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Full-Text Articles in Biology

Sphenoidal Sinuses And Spherical Harmonics: Variation And Covariation Of The Most Morphologically Diverse And Least Understood Paranasal Sinus, Katharine Grace Josephine Ryan Dec 2022

Sphenoidal Sinuses And Spherical Harmonics: Variation And Covariation Of The Most Morphologically Diverse And Least Understood Paranasal Sinus, Katharine Grace Josephine Ryan

Doctoral Dissertations

Understanding the shape variation of the human sphenoidal sinus is important to several areas of research. This includes clinical investigation (sinus pathology and safe endoscopic endonasal surgical practice) and paranasal sinus evolution (for which there is still no consensus). Yet, the sphenoidal sinus has high morphological variation, prohibiting its quantification through traditional geometric morphometric landmarking methods. The sphenoid body, and thus also the sinus contained within, is located directly at the developmental center of the basicranium in humans, where the three cranial fossae meet at the midline, and adjacent to the three synchondroses which are the sites of cranial base …


Assessing Morphology Of Iprgcs After Traumatic Brain Injury, Brian Foresi, Matt Smith Jan 2020

Assessing Morphology Of Iprgcs After Traumatic Brain Injury, Brian Foresi, Matt Smith

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

ipRGCs are retinal ganglion cells that project to visual processing centers of the brain for nonimage forming visual functions. The relation of ipRGCs to tramatic brain injury (TBI) is emerging as data has been published describing ipRGC functional changes in TBI affected military veterans. Major symptomologies of concussions, a mild form of TBI, also overlap with the function governed by sites in the brain with major ipRGC projection percentages. Assesing if a morphological change is occuring in the ipRGCs after a TBI could support the idea of a pathological mechanism of the injury. This study could also indicate further relevance …


Functional Trade-Offs In Feeding Performance In Salamanders Of The Family Salamandridae, Charlotte M. Stinson Jun 2017

Functional Trade-Offs In Feeding Performance In Salamanders Of The Family Salamandridae, Charlotte M. Stinson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Performance is an organism’s ability to accomplish a particular task or behavior, and morphology can have a major impact on the performance of an organism. Salamanders are ecologically diverse and can feed using a variety of behaviors depending on the environment in which feeding occurs. Feeding is accomplished through the use of the hyobranchial apparatus, which lies along the oropharynx, and this structure can have competing roles; in aquatic environments the apparatus is used for suction feeding and works to depress the floor of the mouth, but during terrestrial feeding this structure projects the tongue forward out of the mouth. …


Strike Mechanics Of An Ambush Predator: The Spearing Mantis Shrimp, M. Devries, E. Murphy, S. Patek Nov 2012

Strike Mechanics Of An Ambush Predator: The Spearing Mantis Shrimp, M. Devries, E. Murphy, S. Patek

Faculty Publications, Biological Sciences

Ambush predation is characterized by an animal scanning the environment from a concealed position and then rapidly executing a surprise attack. Mantis shrimp (Stomatopoda) consist of both ambush predators (‘spearers’) and foragers (‘smashers’). Spearers hide in sandy burrows and capture evasive prey, whereas smashers search for prey away from their burrows and typically hammer hard-shelled, sedentary prey. Here, we examined the kinematics, morphology and field behavior of spearing mantis shrimp and compared them with previously studied smashers. Using two species with dramatically different adult sizes, we found that strikes produced by the diminutive species, Alachosquilla vicina, were faster (mean peak …