Biology Commons^™

Effects Of Wastewater Discharges On Periphyton Growth In Lake Mead, Nevada-Arizona, Marsha Korb Morris

Publications (WR)

A study of the effects of secondary-treated wastewater on periphyton growth in Lake Mead, Nevada-Arizona was conducted from September 1979 to December 1980. Periphyton ash-free dry weight, chlorophyll-a, dominant species composition, and alkaline phosphatase activity were measured on fiberglass substrates. Substrates were incubated for two to four weeks in littoral and limnetic habitats. Physical and chemical variables and phytoplankton chlorophyll-a were measured concurrently.

Transparency increased with increasing distance from the discharge. Secchi depth ranged from 0.75 m at the discharge confluence (station 2) in August, to greater than 20 m at the most distant stations (stations 9 and 10) in …

The Effects Of Photoperiod-Temperature Interactions On Testicular Regression In The Green Anole, Anolis Carolinensis, Teri Wickelhaus

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Interrupted-night photoperiod experiments were carried out in green anoles (Anolis carolinensis) in July and August 1981 in order to explore the possibility that seasonal timing of testicular regression regulated by day length involves circadian rhythms. The influence that temperature has on testicular responsiveness to light was also assessed. Testicular weight responses to different interrupted-night photoperiod treatments were similar in anoles kept at constant warm temperatures but varied in anoles kept at constant cold temperatures. Rates of decline of spermatogenesis in response to different interrupted-night photoperiod treatments were, on the other hand, similar in anoles kept at constant cold …

Responses Of Estuarine Infauna To Disturbance. I. Spatial And Temporal Variation Of Initial Recolonization, Roman N. Zajac, Robert B. Whitlatch

Biology and Environmental Science Faculty Publications

Responses to disturbance of estuarine infauna were studied to test the hypothesis that seasonality, the estuarine environmental gradient and sediment composition would significantly affect recolonization. The study was conducted in a small estuary located in southeastern Connecticut, USA, using controlled disturbance experiments and sampling of the ambient infauna. Species composition in experimental plots and ambient sediments usually did not differ, either on a seasonal or areal basis. Numerically dominant species usually included the polychaetes Streblospio benedicti, Capitella spp. and Polydora ligni, and the oligochaete Peloscolex gabriellae. Other species included the polychaetes Scoloplos fragilis, Hobsonia florida and Nereis …

Responses Of Estuarine Infauna To Disturbance. Ii. Spatial And Temporal Variation Of Succession, Roman N. Zajac, Robert B. Whitlatch

Biology and Environmental Science Faculty Publications

Infaunal successional patterns in Alewife Cove, a small estuary in southeastern Connecticut, USA, varied significantly seasonally and along the estuarine environmental gradient. Each study site exhibited different patterns of change in species composition and abundance. However, suites of species found during succession did not differ greatly from those found in ambient sediments. Species which exhibited the most variable population changes during succession were numerically dominant tubiculous polychaetes (Streblospio benedicti, Capitella spp., Polydora ligni], and an oligochaete (Peloscolex gabriellae). Other species which exhibited significant activity were the polychaetes Scoloplos fragilis, Hobsonia florida and Nereis virens, the hemichordate Saccoglossus kowaleski, and the …

Intellectual Traditions In The Life Sciences: Molecular Biology And Biochemistry, Scott F. Gilbert

Biology Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Rhizobium Japonicum Mutants Defective In Symbiotic Nitrogen Fixation, K. Dale Noel, Gary Stacey, Lin E. Silver, Winston J. Brill, Shiv R. Tandon

Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

Rhizobium japonicum strains 3I1b110 and 61A76 were mutagenized to obtain 25 independently derived mutants that produced soybean nodules defective in nitrogen fixation, as assayed by acetylene reduction. The proteins of both the bacterial and the plant portions of the nodules were analyzed by two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. All of the mutants had lower-than-normal levels of the nitrogenase components, and all but four contained a prominent bacteroid protein not observed in wild-type bacteroids. Experiments with bacteria grown ex planta suggested that this protein was derepressed by the absence of ammonia. Nitrogenase component II of one mutant was altered in isoelectric point. …

