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University of South Carolina

Senior Theses

2017

Articles 1 - 13 of 13

Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

The Importance Of Planning: Science Education From Many Points Of View, Kirsten Morgan Edwards Dec 2017

The Importance Of Planning: Science Education From Many Points Of View, Kirsten Morgan Edwards

Senior Theses

The purpose of this thesis project was to bridge the divide between public lands, such as parks, and the education system; national parks and monuments are great resources for education. In addition to promoting outside of the classroom education, this project explores different teaching methods and how changing pedagogical practice can help more students learn in the long term. In order to explore different methods of teaching, I created three different lesson plans that could be used, for example, in places like Congaree National Park, to bring education outside of the traditional school environment. These lesson plans are supplemental materials …

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The Chemistry Of Matching Italian Foods With Wines, Samuel Collinsworth, Rachael Maynard May 2017

The Chemistry Of Matching Italian Foods With Wines, Samuel Collinsworth, Rachael Maynard

Senior Theses

This report attempts to explain the science behind matching Italian food with wines. Common knowledge states that certain wines make better pairings with certain food dishes, but the general public knows little about why these foods and wines make better matches. This paper aims to use examples of tastings of Italian foods with different wines in order to educate its readers on the science behind the pairings. Before these tastings are analyzed, background information is provided about the science of taste. A description of the five basic tastes is given, separating them into appetitive and aversive tastes, and the chemistry …

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Assessing Variation In Visual Abilities In Daphnia As A Result Of Disparity In Eye Sizes, Adrian Perez May 2017

Assessing Variation In Visual Abilities In Daphnia As A Result Of Disparity In Eye Sizes, Adrian Perez

Senior Theses

The functionality of an eye is affected by a number of structural factors, and altering any of these factors often involves inevitable tradeoffs between resolution and sensitivity. However, it has been theoretically reasoned, and tested empirically, that increasing the size of an eye allows for both of these central features of vision to be improved due to corresponding increases in lens size. This study examines the relevance of this hypothesis for the vision of Daphnia in both interspecific and intraspecific contexts. The visual capabilities of six different species of Daphnia are tested using the optomotor response—a visually mediated behavior that …

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Potential For Aquaculture Integration With Wastewater Treatment Wetlands In Southern Iraq, Melaina Dyck May 2017

Potential For Aquaculture Integration With Wastewater Treatment Wetlands In Southern Iraq, Melaina Dyck

Senior Theses

Wetlands provide key ecosystem services that sustain human communities. The Mesopotamiam Marshes of southern Iraq continuously supported civilization there for 6000 years. A combination of upstream damming and intentional draining by the Iraqi government led the entire ecosystem to collapse, devastating local human communities. One of the most significant ecosystem services lost was water remediation, filtration and storage. Following the collapse of the marshes, water quality in southern Iraq declined to the point of being deleterious to human health and barely useful for farming or fish production. Wastewater treatment wetlands are a potential solution for restoring wetlands and remediating polluted …

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Epigenetic Regulation Of Salicylic Acid-Mediated Plant Defense, Phillip Key May 2017

Epigenetic Regulation Of Salicylic Acid-Mediated Plant Defense, Phillip Key

Senior Theses

Plant pathogens remain a significant threat to the stability of modern agricultural systems, and the investigation of mechanisms to improve the security of food resources has led to the partial characterization of plant immune response. With this progress, there is a newfound ability to analyze the relative pathogen resistance capability of specifically modified organisms, and in doing so, it is possible to identify individual alterations that might play a role in creating a more robust immune response. In this study, ten Arabidopsis thaliana mutants were infiltrated with Pseudomonas syringae pv. morsprunorum alongside positive and negative control Col-0 Wild-Type and npr1-2. …

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Scaling Of Anatomically Derived Maximal Bite Force In Primates, Ashley Deutsch May 2017

Scaling Of Anatomically Derived Maximal Bite Force In Primates, Ashley Deutsch

Senior Theses

Bite force analysis is important the examination of the evolutionary factors that have shaped the masticatory apparatus. Unfortunately, in primates, empirically measured bite force is largely unavailable because of the invasive nature of the procedure. Because of this, we have estimated bite force in a large sample across the primate order at three different realistic bite points along the tooth row: the first maxillary incisor, the maxillary canine, and the paracone of the first maxillary molar. Here, we model bite force by combining measured physiological crosssectional area of the jaw adductors from Hartstone-Rose and colleagues (2017) with osteological measurements from …

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Tree Damage From Hurricane Matthew Affecting Forest Dynamics In Congaree National Forest, Connor Lentz May 2017

Tree Damage From Hurricane Matthew Affecting Forest Dynamics In Congaree National Forest, Connor Lentz

