PhD2B

Sam, our son, is studying for his PhD in Applied Mathematics at UC Davis.  The "math" part has to do with creating mathematical models for the "applied" part, which has to do with the life-cycle of a parasitic worm called: Schistocephalus Solidus.   I created this small quilt to hang in his university office, which illustrates the life-cycle through three hosts.  The quilting is text from a definitive article on this parasite  (Barber and Scharsack, 2010).

 
This is the text from the research,  not all of it made it into the quilting: 

• Schistocephalus solidus is a trophically transmitted pseudophyllidean cestode with a three-host life cycle. The definitive host can be any warm-blooded vertebrate; most typically these are fish-eating birds though other endotherms can harbour adult worms, including otters (Hoberg et al. 1997) and, though presumably only rarely, humans (Coombs and Crompton, 1991). Schistocephalus solidus does not grow in the gut of the definitive host but undergoes the final stages of sexual maturation there, reproducing sexually either by selfing (if singly infected) or by cross-fertilization (in multiple infections). Eggs released into the water with the bird’s faeces hatch to produce free-swimming coracidia that are transmitted trophically to a wide range of cyclopoid copepods, the 1st intermediate hosts. Here the parasites develop in the copepod haemocoel into procercoids, becoming infective to three-spined sticklebacks, the obligatory specific 2nd intermediate hosts (Bra ̊ten, 1966), with the formation of a hooked cercomer. Sticklebacks acquire infections when they feed on parasitized copepods, and in the stickleback digestive tract infective procercoids shed their outer layer, together with the cercomer, and penetrate the wall of the intestine. The parasite then develops into a plerocercoid, which grows to a large size in the fish host’s body cavity. The life cycle is completed when sticklebacks harbouring infective plerocercoids are ingested by a definitive host (Clarke, 1954).

 Here is Sam, the PhD-to-be 
 
















And here we are together when I gave him this quilt:

And with his lovely wife, Kelly! 




Sam and Kelly have a couple larger quilts at home, but I knew Sam's head was full of this topic, so I wanted to honor his work. 

Good luck with your studies, Sam! 

Peace, 
Paula