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Articles 1 - 15 of 15
Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Factors Affecting Breeding Territory Size And Placement Of The Florida Grasshoper Sparrow (Ammodramus Savannarum Floridanus), Jill Aldredge
Factors Affecting Breeding Territory Size And Placement Of The Florida Grasshoper Sparrow (Ammodramus Savannarum Floridanus), Jill Aldredge
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
For most taxa, maximizing fitness depends on maintaining access to adequate resources. Territories provide exclusive use of resources for an individual or a family group, thus facilitating successful reproduction. The economic defensibility of a territory depends on the quality, abundance, and distribution of its resources as well as the amount of competition that an individual must endure to maintain exclusive access. The benefits of defense must outweigh the costs for territoriality to be profitable. Territory owners may benefit from territories with high quality resources, but they also may incur greater costs defending these resources from competitors. In contrast, territories with …
Factors Affecting Predation Of Marine Turtle Eggs By Raccoons And Ghost Crabs On Canaveral National Seashore, Fl, Justin Brown
Factors Affecting Predation Of Marine Turtle Eggs By Raccoons And Ghost Crabs On Canaveral National Seashore, Fl, Justin Brown
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Changes in abundance of interactive species can have cascading, community-wide effects (Soule et al. 2003). Raccoons (Procyon lotor) prey on a competitor for marine turtle eggs, the Atlantic ghost crab (Ocypode quadrata). Conservation of marine turtles often includes managing raccoons-the most obvious egg predator-which may have broader ecological effects, and unknown effects on egg predation. Neither the relationship between raccoons and ghost crab density nor the effects of ghost crab density on egg predation are well understood. I studied raccoon-ghost crab interactions and the effects of environmental variation on their activity during the 2007 marine turtle nesting season on Canaveral …
The Effects Of Urbanization On The Structure, Quality, And Diversity Of Cypress Plant Communities In Central Florida, Courtney Knickerbocker
The Effects Of Urbanization On The Structure, Quality, And Diversity Of Cypress Plant Communities In Central Florida, Courtney Knickerbocker
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The integrity of wetland ecosystems is largely determined by hydrological functionality, degree of connectivity to like ecosystems, and permeability to external influence. Land use changes in upland areas adjacent to wetland ecosystems may influence hydrology and connectivity while introducing novel biotic and abiotic materials. There is an increasing trend toward the use of remote assessment techniques to determine the degree of impact of external influences on adjacent wetlands. Remote assessment and predictive capabilities are provided by indices such as the Landscape Development Intensity Index (LDI) (Brown and Vivas 2005) which may be beneficial in determining site condition, and which have …
Habitat Use By The Southeastern Beach Mouse (Peromyscus Polionotus Niveiventris) At Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, Kathryn Simmons
Habitat Use By The Southeastern Beach Mouse (Peromyscus Polionotus Niveiventris) At Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, Kathryn Simmons
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Successful recovery of the federally threatened southeastern beach mouse (Peromyscus polionotus niveiventris) depends in part on an understanding of their habitat requirements. I studied habitat use by beach mice at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida from March 2005 until March 2006. I livetrapped six grids, three on coastal dunes and three within scrub located inland from the coast. On each grid and trap station, I quantified the extent of bare ground, woody vegetation, non-woody vegetation, height of vegetation, and percentage of coarse sand in the surface soil. I assessed trap success relative to these habitat variables using linear and …
Microscopic Analysis Of Sympathetic And Parasympathetic Distribution, Terminal Morphology, And Interaction In Whole-Mount Atria, Scott Harden
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The sympathetic (SNS) and parasympathetic (PSNS) branches of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) innervate the heart, exerting excitatory and inhibitory influences (respectively) over cardiac functions (heart rate, AV conduction velocity, and contractility). However, the distribution and structure of SNS and PSNS innervation has not yet been well studied. Detailed characterization of the distributional organization and structural morphology of the SNS and PSNS in normal states is essential to the study of pathological autonomic remodeling. The present study utilized double immunohistochemical labeling techniques to examine tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) immunoreactive (IR) SNS and vesicular acetylcholine transporter (VAChT) IR PSNS axons and terminal …