Height, Weight, And Fertility Among Participants Of The Third Harvard Growth Study, Eugenie Scott, Carl J. Bajema

Peer Reviewed Publications

The relationship between weight, height, weigh/height² and fertility is examined in 610 females and 621 males from a 1968 follow-up study of the Third Harvard Growth Study participants. These subjects were born between 1912 and 1918 in the USA. Their physical and mental growth were studies for up to 12 years while they attended public schools in Boston Massachusetts, area. Height is not significantly related to fertility in either females or males, but weight and weight/height² is positively related to fertility in females (r = +.117 and + .100 respectively) and weight/height² is positively related to fertility …

The Influence Of Livestock Feed Size On Feed Consumption By Starlings (Sturnus Vulgaris), Daniel Twedt

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Ground meal and 4 sizes of pelleted feeds (3/16, ¼, 3/8 and ½ inch diameters) were offered to captive Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris, Linnaeus) to determine the minimum feed size they were unable to consume in significant amounts. The ground meal, 3/8 and ½ inch diameter pellets substantially decreased feed consumption compared with 3/16 and ¼ inch diameter pellets. Additionally, ½ inch pellets were consumed substantially less than ground meal or 3/8 inch pellets. Supplemental feed was require to prevent mortality among Starlings offered only ½ inch pellets.

Two pellet sizes, the 3/16 inch pellet which was readily consumed by …

Shell-Dropping Behavior Of Western Gulls (Larus Occidentalis), John L. Maron

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Westem Gulls (Larus occidentalis) at Bodega Bay, California drop shelled prey items to break them. I presented Washington clams (Saxidomus nuttalli) of known weight to free-flying gulls to investigate factors affecting shell-dropping behavior. All adult gulls dropped clams, whereas only 55% of immature gulls did so. The other 45% of immature gulls that were given clams pecked at them on the ground instead. Gulls dropped clams on both hard and soft substrates. Flight distance and kleptoparasitism seemed important in influencing drop location. Adult Western Gulls dropped heavy clams from lower heights than they dropped light clams. …

The Cytoskeletal System Of Nucleated Erythrocytes. I. Composition And Function Of Major Elements, William D. Cohen, Diana Bartelt, Richard Jaeger, George M. Langford, Iris Nemhauser

Biology - All Scholarship

We have studied the dogfish erythrocyte cytoskeletal system, which consists of a marginal band of microtubules (MB) and trans-marginal band material (TBM). The TBM appeared in whole mounts as a rough irregular network and in thin sections as a surface-delimiting layer completely enclosing nucleus and MB. In cells incubated at 0 degrees C for 30 min or more, the MB disappeared but the TBM remained. MB reassembly occurred with rewarming, and was inhibited by colchicine. Flattened elliptical erythrocyte morphology was retained even when MBs were absent. Total solubilization of MB and TBM at low pH, or dissolution of whole anucleate …

Ultrastructural Investigations On Spore Germination In The Fern Woodwardia Virginica (L.) Smith, James Mccurry

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This investigation represents the first electron microscopic study of spore germination in the fern Woodwardia virginica (L.) Smith. Samples of fern spores were induced into synchronous division by a dark, red light and white light sequence and examined for the early events of germination. During early germination the nucleus, which was located in a central position, assumed a pointed trailing end and a broadened amoeboid proximal face while migrating to a proximal position in the spore. At this time the nucleus became spherical, and chromosomes began to condense even before the disruption of the nuclear envelope. Chloroplastid and mitochondrial structure …

Comparison Of Grouping Methods For Beta-Hemolytic Streptococci, Renee Smith

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

A total of 198 strains of beta-hemolytic streptococci were Lancefield grouped by the conventional nonserological method and the Phadebact Co-agglutination method. These two methods were then compared to the Lancefield precipitin test. The Phadebact Co-agglutination method and the non - serological method '.ere evaluated as to their sensitivity, accuracy, and suitability as methods for serogrouping betahemolytic streptococci in clinical laboratories. Due to the difference in their grouping ability only Lancefield Groups A and B could be directly compared. There was a 100 percent agreement between both of these methods for the Lancefield grouns A and B, and there were three …

Ua66/6/2 Alumni Newsletter, Wku Biology

WKU Archives Records

Newsletter created by and about the WKU Biology department highlighting students, faculty and alumni activities.

