Life Sciences Commons^™

Mathematical Modeling Suggests Cooperation Of Plant-Infecting Viruses, Joshua Miller, Vitaly V. Ganusov, Tessa Burch-Smith

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Structural Analysis Of The Multifunctional Spoiie Regulatory Protein Of Clostridioides Difficile., Blythe Emily Bunkers

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Clostridioides (formally Clostridium) difficile is a medically relevant pathogen pertinent to infectious disease research. C. difficile is distinctly known for its ability to produce two toxins, enterotoxin A and cytotoxin B, and the propensity to colonize the mammalian gastrointestinal tract. It is known that metabolism is tightly correlated with sporulation in endospore producers such as C. difficile, but an interesting and novel regulatory relationship found by the Ivey lab has yet to be understood. The relationship explored in this study is observed between the sporulation factor, SpoIIE, which represses expression of an ABC peptide transporter, app. In this study, two …

The Correlation Between Sleep And Lifespan In Drosophila Melanogaster, Joshua Randall Lisse

Masters Theses

”Adequate sleep is associated with an individual’s health. Too little sleep is associated with many health problems, including cardiovascular disease, obesity, and a general increase in all-cause mortality. Yet the molecular changes that link poor sleep and changes in health are still not well understood. Individuals have a unique daily need for sleep, and deviations from the animal’s regular sleeping patterns can be indicative of, or result in, underlying changes in its health. Therefore, we hypothesize that changes in the sleep architecture in Drosophila melanogaster reflect changes in the fly’s health.

We determined sleep architecture in wild-type male flies over …

A Realistic Meteorological Assessment Of Perennial Biofuel Crop Deployment: A Southern Great Plains Perspective, Melissa Wagner, Meng Wang, Gonzalo Miguez-Macho, Jesse Miller, Andy Vanloocke, Justin E. Bagley, Carl J. Bernacchi, Matei Georgescu

Andy VanLoocke

Utility of perennial bioenergy crops (e.g., switchgrass and miscanthus) offers unique opportunities to transition toward a more sustainable energy pathway due to their reduced carbon footprint, averted competition with food crops, and ability to grow on abandoned and degraded farmlands. Studies that have examined biogeophysical impacts of these crops noted a positive feedback between near-surface cooling and enhanced evapotranspiration (ET), but also potential unintended consequences of soil moisture and groundwater depletion. To better understand hydrometeorological effects of perennial bioenergy crop expansion, this study conducted high-resolution (2-km grid spacing) simulations with a state-of-the-art atmospheric model (Weather Research and Forecasting system) dynamically …

On The Quantification Of Complexity And Diversity From Phenotypes To Ecosystems, Zachary Harrison Marion

Doctoral Dissertations

A cornerstone of ecology and evolution is comparing and explaining the complexity of natural systems, be they genomes, phenotypes, communities, or entire ecosystems. These comparisons and explanations then beget questions about how complexity should be quantified in theory and estimated in practice. Here I embrace diversity partitioning using Hill or effective numbers to move the empirical side of the field regarding the quantification of biological complexity.

First, at the level of phenotypes, I show that traditional multivariate analyses ignore individual complexity and provide relatively abstract representations of variation among individuals. I then suggest using well-known diversity indices from community ecology …

Interdisciplinary Modeling For Water-Related Issues Graduate Course, Laurel Saito, Alexander Fernald, Timothy Link

All ECSTATIC Materials

The science and management of aquatic ecosystems is inherently interdisciplinary, with issues associated with hydrology, atmospheric science, water quality, geochemistry, sociology, economics, environmental science, and ecology. Addressing water resources issues in any one discipline invariably involves effects that concern other disciplines, and attempts to address one issue often have consequences that exacerbate existing issues or concerns, or create new ones (Jørgensen et al. 1992; Lackey et al. 1975; Straskraba 1994) due to the strongly interactive nature of key processes (Christensen et al. 1996). Thus, research and management of aquatic ecosystems must be interdisciplinary to be most effective, but such truly …

Using Capture-Mark-Recapture Techniques To Estimate Detection Probabilities & Fidelity Of Expression For The Critically Endangered James Spinymussel (Pleurobema Collina)., Alaina C. Esposito

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

The critically endangered James Spinymussel (Pleurobema collina) is a species of freshwater mussel endemic to Virginia’s James and Dan River basins. In the last 20 years, P. collina has experienced a substantial decline in numbers and currently occupies approximately 10% of its original habitat; however, little information is known about this species to assist in conservation. A 230-meter reach of transitional habitat in Swift Run was selected for repeat observations to estimate detection probabilities using a Capture-Mark-Recapture framework. In June 2014, visual scouting began to locate and tag P. collina (including other mussels in the community) with PIT …

Modeling Sleep And Wake Bouts In Drosophila Melanogaster, Gayla R. Olbricht, V. A. Samaranayake, Sahitya Injamuri, Luyang Wang, Courtney Fiebelman, Matthew S. Thimgan

Conference on Applied Statistics in Agriculture

Adequate sleep restores vital processes required for health and well-being; but the function and regulation of sleep is not well understood. Unfortunately, a definition of adequate sleep is unclear. On an hours-long timescale, consolidated and cycling sleep results in better health and performance outcomes. At shorter timescales, older studies report conflicting results regarding the relationship between sleep and wake bout durations. One approach to this problem has been to simply analyze the distribution of bout durations. While informative, this method eliminates the time relationship between bouts, which may be important. Here, we develop a model that describes the relationship between …

Spatial Analysis Of Grasshopper Density As Influenced By Anthropogenic Habitat Changes, Bahman Shafii, William J. Price, Dennis J. Fielding, Merlyn A. Brusven

Conference on Applied Statistics in Agriculture

The rangeland environment in southern Idaho has been heavily impacted by human activities. Invasion by exotic plant species, frequent fires, grazing pressure, and other ecological disturbances have greatly affected the structure and dynamics of grasshopper populations. Quantification of spatial patterns of grasshopper density and species composition is important in order to determine their influence on grassland ecosystems, as well as evaluating managerial decisions concerning vegetation manipulations, grazing practices, and spraying programs. A spatial statistical approach to modeling the heterogeneity of grasshopper populations is presented, and the impact of vegetation and grazing treatments on grasshopper density is investigated. Empirical applications are …

Spatial Statistical Analysis For The Area-Of-Influence Experiments, Bahman Shafii, William J. Price, Don W. Morishita

Conference on Applied Statistics in Agriculture

The area-of-influence (AOI) approach to quantifying crop/weed competition involves measuring the effect of individual weed plants on crop growth and yield at specified distances away from the weed plant. AOI experiments are often analyzed using classical statistical techniques based on the assumption that successive observations on crop response are independent in spite of their distribution in space. However, as the distance varies along the row, the competitive ability will vary spatially so that observations located nearby are expected to be more alike than those separated by large distances. Analyses based on spatial dependencies will therefore provide a more comprehensive understanding …

Forecasting Corn Ear Weights From Daily Weather Data, Fred B. Warren

Conference on Applied Statistics in Agriculture

Statistical models were developed to predict the State average grain weight per ear using daily temperature and precipitation data, recorded from May 1 through late July. The required daily weather data was successfully obtained in an operational test of these models for ten major corn producing States in 1988. Relative forecast errors of ear weight averaged almost one-third smaller than those from a regular survey. Additional refinements of the models to make them more responsive to abnormally early adverse weather, as in 1988, are underway.