The Expression Of Mkrn1, An E3 Ubiquitin Ligase For Telomerase Reverse Transcriptase, Is Induced With Differentiation Therapy In Leukemia, Jose Salvatico
The Expression Of Mkrn1, An E3 Ubiquitin Ligase For Telomerase Reverse Transcriptase, Is Induced With Differentiation Therapy In Leukemia, Jose Salvatico
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Telomeres are important structural and functional components of chromosomes, serving to provide stability and enabling full replication of the chromosomes. However, a shortening of the telomeres occurs with each cell division that can be fixed by a polymerase activity provided by telomerase, preventing this loss which would otherwise eventually lead to chromosome end-to-end fusions, senescence and cell death. The telomerase activity is present in stem cells and germ line cells, but absent or barely noticeable in adult somatic cells. However, in approximately 80-90% of transformed somatic cells the telomerase activity is recovered, resulting in a "telomerase positive phenotype". This phenotype …
Mcp-1 And App Involvement Of Glial Differentiation And Migration Of Neuroprogenitor Cells, Emmanuel Vrotsos
Mcp-1 And App Involvement Of Glial Differentiation And Migration Of Neuroprogenitor Cells, Emmanuel Vrotsos
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Neuroprogenitor cells are an important resource because of their potential to replace damaged cells in the brain caused by trauma and disease. It is of great importance to better understand which factors influence the differentiation and migration of these cells. Previously it has been reported that neuroprogenitor cells undergoing apoptotic stress have increased levels of Amyloid precursor protein (APP) and increased APP expression results in glial differentiation. APP activity was also shown to be required for staurosporine induced glial differentiation of neuroprogenitor cells. Monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) is a chemokine that is expressed during inflammatory. The binding of MCP-1 to …
Landcover Change And Population Dynamics Of Florida Scrub-Jays And Florida Grasshopper Sparrows, David Breininger
Landcover Change And Population Dynamics Of Florida Scrub-Jays And Florida Grasshopper Sparrows, David Breininger
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
I confronted empirical habitat data (1994-2004) and population data (1988-2005) with ecological theory on habitat dynamics, recruitment, survival, and dispersal to develop predictive relationships between landcover variation and population dynamics. I focus on Florida Scrub-Jays, although one chapter presents a model for the potential influence of habitat restoration on viability of the Florida Grasshopper Sparrow. Both species are unique to Florida landscapes that are dominated by shrubs and grasses and maintained by frequent fires. Both species are declining, even in protected areas, despite their protected status. I mapped habitat for both species using grid polygon cells to quantify population potential …
Understanding Plant Community Composition In Agricultural Welands: Context Dependent Effects And Plant Interactions, Elizabeth Boughton
Understanding Plant Community Composition In Agricultural Welands: Context Dependent Effects And Plant Interactions, Elizabeth Boughton
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Community composition results from an integrated combination of random processes, regional habitat spatial structure, local environmental conditions, and species interactions. For example, the outcome of plant interactions can change depending on local environmental conditions such as nutrient availability, land management, or herbivory intensity. In particular, plant interactions may vary between facilitation and competition depending on ecological context, with facilitation expected to be prevalent under stressful conditions. I present the results of four studies that address different aspects of the community assemblage and dynamics emphasizing the synergistic effect of different processes. In the first, I investigated the importance of habitat isolation …
Vesicle Targeting In Plasmodium Falciparum: The Identification And Molecular Characterization Of Plasmodium Falciparum Family Of Of Snare Proteins, Lawrence Sumanjah Ayong
Vesicle Targeting In Plasmodium Falciparum: The Identification And Molecular Characterization Of Plasmodium Falciparum Family Of Of Snare Proteins, Lawrence Sumanjah Ayong
