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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Functional Morphology Of Gliding Flight Ii. Morphology Follows Predictions Of Gliding Performance, Jonathan Rader, Tyson L. Hedrick, Yanyan He, Lindsay D. Waldrop Sep 2020

Functional Morphology Of Gliding Flight Ii. Morphology Follows Predictions Of Gliding Performance, Jonathan Rader, Tyson L. Hedrick, Yanyan He, Lindsay D. Waldrop

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

The evolution of wing morphology among birds, and its functional consequences, remains an open question, despite much attention. This is in part because the connection between form and function is difficult to test directly. To address this deficit, in prior work we used computational modeling and sensitivity analysis to interrogate the impact of altering wing aspect ratio, camber, and Reynolds number on aerodynamic performance, revealing the performance landscapes that avian evolution has explored. In the present work, we used a dataset of three-dimensionally scanned bird wings coupled with the performance landscapes to test two hypotheses regarding the evolutionary diversification of …


Functional Morphology Of Gliding Flight I. Modeling Reveals Distinct Performance Landscapes Based On Soaring Strategies, Lindsay D. Waldrop, Yanyan He, Tyson L. Hedrick, Jonathan Rader Aug 2020

Functional Morphology Of Gliding Flight I. Modeling Reveals Distinct Performance Landscapes Based On Soaring Strategies, Lindsay D. Waldrop, Yanyan He, Tyson L. Hedrick, Jonathan Rader

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

The physics of flight influences the morphology of bird wings through natural selection on flight performance. The connection between wing morphology and performance is unclear due to the complex relationships between various parameters of flight. In order to better understand this connection, we present a holistic analysis of gliding flight that preserves complex relationships between parameters. We use a computational model of gliding flight, along with analysis by uncertainty quantification, to 1) create performance landscapes of gliding based on output metrics (maximum lift-to-drag ratio, minimum gliding angle, minimum sinking speed, lift coefficient at minimum sinking speed); and 2) predict what …


De Novo Sequencing And Analysis Of Salvia Hispanica Tissue-Specific Transcriptome And Identification Of Genes Involved In Terpenoid Biosynthesis, James Wimberley, Joseph Cahill, Hagop S. Atamian Mar 2020

De Novo Sequencing And Analysis Of Salvia Hispanica Tissue-Specific Transcriptome And Identification Of Genes Involved In Terpenoid Biosynthesis, James Wimberley, Joseph Cahill, Hagop S. Atamian

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Salvia hispanica (commonly known as chia) is gaining popularity worldwide as a healthy food supplement due to its low saturated fatty acid and high polyunsaturated fatty acid content, in addition to being rich in protein, fiber, and antioxidants. Chia leaves contain plethora of secondary metabolites with medicinal properties. In this study, we sequenced chia leaf and root transcriptomes using the Illumina platform. The short reads were assembled into contigs using the Trinity software and annotated against the Uniprot database. The reads were de novo assembled into 103,367 contigs, which represented 92.8% transcriptome completeness and a diverse set of Gene Ontology …


Automating Data Analysis For Two-Dimensional Gas Chromatography/Time-Of-Flight Mass Spectrometry Non-Targeted Analysis Of Comparative Samples, Ivan A. Titaley, O. Maduka Ogba, Leah Chibwe, Eunha Hoh, Paul H.-Y. Cheong, Staci L. Massey Simonich Feb 2018

Automating Data Analysis For Two-Dimensional Gas Chromatography/Time-Of-Flight Mass Spectrometry Non-Targeted Analysis Of Comparative Samples, Ivan A. Titaley, O. Maduka Ogba, Leah Chibwe, Eunha Hoh, Paul H.-Y. Cheong, Staci L. Massey Simonich

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Non-targeted analysis of environmental samples, using comprehensive two‐dimensional gas chromatography coupled with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC × GC/ToF-MS), poses significant data analysis challenges due to the large number of possible analytes. Non-targeted data analysis of complex mixtures is prone to human bias and is laborious, particularly for comparative environmental samples such as contaminated soil pre- and post-bioremediation. To address this research bottleneck, we developed OCTpy, a Python™ script that acts as a data reduction filter to automate GC × GC/ToF-MS data analysis from LECO® ChromaTOF® software and facilitates selection of analytes of interest based on peak area …


Improving The Efficacy Of Web-Based Educational Outreach In Ecology, Gregory R. Goldsmith, Andrew D. Fulton, Colin D. Witherill, Javier F. Espeleta Oct 2014

Improving The Efficacy Of Web-Based Educational Outreach In Ecology, Gregory R. Goldsmith, Andrew D. Fulton, Colin D. Witherill, Javier F. Espeleta

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Scientists are increasingly engaging the web to provide formal and informal science education opportunities. Despite the prolific growth of web-based resources, systematic evaluation and assessment of their efficacy remains limited. We used clickstream analytics, a widely available method for tracking website visitors and their behavior, to evaluate 60,000 visits over three years to an educational website focused on ecology. Visits originating from search engine queries were a small proportion of the traffic, suggesting the need to actively promote websites to drive visitation. However, the number of visits referred to the website per social media post varied depending on the social …