A Mammalian Virus (Sv40) Inductest For Putative Carcinogens, Howard Blount

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The in vitro mammalian virus inductest is based on the measurement of induced viral gene expression from Simian virus 40 (SV40) transformed weanling Syrian hamster kidney cells (clone E). Upon challenge by many DNA-damaging chemical agents, infectious virions were produced which were quantitated by assay on a cell line permissive to SV40, such as the highly contact inhibited African green monkey kidney cells, CV-1P. Some known carcinogens and non-carcinogens were tested in this research including mitomycin C, aflatoxins Bl and Gl, sterigmatocystin and several polycyclic hydrocarbons.

Lysolecithin (a membrane permeabilizing agent) and S9 mix (a pre -metabolizing mixture) were used …

Structure Of Maltoheptaose By Difference Fourier Methods And A Model For Glycogen, E. Goldsmith, S. Sprang, R. Fletterick

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

The structure of the glucose heptamer, maltoheptaose, has been determined by difference Fourier analysis at 0.25 nm resolution through its binding to phosphorylase a. It is a left-handed helical structure, with 6.5 glucose residues per turn and a rise per residue of 2.4 Å. The molecule shows short-range order when no protein is present to stabilize its conformation in solution. With one exception, the individual torsion angles between sugar residues vary over a narrow range and preserve a good O₍₂₎O_(3′) hydrogen bond. The length of an individual chain for glycogen can be extrapolated from the maltoheptaose data …

Sunset As An Orientational Cue For A Nocturnal Migrant, The White-Throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia Albicollis), James Pauly

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The possibility that nocturnal migrants use sunset as an orientational cue was explored in the White-throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis) between 1 April and 24 April, 1981. Orientation tests were run on the roof of the biology building at Western Kentucky University when birds were assumed to be in the proper physiological condition for migration. Birds exposed to only nighttime skies, birds isolated from all visual cues, and birds exposed to both daytime and nighttime skies did not exhibit the northward directional preference appropriate for the season tested. However, White-throated Sparrows exposed only to sunset and tested in the absence …

Partial Reconstruction Of The Microvillus Core Bundle: Characterization Of Villin As A Ca(++)-Dependent, Actin-Bundling/Depolymerizing Protein, Paul T. Matsudaira, David Burgess

Dartmouth Scholarship

The brush border, isolated from chicken intestine epithelial cells, contains the 95,000 relative molecular mass (M(r)) polypeptide, villin. This report describes the purification and characterization of villin as a Ca(++)-dependent, actin bundling/depolymerizing protein. Then 100,000 g supernatant from a Ca(++) extract of isolated brush borders is composed of three polypeptides of 95,000 (villin), 68,000 (fimbrin), and 42,000 M(r) (actin). Villin, following purification from this extract by differential ammonium sulfate precipitation and ion-exchange chromatography, was mixed with skeletal muscle F-actin. Electron microscopy of negatively stained preparations of these villin-actin mixtures showed that filament bundles were present. This viscosity, sedimentability, and ultrastructural …

Synthesis Of Low Molecular Weight Heat Shock Peptides Stimulated By Ecdysterone In A Cultured Drosophila Cell Line., Robert C. Ireland, Edward M. Berger

Dartmouth Scholarship

Treatment of Schneider's line 3 Drosophila cells with the steroid hormone ecdysterone rapidly stimulated the synthesis and accumulation of the polypeptide previously designated p7 [Berger, E. M., Ireland, R. C. & Wyss, C. (1980) Somatic Cell Genet. 6, 119-129]. In this report, p7 is identified as the 23,000-dalton heat shock polypeptide (hsp23). In addition to hsp23, the synthesis of the low molecular weight heat shock polypeptides hsp22, hsp26, and hsp27 was also stimulated by ecdysterone, although to different extents. Hybridization of a nick-translated genomic clone containing the hsp23 gene to a total RNA blot showed that ecdysterone stimulation of hsp23 …

