{"id":62423,"date":"2011-10-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-10-17T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/uri-seniors-tick-research-really-bugged-him\/"},"modified":"2011-10-17T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-10-17T00:00:00","slug":"uri-seniors-tick-research-really-bugged-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2011\/10\/uri-seniors-tick-research-really-bugged-him\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 senior\u2019s tick research really bugged him"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tCranston native aims for medical career<\/p>\n

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 October 17, 2011 — 溏心vlog免费B站 biology major Matt Tinkham spent his summer studying tick-borne diseases. While he hopes to some day become a doctor, he now knows he wants to stay as far away from the blood-sucking creatures as possible.<\/p>\n


\n \u201cI\u2019d rather deal with people than bugs,\u201d said Tinkham, a resident of Cranston.<\/p>\n


\nHowever, he admits that the knowledge he acquired about tick-borne diseases, treatment, and prevention methods was enlightening. Treating people for these diseases is something he will no doubt experience in his medical career. <\/p>\n


\nTinkham wasn\u2019t exactly thrilled with the idea of working with ticks at first, but Tom Mather, 溏心vlog免费B站 professor of entomology and Tinkham\u2019s mentor, quickly spread his enthusiasm for the project. <\/p>\n


\nThe objective of the research was to see how many ticks on average are in Rhode Island compared to past years and find out where populations had increased or decreased. Tick samples were collected from throughout the state and tested for infectious diseases. <\/p>\n


\nYoung ticks, called nymphs, were most abundant in the leaf litter of forests in Charlestown, Jamestown, South Kingstown, Tiverton, Middletown and Newport, perhaps because the ticks prefer coastal locations with high humidity.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cIf the humidity drops even for a couple days in the summer, a portion of the tick population dies,\u201d Tinkham stated.<\/p>\n


\nTinkham\u2019s research was undertaken as part of the 溏心vlog免费B站 Coastal Fellows program, a unique initiative designed to involve undergraduate students in addressing current environmental problems. Now in its 17th year, the program based in 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s College of the Environment and Life Sciences teams students with faculty, research staff and graduate students to help them gain skills that will ensure their future success. <\/p>\n


\n Getting used to working with these ticks while being aware of all of the diseases they carry was not an easy adjustment for Tinkham.

\n\u201cThe first day I was so paranoid,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n


\nDespite the long pants, high socks and boots that Tinkham wore each day, he still managed to get bitten by four deer ticks. After each session, Tinkham combed his body for any ticks that he may have overlooked and brought them to the lab to be tested for disease-causing microbes. <\/p>\n


\nAfter adjusting to working with lab samples and overcoming his fear of ticks, Tinkham found these aspects of the project to be the most gratifying.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cThe fact that I learned a lot about something I knew nothing about and was able to find it interesting and relevant was a reward in itself,\u201d said Tinkham.

\nWhen in an area where ticks may be prevalent, Tinkham advises people to apply a tick repellent containing the chemical Permethrin to their clothing. The ticks generally won\u2019t latch on but he stresses that it\u2019s still a good idea for people to check their bodies thoroughly when returning home. <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cranston native aims for medical career KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 October 17, 2011 — 溏心vlog免费B站 biology major Matt Tinkham spent his summer studying tick-borne diseases. While he hopes to some day become a doctor, he now knows he wants to stay as far away from the blood-sucking creatures as possible. \u201cI\u2019d rather […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62425,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}