Senior Theses

The Congaree National Forest serves as an ecological model for bottomland-hardwood forests. Hurricanes periodically strike the Southeast United States, with high-wind speeds causing damage affecting the Congaree National Forest and modifying forest dynamics. This has been well-studied from the effects of Hurricane Hugo in September 1989 (Sharitz et al. 1993). In October 2016, Hurricane Matthew, a category 5 storm, made landfall in the Southeastern United States, and eventually moved through the Congaree National Forest. The high winds and precipitation caused widespread tree damage throughout Congaree. This study used a belt-transect survey of 14.7km of trails throughout the park to record …

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A Comparison Of Imputation Algorithms For Modeling Water Quality, Carter Alexander Allen May 2017

A Comparison Of Imputation Algorithms For Modeling Water Quality, Carter Alexander Allen

Senior Theses

This project addresses the need for predictive modeling tools to forecast expected concentrations of fecal bacteria in recreational waters in the Charleston, SC area. Data was provided by Charleston Waterkeeper, a water quality monitoring organization that has been measuring Enterococcus faecalis concentrations at 15 recreational sites since 2013. The data contain a non-negligible number of censored and missing observations, so three distinct imputation methods were developed and compared in terms of their effect on final predictive model characteristics. The best performing method relied on drawing samples from a truncated normal distribution to replace censored values, and using a partial model …

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Hallmark Features Of Stem Anatomy In The Family Lamiaceae, Catherine Garner May 2017

Hallmark Features Of Stem Anatomy In The Family Lamiaceae, Catherine Garner

Senior Theses

Lamiaceae is a cosmopolitan family, containing around 236 genera and 7,534 species. The family has been the object of considerable taxonomic controversy and ultimate revision, especially concerning subfamilial and tribal limits. A broad-based anatomical approach has been undertaken to assess comparative anatomy of the stem as a reasonable systematic technique. The stems of several members of the family were compared. Cross-sections were made using the recently invented hydromicrotome, fixed, and examined at magnifications of 40x, 100x, and 400x. The common anatomical features of each sectioned species were determined, and used to establish a basic guide to the hallmark stem features …

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An Illustrated Investigation Of Agraulis Vanillae And Its Larval Food Plants, Christiana M. Keinath May 2017

An Illustrated Investigation Of Agraulis Vanillae And Its Larval Food Plants, Christiana M. Keinath

Senior Theses

To create my work, I directly observed caterpillars, chrysalises, and adult butterflies. I used a variety of media to depict salient aspects of gulf fritillary anatomy and to follow the species through its life stages in connection with its passionflower hosts. I focused on accurately recreating what I observed, as well as breaking down the organisms into their component colors, lines, shapes, and values. In my work I emphasized natural textures, which vary greatly as the caterpillars undergo their morphological changes. As a result of this project, I improved my observation and life drawing skills and learned how the process …

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Friends, Enemies, Or Hitchhikers? Exploring The Relationship Between Fungus, Butterfly, And Rest Plant At Fort Jackson, South Carolina, Miranda F. Hannah May 2017

Friends, Enemies, Or Hitchhikers? Exploring The Relationship Between Fungus, Butterfly, And Rest Plant At Fort Jackson, South Carolina, Miranda F. Hannah

Senior Theses

This study was undertaken to investigate the relationships between butterflies as pollinators, host plants, and fungi. Euptoieta claudia (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) butterflies were captured on flowers at McCrady Training Center, Fort Jackson, South Carolina and the fungi isolated from the legs and abdomens of these butterflies was identified and analyzed. Butterflies were found to carry a variety of fungal species including Penicillium, Cladosporium, Curvularia, Fusarium, and Aspergillus. Butterflies carrying the highest quantity of different species of fungi were captured on Passiflora incarnata flowers, and the number of fungal species per butterfly seems to be due to chance. The most common species …

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The Effects Of Low-Dose Ionizing Radiation On Voles From The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, Justin Sindoni May 2017

The Effects Of Low-Dose Ionizing Radiation On Voles From The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, Justin Sindoni

Senior Theses

Much is known about the effects of high doses of ionizing radiation exposure, but little is known about the effects of low doses of ionizing radiation over extended periods of time. Nuclear power plant disasters, in particular the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, have led to long-term radioactive contamination of their surrounding areas, and more research is needed to learn about the effects of the contamination. In order to better understand the impacts of low-dose ionizing radiation on animal populations, bank voles (Myodes glareolus) from the Chernobyl exclusion zone were studied. Voles were captured from 64 sites throughout the exclusion zone, and …

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Climate Change As A Contributor To Terrorism: A Case Study In Nigeria And Pakistan, Natalie Lytle May 2017

Climate Change As A Contributor To Terrorism: A Case Study In Nigeria And Pakistan, Natalie Lytle

Senior Theses

This thesis explores the relationship between climate change and terrorism. It seeks to identify climate change as a contributing factor to terrorism. The motivation for this research is the increasing threat from both global issues. The threat of climate change and terrorism were heavily debated topics in the United States 2016 election, and remain contentious topics for world leaders today. The years 2014 and 2015 were the top two deadliest years for global terrorism, and out of the 17 hottest years on record, 16 of them have occurred since 2000. The world has already begun to see the repercussions of …

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