The Ecology Of Mutualism, Douglas H. Boucher, Sam James, Kathleen H. Keeler

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Elementary ecology texts tell us that organisms interact in three fundamen­ tal ways, generally given the names competition, predation, and mutualism. The third member has gotten short shrift (264), and even its name is not generally agreed on. Terms that may be considered synonyms, in whole or part, are symbiosis, commensalism, cooperation, protocooperation, mutual aid, facilitation, reciprocal altruism, and entraide. We use the term mutual­ism, defined as "an interaction between species that is beneficial to both," since it has both historical priority (311) and general currency. Symbiosis is "the living together of two organisms in close association," and …

Optimal Foraging: Some Simple Stochastic Models., D.W. Stephens, Eric Charnov

Biology Faculty & Staff Publications

Some simple stochastic models of optimal foraging are considered. Firstly, mathematical renewal theory is used to make a general model of the combined processes of search, encounter, capture and handling. In the case where patches or prey items are encountered according to a Poisson process, the limiting probability distribution of energy gain is found. This distribution is found to be normal and its mean and variance are specified. This result supports the use of Hollings disc equation to specify the rate of energy intake in foraging models. Secondly, a model based on minimization of the probability of death due to …

Alternative Life-Histories In Protogynous Fishes: A General Evolutionary Theory, Eric Charnov

Biology Faculty & Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Polygyny And Polydomy In Three North American Species Of The Ant Genus Leptothorax Mayr (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), Thomas M. Alloway, Robin Stuart, Cynthia Thomas, Alfred Buschinger, Mary Talbot

Faculty Scholarship

This paper deals with certain behavioral and ecological factors which may be relevant to the evolution and maintenance of social parasitism in ants. We will argue that some of the same factors which might predispose one species to evolve into a social parasite might make resistance to parasitism difficult for a closely related species.

Genetic Recombination In Nocardia Asteroides, Kenneth L. Kasweck, Melissa L. Little

Biomedical Engineering and Sciences Faculty Publications

Gene recombination between strains of N. asteroides of diverse origins has been demonstrated. In particular pairwise combinations, recombinants made up 0.01% of the population. All nine selectable recombinant classes were recovered from a cross between KK4-47 his-10 leu-1 and KK6-119 met-3 phe-3. Recombinants with an auxotrophic marker from each parent constituted 21% of the recombinants.

Electrophoretic Variation In Large Mammals. Iii. The Ringed Seal, Pusa-Hispida, The Harp Seal, Pagophilus-Groenlandicus, And The Hooded Seal, Cystophora-Cristata, V. Simonsen, Fred W. Allendorf, W. F. Eanes, F. O. Kapel

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Physiology Of Salt Excretion In The Mangrove Avicennia Marina (Forsk.) Vierh, Philippa M. Drennan

Biology Faculty Works

Diurnal and long‐term excretion by leaves of Avicennia marina seedlings growing in aqueous culture was correlated with substrate salinity and transpiration. Excretion was greater in 100% than 50% seawater but the reverse was true for transpiration. The diurnal excretion pattern, with exudation minimal during the day and maximal during the night, showed a negative correlation with the daily transpiration pattern. The total amount of salt excreted, however, showed a positive correlation with the total amount of water transpired. Root and xylem sap salinities were linearly related to substrate salinity but leaf Na+ increased to a maximum, indicating that control of …

Non-Random Orientation Of Nest Entrances In Saguaro Cacti, R S. Inouye, Nancy J. Huntly, D W. Inouye

Biology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Organic N-Chloramines: Chemistry And Toxicology, Frank E. Scully, Jr., Maxwell A. Bempong

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

The stability of aqueous solutions of organic N-chloramines, suspected of contaminating chlorinated water, has been studied. Two factors influence the decomposition of solutions of N-chloropiperidine and N-chlorodiethylamine: a spontaneous decomposition and photodecomposition. Since solutions of these compounds are relatively long-lived, a need for an analytical method for their identification is discussed. A new method is described which involves reaction of organic N-chloramines with arenesulfinic acid salts. The method gives high yields of stable arenesulfonamides. Several toxicological studies of N-chloropiperidine are described. The compound is mutagenic by Ames assay in Salmonella typhimurium strain TA 100 and does not require metabolic activation …