradient of urbanization for a given period of time, the presence of humans can be dynamic on daily and seasonal scales, which can affect wildlife activity patterns. The rapid onset of the COVID-19 pandemic created a unique opportunity to evaluate how a sudden change in human behavior can affect wildlife activity along the urbanization gradient. Specifically, we used a before-after-control-impact (BACI) study design to compare human presence and coyote daily activity patterns from before the COVID-19 pandemic to after COVID-19 stay-at-home orders and shutdowns were put in place in areas of low and high levels of urbanization. We predicted that human detection rates would increase in low levels of urbanization and decrease in high levels of urbanization due to the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns. We also predicted that coyote daily activity patterns would shift in response to human detection rates, where coyotes would become more nocturnal in areas of low levels of urbanization where human presence was expected to increase and become more diurnal in areas of high levels of urbanization where human presence was expected to decrease. We used data from wildlife cameras across the gradient of urbanization from 2019 to 2020 within the Phoenix Valley of Arizona. Across 8 sites in low levels of urbanization and 12 sites in high levels of urbanization, we did not find a statistical difference in human detection rates or coyote activity patterns in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, low sample size likely led to low power to detect differences and next steps for this research (as part of my M.S. thesis project) will be incorporating additional wildlife camera locations and wildlife species (e.g., bobcat, cottontail rabbit, gray fox, etc.), into future analyses. This project and future studies can help us better understand how structural and behavioral characteristics of humans can shape wildlife populations along the gradient of urbanization, which has important conservation implications for wildlife and people.

Students completing a Cross-Sector Leadership certificate through ASU's Next Generation Service Corps program are required to take a course on social entrepreneurship. In partnership with the program and Tony's Chocolonely, a Dutch chocolate company working to make 100% slave free the norm in the chocolate industry, a semester-long course has been designed for this, including a week-long study abroad element to the company headquarters in Amsterdam. This required designing 15 weeks of academic content from start to finish; planning a trip itinerary and budget; collaborating with employees from Tony's Chocolonely, the ASU Global Education Office, the UNDP, and the Next Generation Service Corps at ASU; and preparing all of the material necessary for proposing a study abroad course for a future course instructor to present to the Global Education Office when it is ready to be implemented.

Since 800 CE— long before the creation of the National Park Service (NPS) in 1905 — the Havasupai Tribe has depended on the natural resources and diverse ecosystem of the Grand Canyon. A deeper examination of how the national park came to fruition however demonstrates an often negated and harrowing history of land theft, forced assimilation via reservation systems, and genocide. Political ecology is a way of considering how power dynamics, resource management, and society intersect. In the United States, this approach exposes the ways that anti-Indigenous legislation originating in the Department of the Interior has functioned both as a driver of ecosystem degradation and structural barricades to Native American self-determination. In order to achieve a just and sustainable future for all, it is necessary to dismantle hegemonic discourses regarding Indigenous communities.

The cosmetic industry utilizes plastic for most of its packaging, as it is a cheap option that produces packaging that is highly durable and resistant to many chemicals. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is the most commonly used plastic in cosmetic packaging, and is an ideal candidate for recycling due to their short lifespan and low diffusion coefficient. However, cosmetic packaging is often not recycled properly due to its small size, contributing to the growing global plastic waste problem. If a sustainable closed-loop system was created where cosmetic packaging was created using purely recycled PET, then the amount of plastic produced could be reduced. By examining the mechanical properties of recycled composite PET from the cosmetic industry, conclusions can be drawn about its applicability in cosmetic packaging. The water absorption, UV-visible absorbance, and tensile strength was tested for recycled composite PET to predict how the material would perform if it was used in cosmetic packaging. It was found that the recycled composite PET did not perform as well as virgin PET in terms of water absorption and tensile strength, but performed similarly in reference to UV-visible absorbance. More research needs to be done to further characterize the mechanical properties of recycled composite PET before it can be used in cosmetic packaging, but this study analyzes three of the most prominent aspects found in cosmetic packaging.