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Proteins of the SNARE (Soluble N-ethylmaleimide sensitive factor attachment protein receptor) super-family have been characterized as playing an essential role in vesicle targeting and fusion in all eukaryotes. The intracellular malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum exhibits an unusual endomembrane system that is characterized by an unstacked Golgi apparatus, a developmentally induced apical complex, and various organellar structures of parasite origin in the infected host cells. How malaria parasites target nuclear-encoded proteins to these novel compartments is a central question in Plasmodium cell biology. Ultrastructural studies elsewhere have implicated the participation of specialized vesicular elements in transport of virulence proteins, including various …
Retrocyclin, A Potent Hiv-1 Entry Inhibitor, Nitya Venkataraman
Retrocyclin, A Potent Hiv-1 Entry Inhibitor, Nitya Venkataraman
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Human immununodeficiency virus (HIV) infection is the leading cause of death due to viral infections worldwide. In the absence of an effective vaccine or consistent male condom use, there is a clear need for female-controlled preventatives such as topical vaginal microbicides. Recent attention has been focused on developing natural antimicrobial peptides, as anti-retroviral microbicides. Increasing evidence suggests that cationic antimicrobial peptides such as defensins are effective HIV-1 inhibitors. Human alpha- and beta-defensins contribute substantially to innate immune defenses against microbial and viral infections. Certain nonhuman primates also produce theta-defensins – 18 residue cyclic peptides that are potent HIV-1 entry inhibitors. …
Determinants Of Chloroplast Gene Expression And Applications Of Chloroplast Transformation In Lactuca Sativa And Nicotiana Tabacum, Tracey Ruhlman
Determinants Of Chloroplast Gene Expression And Applications Of Chloroplast Transformation In Lactuca Sativa And Nicotiana Tabacum, Tracey Ruhlman
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Genetic modification of plastids in the model plant tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) has demonstrated that numerous foreign gene products can accumulate to high levels in this setting. Plastid biotechnology is maturing to encompass the improvement of food and feed species and the production of biopharmaceutical proteins for oral delivery necessitating development of stable transplastomic edible plants. In the interest of establishing an edible platform we have investigated the use of native and foreign regulatory elements in relation to foreign gene expression in plastids. Multiple sequence alignments of intergenic regions for 20 species of angiosperm showed that despite 95% identity in the …
Reelin Signaling Promotes Radial Glia Maturation And Neurogenesis, Serene Keilani
Reelin Signaling Promotes Radial Glia Maturation And Neurogenesis, Serene Keilani
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The end of neurogenesis in the human brain is marked by the transformation of the neural progenitors, the radial glial cells, into astrocytes. This event coincides with the reduction of Reelin expression, a glycoprotein that regulates neuronal migration in the cerebral cortex and cerebellum. A recent study showed that the dentate gyrus of the adult reeler mice, with homozygous mutation in the RELIN gene, have reduced neurogenesis relative to the wild type. Based on the above findings, our first hypothesis states that Reelin expression is important for the formation of radial glia and the generation of neurons from the neural …
Native Fire Regime As A Reference For Establishing Management Practices, Brean Duncan
Native Fire Regime As A Reference For Establishing Management Practices, Brean Duncan
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Our understanding of natural fire regimes in human-dominated landscapes is limited. Fire regimes operating in the pyrogenic ecosystems of Florida have been altered by fire suppression and fuel fragmentation. This is especially true of North Merritt Island, Florida, where human impacts have led to an incomplete knowledge of current fire regimes. We know that growing season fires frequently occurred within general return intervals and that many native terrestrial species require fire to remain viable. A 20-year plus period of fire suppression caused structural and compositional changes to vegetation/fuels that led to catastrophic fires and the decline of native species populations …
Tissue Engineered Myelination And The Stretch Reflex Arc Sensory Circuit: Defined Medium Formulation, Interface Design And Microfabrication, John Rumsey
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The overall focus of this research project was to develop an in vitro tissue-engineered system that accurately reproduced the physiology of the sensory elements of the stretch reflex arc as well as engineer the myelination of neurons in the systems. In order to achieve this goal we hypothesized that myelinating culture systems, intrafusal muscle fibers and the sensory circuit of the stretch reflex arc could be bioengineered using serum-free medium formulations, growth substrate interface design and microfabrication technology. The monosynaptic stretch reflex arc is formed by a direct synapse between motoneurons and sensory neurons and is one of the fundamental …